Upon my second reading of the Symposium, I can't help but to draw how similar the teachings of Plato are to redpill.

Across my philosophy readings, many of the ancient philosophers have redpill ideals around relationships and Plato is one of them. For some context, much like redpill in which we preach to go out and approach and fail, Plato says that one must experience things first hand in order to fully see the truth and understand something at a deep level. In the Symposium, Socrates and Diotima discuss that the ladder of love can't be taught and that a man has to experience each rung himself to reach the highest rung of the ladder. The highest ladder rung is the last rung number 6:

1. Admiration of one beautiful body and being aroused at the sight of an individual's beauty. (ONEitis)

2. Admiration of all beautiful bodies. The lover realizes that there are multiple beautiful bodies that share things in common, not just one. (Spinning plates)

3. Admiration of beautiful souls. The lover realizes that spiritual beauty matters more than physical beauty and the lover will yearn for not just physical beauty, but more the noble interaction he has with the woman. (Having a spark and realizing that sex with a fun HB7 is way better than a boring miserable HB9)

4. Admiration of beautiful creations. The lover realizes that noble interactions are not enough, and are admired by beautiful creations, beautiful gestures and beautiful practices. (Judge a woman by not what she says, but how she acts. When vetting for a LTR or just in general, when a girl does a beautiful gesture it's very attractive)

5. Admiration of beautiful knowledge and philosophy. The lover realizes that true beauty is within ones knowledge and philosophical understanding of the world, not just their creations. (When you really get to know a woman and she values being submissive, letting you take the lead, low n-count, not fucking around on social media etc. it is a massive green flag and extremely attractive to most redpill men)

6. Beauty itself. Described as "everlasting loveliness which neither comes nor goes, which neither flowers or fades". This is the highest form, and it is said that when a man reaches this level, he would never again be seduced by physical attractions of beautiful youths. At this level, a man only finds beautiful what inspires perfect beauty and virtue in himself. (I am unsure what this really means, maybe some people can chime in, but I think it means finding someone that truly inspires you and adds value to your life, the type of woman who at this stage you will LTR)

In my experience, I completely agree with the ladder of love and that one has to go through it and experience each step in order to advance to the next. After have a ONEitis years ago, I realized there were heaps of beautiful woman around. After spinning plates, I realized that finding a spark with someone was far more enjoyable than just sex with a hottie. After this, I found it super attractive when girls I dated acted in a beautiful way and did nice gestures for me. Continuing on, some of the best sex/relationships of my life was probably with girls who were traditional, submissive, let me take the lead, weren't on social media, good relationships with family and weren't sluts. I haven't really advanced to step 6 yet but look forward to it someday.

I agree that Step 6 is the ideal, where you are focused purely on your goal, beauty and youth of women does not distract you and you are only attracted to woman that supports and enriches your goals in life. This in my opinion is one of the highest states a man can get.

Please feel free to discuss and critisize my thoughts, but I thought it was quite interesting how these teachings have been around for thousands of years and RedPill is an iteration of this.