Towards a More Mature Democracy
by John Hawkins
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out (in)
Don't you know it's gonna be all right?All right, all right
- The Beatles, "Revolution," White Album
You could be forgiven (but what's the fun in that), if you were to think. Looking at Jacques-Louis David's neoclassical painting The Death of Socrates, you could believe you're seeing Socrates giving the bird to democracy and demanding that Crito give him the goddamned chalice full of hemlock, and get out of the way. There are different versions of what Socrates' last words were. I thought I heard, "Tell my neighbor, Asclepius, he's a co*k, and I owe him one." But I'd just come off reading The Clouds, Aristophanes' take-down of Socrates, so I could be wrong. All we know is that he was in a foul mood.
And he had a right to be. All those Ralph Nader-like years of public service, including a distinguished stint as a soldier during the Peloponnesian War, only to be told, like most any vet, that things had changed since his return from his tour of duty. The Thirty Tyrants banned him from speaking in public -- his dialectics had a tendency to undermine their reign of terror. He never spoke out against the oligarchy directly, but he did continue to be a "gadfly" for every horse's ar*e who came his way: encouraging each to think for himself. When democracy was restored, his influence was not forgotten by governmental leaders.
Socrates famously quipped, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates' Golden Rule is built into the foundation of American democracy. A life that is not examined is one controlled by the thoughts of others -- open to deception, propaganda, and subterfuge. An examined life is built into Thomas Jefferson's notion of a "well-informed public." Augmented by the mission of the Fourth Estate, which is to keep the citizenry informed and the Bastards Honest, well-informed, self-examining people are in control of their representative government. Ideally. But there are a lot of Ee-yores, assorted horses arses, and serial ignoramuses out there. Even a Ralph Nader can only do so much.
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