Plato bills his dream world of forms as superior and more r…

Plato bills his dream world of forms as superior and more real than the real world. Thus, his spiritual journeys are not supposed to be something that make you a better warrior when you come out. Instead, the ideal would be to remain in the world of the forms forever. Thus these spiritual journeys are not journeys of growth that make you into a better warrior when you come out. They are intellectual narcotics that leave you wanting more. Knowing that narcissists are addicts to their own imaginary grandiosity, it is quite natural that Plato conceive of an imaginary world that is more real and true than the real world. This is exactly how all narcissists think. Just as narcissists become addictive to others by tapping into their own narcissism, Plato's allures his followers with the idea of retreating from reality and living in a world of pure intellectualism. Isn't this fantasy just what so many intellectuals want? What is it to be a scholastic monk or a professor than to be lured away from reality, with all its war and uncertainty, into a world of pure ideas? Thus, although I do not see Platonism in the ideas of later philosophers, I see it in their action. They are idea addicts and Plato is their master for having described his addiction as a journey into a truer world and the ideal of a life well lived. Exploitation of the fools who don't know they are lost in a world of ideas is the method Plato recommends to achieve this good life. Isn't that what it is to be a professor or a bureaucrat and to live off taxes and government grants? Later Platonists conceal their addiction but Plato revels in it.