Socrates the Troll

           


           I just submitted my term research paper on the trial of Socrates and there were many times throughout writing it over the past month when I wanted to add my personal opinion and insight, but with it being a research paper, I had to keep it objective. It’s pretty clear to me now that Socrates was the original troll. On the internet, we often see people looking searching for a good argument or upsetting others just for the sake of seeing them get angry. We refer to these disruptors of our homeostasis as “trolls.” While writing my paper on Socrates, I read about the ways in which he questioned people, almost to a point of interrogation, until they felt uncomfortable with him asking questions he knew they couldn’t answer. Therefore, it appears Socrates was the first troll ever recorded in history.

            That’s not to say I don’t agree with his practice of seeking truth or the ethical values he projected, however. At a time when everyone was following instruction, doing what they were told to do, thinking what they were told to think, Socrates was the anti-conformist. He stood up in the gray mess of society around him and tried to bring color to the lives of others by getting them to think in ways they previously refused to. Asking countless questions that his fellow Athenians couldn’t answer made them very uncomfortable, which led to feelings of embarrassment and ultimately resentment toward Socrates. He tried to get the people of Athens to give up their external desires by looking internally and “examining” their thinking. His philosophy is based around meta-cognition and knowing what you don’t know to gain a sense of higher wisdom. If everybody in America today had a mindset like Socrates, the government would not be getting away with the atrocities they are currently sneaking past us and everyone would be much more understanding of one another and the differences that part them.

Sources: http://www.iep.utm.edu/socrates/#SH1b
                http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2d.htm