Maturity and Time

In today’s times, Socrates is regarded as one of the most influential philospher in history. If he were alive today, he would be regarded as a hero and would be treated as one.  However this was not the case in ancient Greece. Socrates was too mature for his time, even though he was a citizen of Ancient Greece, one of the most influential and important civilizations in history. His views were considered to be radical and nonsensical. While his execution would be ridiculous and impossible today, there are many differences between our society and the one in Ancient Greece which made his death sentence acceptable in that time.

The lifestyle today is completely different the one two-thousand years ago.  Everything was different in those times including technology, government, policies and way of thinking. Some people might say that the people of those times were ‘stupid’ but that would be the equivalent of calling a baby ‘stupid’ for not being able to do what adults can do. Humanity was and still evolving. Our understanding of our surrounding grows each day even though we don’t realize it. If you introduce something that is too mature or extreme to someone, they obviously reject it. In fact this is shown when even the accuser does not even understand Socrates’ teachings. Socrates’ thinking was too advanced and did not make sense to the Greeks’ simple way of life. It also could not be helped that human rights were underdeveloped. The State arrested Socrates not only because of his ideas but also because of his influence on other people. They feared that their own powers would diminish because of Socrates. To the State, Socrates was just another annoying bug, waiting to be squashed.

In fact, I think our current government would be scared as well if a single man or an organization gained support against the government and if the law didn’t prohibit them, they would get rid of him to. A subtle example of this would be the presidential candidate, Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Ron Paul’s unorthodox libertarian views, such as his views in foreign policy, the war on drugs and the federal reserves, has gotten him shunned from other Republicans and the mainstream media. His growing support his undeniable but news organizations like Fox News and CNN continue to ignore him as he wins polls after polls. In this case, the opposing state would be the government, the media, and to some extent corporations. If somehow the same thing has happened in the same Ancient Greek state, Congressman Paul would not have been a Congressman but more importantly he would have been almost immediately executed. This is also taking place in a nation that prides itself in ‘free’ choices and opportunities. This is not an attempt to bash and denounce the United States but to show that even our society is corrupted and wrong. A future generation might see us and criticize how ‘stupid’ and ‘ignorant’ we were.  We just have to realize nothing is perfect and take everything into perspectives.