scolds who teach us and who are hectoring us about living a

他们自诩要教导并威胁我们要过某种生活
certain way of life, living a certain,

某种特定的生活
living according to their likes

或按照他们的喜好生活
and then we will find out of course something very shameful about them.

之后我们当然可以找到他们生活的瑕疵
I'm thinking of a couple of people in particular,

我想到了几个具体的家伙
I won't mention any names in the public sphere.

但我不想在公共场合公开他们的名字
Plato's judgment seems to be

柏拉图的判断似乎是
"you need to reform yourself before you can think about reforming others."

"你必须自我改革才能再谈他人改革"
This is a point that is often lost in the Republic,

这点在《理想国》中常被忽略
that it is first of all a work on the reform of the soul.

灵魂的革新是第一要务
That is not to say at all that

这并不是说所有一切
it teaches withdrawal from political responsibilities, it does not.

它教授的东西是取消政治责任它没有