Was The Execution of This Philosopher in His Old Age Justified?
Although Socrates’ students led the Thirty Tyrants, he refused to get his own hands dirty in their reign of terror. In one narrative, he was ordered to help roundup and execute some people. Instead, he heeded the dictate of his conscience and went home. Laudable as that was, to many Athenians it was not enough. When a revolt eventually overthrew the Thirty Tyrants and restored democracy, Socrates had a target on his back. Picture if Americans revolted and overthrew a radical libertarian regime of Ayn Rand devotees that had slaughtered sixteen million of their fellow citizens, and restored democracy. If Ayn Rand was still alive, even if she had not personally killed anybody, she would not fare well.
That was the context in which Socrates was viewed by many Athenians after the Thirty Tyrants’ regime. To many, he had fueled the rich snobs’ sense of entitlement, and fed their resentment of jumped up commoners with a say in government. That inspired them to commit treason and cooperate with a foreign enemy to overthrow the government and slaughter said commoners. Seen from that perspective, that the Athenians afforded Socrates a fair and open trial in which he got to defend himself, unlike those slaughtered by his Thirty Tyrant acolytes, demonstrated remarkable restraint. They could have simply dragged the old philosopher out of his house, and tore him limb from limb with their bare hands soon as democracy was restored.
