God alone can save civilisation, said Socrates, when clever campaign strategists teach aspiring politicians how to play on the public’s hopes and fears.
Socrates has been telling Adeimantus (Plato’s brother) that it is almost impossible for a young man not to run with the crowd, because peer pressure is made even stronger by ‘sophists’ — educators and opinion-formers who work democratic assemblies as an lion-tamer works his cats, and who resort to ‘the gentle force of attainder, confiscation or death’ when words are not enough.
John Stuart Mill reminds us that governments and the courts must never be allowed to criminalise matters of belief or opinion.
We often see those in power trying to use the courts to silence views they find objectionable, rather than tolerate them or engage with them. But Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill recalled that many centuries ago, such supposedly high-minded legislation resulted in one of history’s worst miscarriages of justice – the execution of Socrates.
Socrates was placed on death row while Athens celebrated a religious festival.
The philosopher Socrates (470/469 - 399 BC) was sensationally tried for ‘corrupting youth and for impiety’, code for challenging the government of Athens. Ironically, by law his execution had to be delayed while they commemorated the abolition of human sacrifice.