Thank you!!! Finally, someone who exposes the truth about Socrates. Socrates got a ‘bad rap,’ not in 399 BCE, but today. The bad rap today is that he was a good guy. He was not. I wrote this synopsis after reading I. F. Stone’s, “The Trial of Socrates.” It may remind you of a certain current someone, thankfully not brilliant, but just as dangerous. Sharing:

“An amazing in-depth look at the trial of Socrates from a contemporary historical perspective as one might have imagined the intellectual Golden Age of Athens. Stone delves deep into ancient Athenian society: its mores, literature, pride, culture, and of course democracy and philosophy. Socrates was no champion of democracy; in fact, he was the gadfly who vilified it relentlessly throughout his life. He was in favor of – wait for it – philosophers such as himself ruling the city. Those “who know,” as opposed to the hoi polloi who vote for their leaders.

“Socrates’ own students overthrew the Athenian democracy twice. Although themselves overthrown and executed, a third try was purportedly in the works when Socrates was accused of corrupting Athenian youth – not morally or sexually but by his own anti-democratic fervor. The old philosopher neither denied the charges nor defended himself; the trial is said to be to Athens’ eternal shame. But I say not so. Socrates was a traitor to democracy, the very democracy which gave him the platform to rail against it. In times of relentless wars, threats to their national security, known traitors in their midst and rival Sparta, whom Socrates so admired, the wolves were at their doorstep; had not the Athenian state the right to preemptively defend itself from its enemies – both foreign and domestic? Any state today would exercise that right, and legitimately so.

“Today, foreign and domestic enemies of our democracy can and do surgically use our own open society against us, sometimes with impunity but always with glee, marveling at our naiveté. Had Socrates continued his misguided vendetta against Athens and eventually succeeded in bringing down their precious democracy, history surely would have heaped ignominy on such a guilty perpetrator. Athenian democracy might today be the one forever mourned as the great victim of an ancient historic injustice, not only instead of but rather at the hands of Socrates, that most undemocratic of Greek philosophers.”