I just completed Crito and I'm left with a blech feeling.
"Since you were brought into the world and nurtured and educated by [the State], can you deny in the first place that you are our child and slave?" "When we are punished by her...the punishment is to be endured in silence..."
So per Socrates and Plato, we are slaves to the state, the state is not a servant of the people? I see this existing in reality today, but I can't say this would be my ideal. I suppose perhaps in an ideal state, but even then, no, I still think that government exists "by the people, of the people, and for the people."
Are the two thoughts contrary?
Then too the solution is either to convince those giving the law that they are in error before a trial commences, or to leave your home if you are unable. This reminds me of the "If you like Canada better than America, feel free to leave" posts that permeate social media. Is that the solution? If you are a person of color and you dislike the way the city police handle things, do you simply leave? Do you do so after making your voice heard to no avail? Or do you stay and fight, and wind up being taken by the laws and lawgivers that you have called unjust? Is it then acceptable to attempt to escape prison?
Of course, Socrates says that he has long praised the government of Athens, so this comes as slightly different, but what does one do when the state, by his argument, allowed him to be born and educated, and fails to uphold its end of the 'bargain'?
"Since you were brought into the world and nurtured and educated by [the State], can you deny in the first place that you are our child and slave?"
"When we are punished by her...the punishment is to be endured in silence..."
So per Socrates and Plato, we are slaves to the state, the state is not a servant of the people? I see this existing in reality today, but I can't say this would be my ideal. I suppose perhaps in an ideal state, but even then, no, I still think that government exists "by the people, of the people, and for the people."
Are the two thoughts contrary?
Then too the solution is either to convince those giving the law that they are in error before a trial commences, or to leave your home if you are unable. This reminds me of the "If you like Canada better than America, feel free to leave" posts that permeate social media. Is that the solution? If you are a person of color and you dislike the way the city police handle things, do you simply leave? Do you do so after making your voice heard to no avail? Or do you stay and fight, and wind up being taken by the laws and lawgivers that you have called unjust? Is it then acceptable to attempt to escape prison?
Of course, Socrates says that he has long praised the government of Athens, so this comes as slightly different, but what does one do when the state, by his argument, allowed him to be born and educated, and fails to uphold its end of the 'bargain'?