Thursday, October 18, 2012
For the love of the gods
I find it ironic that Socrates gets put on trial not for killing someone or rendering physical harm to anyone, but because Socrates is a poet and maker new gods and denied the existence of old ones. It makes me laugh cause the "old" gods aren't even real in the first place. If he was even trying to invent new gods, he would have been doing the same thing as everyone else.
I think the fact that Socrates questions the gods is the crime itself to the Athenians. While they're giving their offerings and praying at the temple and trying their hardest to win the gods approval, Socrates is over here questioning if the gods are even real. You know what the Athenians would feel like if they found out that all their religious actions have been for nothing? They'd feel stupid, and of course they'd rather not know the truth than know the truth and feel stupid, so they yelled, "Off with his head!"
I think it's the same way today. When a revolutionary comes along with a new idea that would make us have to change everything and would probably make us feel stupid, we half listen and then just reject the idea completely.
It's crazy that someone could get killed over an idea.
The power of thought and mob violence...
P.s. commented on the law by Mallory searcy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think it is interesting how in Crito, Socrates says that the same crowd who voted to put him to death would also vote to bring him back to life. It just shows the danger of democracy.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to play the part of devil's advocate here, just for a moment. I'm going to try to offer a view from the Athenians perspective. Imagine, here is this man Socrates. He's clearly a born and bred Athenian, raised to be the model Athenian citizen. He's well advanced in his years, which means he would be considered an elder, one with wisdom. He is training the youth, the future of Athens and Greek culture, but what is he training them?
ReplyDeleteNot the art of Rhetoric, he's using something new and unheard of. It's challenging how Greek religion, law and culture are interrupted and practiced. Also, one of his students has now become a complete anarchist. Clearly, this man's ideas can be dangerous especially upon young mind and he seems to have turned his back on the way he has been raised. This is scary and could be considered treasons to Athens.
Also I just want to say, while America and Christianity was formed by Revoltionaries, so was the Holocaust. New ideas can be dangerous to life as we know it.
P.S. (I do for the most part agree with you XD)
I see where your coming from Emily because that was one of my first thoughts when reading the works of Plato. We went to reading epics about murder and war and then we go to Socrates who is on trial for thinking and teaching things contrary to Athenian tradition. Not only is he on trial, but also he gets the death penalty. I found that extremely odd. However, I see where Jannah is coming from too. I never really thought that what Socrates was doing could be considered treason which would be why he could be put to death for it. I guess it goes to show that new ideas and thoughts can be almost as dangerous as acting upon them.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm just going to add a little to what you are saying Jannah. Let's say you are in Java City, and you hear from the next table over a conversation between someone in a strange outfit, and a group of about 20 of your friends. They are going on in a conversation about how Jesus was a hoax and that he has the truth. Would you sit back and allow that person to corrupt your friends or would you say something. In a way, I sort of agree with the Athenians discontent. I would not be happy either if someone was steering people away from what I thought were the truth.
ReplyDeleteThis perceived corruption isn't a good excuse for killing someone. They should have shown where his beliefs were incorrect. The Athenians were more upset about his ability to make supposedly wise people look like idiots.
ReplyDeleteI've heard before that "one step ahead you're a saint, two steps ahead you're a martyr."
ReplyDeleteI also have heard that most new ideas have a hard time getting recognition because most new ideas aren't good ones. This is a natural part of the human condition. Like Josh said, if you heard someone calling Jesus a hoax, you could dismiss it not simply on religious grounds, but on posterity. On the fact that your religion has lasted 2000 years and this guy is maybe 20. New ideas, in general, don't usually take. It's even typical of the greatest artists and poets. Most of them were not aclaimed in their lifetime and it was years later before someone came along and realized thier genius.
Socrates is genius, but he's new. He also exposed people's weaknesses. People don't like to be exposed, posterity doesn't like to be challenged. If tradition embraced change it wouldn't be tradition. That doesn't mean, however, that Athens wasn't wrong for killing him. They absolutely were wrong, but tradition is steeped in prejudices which are not logical and don't always conform to the virtuous.
Wow, I love all these comments! Thanks everyone! I feel ten times smarter now. :D Especially when thinking about Josh's comparison of the 20 year old guy calling Jesus a hoax. Wow, I never thought of it like that. I love that I'm surrounded with smarties! :)
ReplyDelete