Thanks Haruna. Glad you enjoyed the piece. God bless too.

 

Baba> Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:49:14 -0400> From: [log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Socrates and the Cave Dwellers> To: [log in to unmask]> > Aye Aye Galleh. This is what I was missing for the month; Mental juice. You > should bottle it and call it Mensanol. I'll get the first proprietary bottle.> > God bless. Haruna.> > > In a message dated 3/16/2008 9:29:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > [log in to unmask] writes:> > > > Socrates and the Cave Dwellers> > By Baba Galleh Jallow> > Thousands of years ago, the people of Athens committed a crime that is being > decried to this day. Their trial and condemnation to death of Socrates, > their city’s greatest thinker, acknowledged to this day as the world’s greatest > philosopher, was the result of the common propensity to falsely accuse lovers > of truth and justice that continues to plague human society. Socrates, who > had spent all his life teaching the virtues of wisdom, truth and justice, and > striving to raise the common people from the dungeon of ignorance to the > tower of wisdom, was accused by the powers that be of corrupting the youth of > Athens and not believing in the gods of the city. Both charges, of course, were > false.> > In ‘The Republic,’ his classical treatise on political society and the > nature of the Good, Plato, a student of Socrates, sets out to prove the falsity > of the charges for which his teacher was forced to drink poison. The basis of > Plato’s defense of Philosophy against the charge that it undermined political > society is the fact that throughout The Republic, the philosopher, in the > person of Socrates, seeks only what is best for a healthy political society. He > is constantly engaged in the arduous task of enlightening society, teaching > the requirements of justice, truth, wisdom and all the virtues that make for > a good person and a good society. Socrates is particularly concerned with the > proper education of the youth. He decries immoderation and excess, and > emphasizes the need for the predominance of reason over sprit and desire in the > human soul. To have a good society, he teaches, you must have a good > individual. It is an aggregate of good people that make up a good society. Thus, there > is nothing in what Socrates teaches that, objectively speaking, does not > promote the well being of society. It was for this good crime that he was killed.> > Socrates teaches that the chief function of the State is the education of > the youth to become good human beings. Therefore, he advocates a strict > supervision of what is taught in schools, what parents teach their children, what > peers learn from each other and in general, the need for children to learn > discernment, discrimination and unshaking loyalty to the State as an institution > (e.g., The Gambia), as opposed to the rulers, among other virtues. > > It is in the quest for this proper education that Socrates advocates > censorship in The Republic. He points out the numerous dangers of teaching young > children the stories of the gods according to the ancient poets Homer and > Hesiod. These two poets, among others, portray the gods as if they have all the > shortcomings and evil propensities of human beings. He proves to his audience > that the gods, being good and perfect, should not be portrayed as capable of > bad things or transforming themselves into something less than perfect. > Accounts of the gods weeping and wailing over their misfortunes, taking human or > animal forms to rape women, doling out evil fortunes to human beings or > practicing deceit, Socrates argues, should be purged from the poetry taught to > children because they have the potential to corrupt their young impressionable > minds by not teaching respect for just authority and harmony among the powerful, > among other virtues.> > Socrates further argues for the purging from contemporary poetry of all > details likely to cause young people to prefer slavery to death. Death should be > preferred to slavery, particularly slavery of the mind. Dark and horrendous > accounts of Hades (the world of the death in Greek mythology) as a place of > torment and misery, Socrates argues, are likely to cause young people to fear > death and instill in them a spirit of cowardice and timidity. Poetic accounts > of death must be such as to make the young eager to die for the nation, truth > and justice when the need arises. Poets, Socrates argues, must not be > allowed to extol tyranny in the city because it would make this worst form of > government look appealing to the minds of the young. Socrates advocates that > children must be taught to be reasonable and disciplined, to love truth, wisdom, > justice, courage, honesty and moderation, and to shun excessive laughter, > drunkenness, sexual indulgence, and all forms of immoderation, deceit and > injustice. As he says in Book Three of The Republic, future leaders must, from > childhood on, “ . . . pattern themselves after men who are - among other things - > courageous, temperate, reverent and free.” By giving them the right kind of > education, Socrates argues, “ . . . we could protect our guardians from > growing up in the presence of evil, in a veritable pasture of poisonous herbs where > by grazing at will, little by little and day by day, they should accumulate > a huge mass of corruption in their souls.”> > Plato perhaps makes his case for the philosopher most poignantly in the > allegory of the cave. Society, including the philosopher, is imprisoned in a dark > cave where everyone is chained to a chair facing a wall across which shadows > move. They cannot turn their heads to see the source of the shadows and so > they believe that the shadows are the reality. Released from his shackles and > binders, the philosopher is forced out of the dark cave and forced to look > upon the light - to see the good and appreciate the beauty of knowledge, truth > and wisdom. Thus enlightened, he is duty bound to descend back into the dark > cave to try to convince those prisoners that what they see on the wall in > front of them are mere shadows and fake images of reality. Of course, Plato > argues, the philosopher would be hated and ridiculed by the shackled cave > dwellers, particularly their leaders, because he would be challenging the very > foundations of their entire existence. Life in the cave is defined by a common > perception of reality on which the honor and prestige of many are based. The > philosopher thus faces not only the difficulty of convincing the prisoners, but > also the danger of being accused of denying the most fundamental beliefs of > the cave dwellers and corrupting the minds of the young among them. > > Plato seems to suggest that while the charge against philosophy is, > objectively speaking, untrue, it is, in a sense, true. Socrates’ ideas, he grants, > are inherently subversive of the status quo because he teaches that the > existing educational structure is the prime source of individual and social > injustice in the city and advocates its dismantling and replacement by a curriculum > that would teach men to be just. He exposes the corruption of the Athenian > regime and calls for the use of reason and wisdom and the practice of justice in > the art of governance. Socrates was killed because he advocated a radical > paradigm shift, a total overhaul of existing corrupt structures of power and > privilege. He was killed because he taught truth and courage, and challenged > the regime to act in the interest of the people rather than in their own > selfish interests. > > Today, part of the Socratic role is played by the media. Most people living > under dictatorships are comparable to the Socratic prisoners living in a cave > in which shadows are made to look like reality.> Which is why tyrants and despots are so hostile to the media and all who > advocate contrary ideas and opinions. Those who rule in their own selfish > interests, those who would keep the people shackled in the dark cave of ignorance > and mental poverty, those who would be lords and masters rather than servants > of the people, power-drunk despots enslaved by their greed and base desires > - those people will do anything and everything within their means – including > the murder of innocent persons – in order to snuff out the light of truth > and justice, to keep the light outside the cave, to perpetuate the myth of the > shadows as representations of reality. They may succeed in snuffing out the > lives of individuals, in blocking the flow of truth in the form of media > information to the people, but they can never snuff out the light of truth and > justice because this light is of the essence of God and cannot be touched by the > soiled hands of power-crazed despots. Eventually, the light will filter > through to the eyes and minds of the cave dwellers, and the power of knowledge > will triumph of the darkness of ignorance and lies. Socrates has long been > vindicated and he will continue to be vindicated till the end of times. So will > all those media dedicated to the propagation of truth and justice, in spite > of the doomed efforts of tyrants to prevent this from happening.> > > > > > > > > > Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! MSN Messenger > _________________________________________________________________> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!> http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L > Web interface> at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html> > To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: > http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l> To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:> [log in to unmask]> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤> > > > > > **************It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & > Finance. (http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001)> > ����������������������������������������������������������> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface> at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html> > To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l> To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:> [log in to unmask]> ����������������������������������������������������������> 

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