“I’m not rich, and I don’t really
have any talents I can sell. I’m not good looking, and no one ever seems to
throw me a bone. How am I supposed to make a difference?”
Socrates had no money at all, and he
never sold anything. Most people said he was rather ugly, and they ended up
killing him. But he did make a difference.
Socrates is always a wonderful
example of what we can all do, and of what we can all fail to do.
How often have I heard him described
as a hero by those who never learned anything from him, and described as a
villain by those who should be closest to him?
“I’m so glad you’re teaching our son
about Socrates. It will really help him so much when he has to write his
application essay for law school.”
“I want to live my life, and I don’t
need a dead, white, filthy rich man, some tool named Socrates, telling me how
to think! Nietzsche was right, dude, Socrates is crap!”
From what I know of him, Socrates
would be aghast to think that his name might help your child win admission to
any fancy institution.
From what I know of him, Socrates
would be surprised to see his mission confused with conformity and politics.
The man asked us to do only two
things, as I recall: to think with clarity for ourselves, and to have the moral
courage to stand up for the truth we discover.
This gets in the way of the greedy,
since it means they can no longer play without being revealed as thieves.
This gets in the way of the
ideologues, since it means they can no longer pontificate without being revealed as
charlatans.
Socrates was, in a sense of the
history of philosophy, the proto-Stoic. There had always been decent men like
him, of course, and there always will be. The labels will ultimately not
matter; the character behind it all will matter.
An agreement with Nature will
matter. A willingness to seek wisdom and virtue above all else will matter.
“But wait, if you buy my book now,
at this special discount, or give me so many ‘likes’ on social media, you will
feel so much better!”
Please, stop it with your diversions.
Inspire others to act with justice, and challenge those who worship wealth and
power. Then stare in the face of those who diminish you, not with the force of
arms, but with the power of reason and love:
I
shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall
never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting any one
whom I meet and saying to him after my manner:
You,
my friend—a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens—are you not
ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation,
and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the
soul, which you never regard or heed at all?
And
if the person with whom I am arguing, says: Yes, but I do care; then I do not leave
him or let him go at once, but I proceed to interrogate and examine and
cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue in him, but only says
that he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater, and overvaluing the
less.
And
I shall repeat the same words to every one whom I meet, young and old, citizen
and alien, but especially to the citizens, inasmuch as they are my brethren.
For know that this is the command of God; and I believe that no greater good
has ever happened in the state than my service to the God.
For
I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take
thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care
about the greatest improvement of the soul.
I
tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money
and every other good of man, public as well as private.
This
is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine that corrupts the youth, I am a
mischievous person.
Do any of us need high office, or
some position of power, to do exactly what Socrates did? Any of us can do this,
from any status, or in any circumstance. Then we have lived well, and then we
have served the whole.
Written in 8/2011
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