Why I will never be a politician

02Apr07

Ok, that title will seem pretentious after reading the rest of the post but there you have it. Today I read The Apology, by Plato, in which Socrates defends himself on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens. Here are a few quotes from his self-defense that I noted:

I will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil.

In regards to death. He would rather die, which to him was an unknown, rather than renounce his philosophizing which he considered to be his life mission. Powerful.

I am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God; and the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.

Hence the many newspapers called the Gadfly and the figurative definition of the word: “an annoying person, esp. one who provokes others into action by criticism.” (Oxford American Dictionaries)

This is what deters me from being a politician. For I am certain, that if I had engaged in politics, I should have perished long ago, and done no good either to you or to myself. And do not be offended at my telling you the truth: for the truth is, that no man who goes to war with you or any other multitude, honestly striving against the many lawless and unrighteous deeds which are done in a state, will save his life; he who will fight for the right, if he would live even for a brief space, must have a private station and not a public one.

You definitely don’t get the full meaning of this quote out of context, but Socrates provides a very compelling reason for not becoming a politician in his text. It comes down to the (obvious?) incompatibilities between politicians and idealists. I would definitely consider myself to be an idealist and not a politician.

I cared not a straw for death, and that my great and only care was lest I should do an unrighteous or unholy thing. For the strong arm of that oppressive power did not frighten me into doing wrong;

Again, something I’d like to be able to say upon my death.

…that daily to discourse about virtue, and of those other things about which you hear me examining myself and others, is the greatest good of man, and that the unexamined life is not worth living

In other words, blog often

The difficulty, my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.

On being willing to die for a moral belief.

What do I take to be the explanation of this silence? I will tell you. It is an intimation that what has happened to me is a good, and that those of us who think that death is an evil are in error. For the customary sign would surely have opposed me had I been going to evil and not to good.

Finally, Socrates take on death. He felt that there was an “oracle” that led him away from harm and caused him to feel uncomfortable talking about certain subjects. In the case of death the oracle did not speak to him and he interpreted this as a sign that death is not evil or something to be feared.

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