The Prison of Socrates
As the sun set behind it, I stood outside the Prison of Socrates in Athens and thought about the great cost of truth. Two thoughts came to mind:
Great ideas are, indeed, bulletproof. (Or, in this case, hemlock-proof.)
No matter how smart you are, there is a price to pay for being insufferable to a lot of people.
If Socrates did not drink the hemlock, by apologizing for his impudence, would he have inspired Plato, and then Aristotle? Would Aristotle have inspired Alexander with stories from the Iliad? Would the entire history of ancient Persia and Asia be different? Would Julius Caesar not have felt inadequate in comparison to Alexander, and would he not have crossed the Rubicon, and triggered the collapse of the Roman Republic? Would no one remember Mark Antony? Would Shakespeare not have had a great speech to write?
