I wrote:
After Athenian democracy self destructed, the various warring parties found that they could only have peace if they disowned omnipotent government.
joshua geller writes
specifically what period are you referring to here?
The guys that I praised were the same bunch as executed Socrates. Now you may well say that that shows that the new arrangement was seriously imperfect. But remember that Critias, Socrates disciple, had led the thirty. When they said that Socrates ideas had undermined society they were not talking about falling church attendance and teenagers screwing in the back seats. They were talking about the reign of terror, civil war, the massive destruction of property, and large scale massacres. Indeed it was clearly a violation of the "The ancient laws and customs of Athens" to execute Socrates, but after the peace agreement such violations were rare, whereas before the peace agreement massive violations had become routine and normal, eventually reaching such a scale that democracy became irrelevant before it actually fell. Of course bad philosophy should be fought with good philosophy, not by executing bad philosophers. I hope, and confidently expect, that after democracy collapses in the west we will remember that. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we James A. Donald are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. jamesd@netcom.com