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Ah the Greeks... they gift democracy to the world, then vote to have their greatest philosopher put to death. There's a lesson in there... something about deriving ethics and morality from the "will of the majority."

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We know that Plato, throughout his life, was moving toward monotheism. Perhaps he got the idea from Socrates. History does not contain the answer.

The trial of Socrates was not unlike the trial of Christ. The charges against Jesus: that He claimed to be the Son of God, that He threatened the existing (Roman) order, that He was guilty of blasphemy punishable by death, parallel the charges against Socrates. Both men challenged the existing order and were deemed a threat by the powers that be. They had to go.

After the death of Socrates Plato became disillusioned with the institutions of men and in particular with government of and by men. In the Republic he argued that what the world of men needed was a Philosopher King, a man of great wisdom and understanding who could transcend the folly and the politics of both the polis and the powerful. He had seen and experienced in the most personal way what a world of men was capable of.

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Aug 26, 2022Liked by Classical Wisdom

Pure democracy is really mob rule. The French Revolution is a classic example. An agitator needs only to incite the mob to violence to kill their opponent. History is resplendent with examples.

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Aug 26, 2022Liked by Classical Wisdom

The man. The myth. The legend. In not so many words he said, "Give me liberty, or give me death." Resolute, with honor, he lost his last debate to a jury of citizen peers knowing his humiliating fate.

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Timeless and Timely.

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Hi there,

Socrates was an interesting person who would've been nice to have as an acquaintance or friend.

Socrates spread ideas that upset the order of his, and he got persecuted for it. He was a 'type of freethinker' who rebelled against the tyranny and the social beliefs of his times.

He was probably self-taught and was therefore not indoctrinated in the delusions of his times.

He must have been an auto-learner, like an Aristotle 50 years later...

The pattern of people challenging the fascist delusions of their times before they get persecuted and even murdered were, and still are, seen where people break out of indoctrination or where they were never indoctrinated.

Such people usually carry the label 'atheist' these days and are persecuted by the delusions of today for example by islam and christianism, or christianity, and their spin-offs.

In a normalised world words like sinner, infidel, atheist, cock-roach (like in the Rwandan genocides) and many other such labels won't be used anymore because there are no such thing as LEVELS in humanity.

There's only one humanity and no LOWER-HUMANS or SUBHUMANS. This one of humanity's big issues and it's based on platonic thought (PLATONISM).

People like Socrates are free to express themselves in an honest way while those who are INDOCTRINATED/SOCIALLY ENGINEERED/SOCIALLY CONDITIONED/MANIPULATED to act and speak in ideology ways like those in the church or mosque cannot be honest, but they have to pretend.

What happened to Socrates have happened millions of times. Socrates is just a classical example of people who put ideology above reality and life...

Pieter J (PJ)

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