19 August 1995
revised 6 March 1997
RI-259Ri 'On Socrates'
from Ambassador for Mankind
Message # RI-259Ri for Internet
(Revised to increase quality -
this Bulletin being one of the
most asked for and most popular RI-Bulletins on Art-Org.com)
Socrates made others believe that he was ethical,
and he convinced others
that he did the most ethical thing there was to do.
To commit suicide and to desert his friends
was the most ethical thing to do,
he made others believe -
and he tried to make others admire that.
And during his whole life
he was talking about life,
but refusing to take any responsibility
- for himself,
for his family,
for the town -
and he was living almost like a streetbum.
That's what he sold to others
as him being ethical and wise.
"The oracle said he was the wisest of all,"
he used that as a beautiful excuse.
And he really tried to figure it out:
He knew he was not the wisest,
so how could this be a true statement?
"I know that I don't know",
that's what he came up with.
And so he led a life
of making people consider and doubt what they thought they knew.
There is a very good side to that,
as we all know.
There is a bad side to it,
which is less mentioned, or not mentioned:
There are things that people DO KNOW
as correct and truthful data.
By throwing doubt on THOSE things,
you of course can drive people crazy:
Psychologists and psychiatrists do it all the time
- some philosophers do it as well.
Some philosophies and religions say
that you CAN'T know things for sure at all,
but that it is all in the hands of some unknowable fate
and determined by an unknowable cause.
Life, however, is a very knowable thing.
People who take a lot of responsibility for life
do KNOW a lot of things about it, with common sense certainty.
The only thing that
Socrates really was willing to own and be responsible for
was his sandals (his shoes), and even that very badly:
He had a friend who was a very successful manufacturer of sandals,
but Socrates was too irresponsible
to get himself some new sandals occasionally.
Socrates talked about the well-being of people,
but he did not ACT accordingly.
Now you might get the idea
that the accusations against Socrates
were not levelled by Suppressive Persons,
but by some responsible citizens.
[Suppressive Persons:
See the 'Understanding Suppression Series'
at "http://Art-Org.com/ri-bulletins/usp.htm"]
This complicates things,
because Socrates was mainly sentenced to death
to try and diminish the influence of Plato!
That was the actual motive
of the Suppressive Persons in old Greece, in Athens -
otherwise they would have left Socrates
to be as irresponsible as he wanted to be.
Socrates had some value, he had some value to Plato,
because
Socrates knew for very sure
that he was a spiritual, immortal being,
as we all basically are, and
Socrates was willing and able
to state this clearly and openly.
That was the main value Socrates had
as a friend to Plato.
So, Socrates was sentenced to death
by a few Suppressive Persons in Athens
in order to strike a blow to Plato.
The total betrayal by Socrates was then,
to - out of his sheer cowardice
and for no other reason than out of cowardice -
accept this sentence,
instead of leaving prison
(his friend Plato had arranged
that Socrates could leave prison).
Probably the most aberrative action of Socrates was
to get as much agreement and admiration from his friends
for his betrayal as he did manage to obtain.
Socrates HAD to MAKE himself right,
and if you want to characterize Socrates,
then you can say
"Socrates"
equals
"I am RIGHT, I am very ethical -
no matter what my actual condition is, and
no matter what condition my friends are in."
Plato was
NOT agreeing with Socrates' "beautiful suicide",
NOT appearing at and applauding his "admirable" "rightness"
in drinking the hemlock, the poison of death -
and Socrates hated Plato for disagreeing with that.
The being then called Socrates kept up his idea
of "taking revenge on Plato
for not approving of and not admiring the suicide."
He kept it up for two thousand years,
because Socrates is indeed, as he said and knew,
an immortal spiritual being.
Socrates appeared to us again,
in a brief spell of sanity, as Benjamin Franklin.
Shortly after his death in his house in Philadelphia,
Franklin again decided to be completely irresponsible
for himself and
for others and
for his past and
for his future and the future of others,
(see RI-133i 'Benjamin Franklin's right to NOT-be' of 31 Mar 1995)
and so we know him again, a hundred years later,
reborn as Vincent van Gogh,
when he again tried to make himself "right" -
"right" this time about being completely irresponsible
for his own mental state,
for the conditions he and others lived in, and
for committing suicide.
This time, as Van Gogh,
he had employed a great amount of beauty (in his paintings)
to make others accept and have pity
for his irresponsibility and
for his intention to be insane.
(see RI-704Ri 'Real Art is not hard to understand' of 30 Sept 1996)
Until I came along and
sorted it all out and got this being back to sanity
- an Odyssey [eventful and dangerous journey]
which is described to quite an extent
in the RI-Bulletins at "http://Art-Org.com/ri-bulletins/", and
in the USP-series at "http://Art-Org.com/ri-bulletins/usp.htm".
Koos Nolst Trenite - Ambassador for Mankind
Copyright 1995, 1997 by Koos Nolst Trenite
Personal Web-page:
http://ArtOrg.com
Personal Web-Library:
http://Art-Org.com
References (available at the Library "http://Art-Org.com"):
- Bulletins about or mentioning Socrates
RI-778i 'Plato's pupil Socrates Disconnects from L. Ron Hubbard' 9 Jan 97
RI-395Ri '"Ivory Tower" defined' (revised) of 2 Dec 1995
RI-239i 'Koos and LRH and Ethics' of 17 July 1995
RI-757i 'Making a violent psychotic saner' of 11 Dec 1996
RI-681i 'L. Ron Hubbard's Serenity group, More - Part B' of 27 Aug 96
RI-527i 'Pulling Known Withholds - Ivory Tower' of 19 Dec 1995
RI-406i 'Serenity aids your survival - Part II. IMPORTANT' 10 Dec 95
RI-032i 'SP-Declares are Intended - Use It' of 9 Mar 1994
RI-003i 'SEC CHECK Marc Yager RTC' of 14 Sept 1994
- Bulletins about or mentioning Plato
RI-778i 'Plato's pupil Socrates Disconnects from L. Ron Hubbard' 9 Jan 97
RI-395Ri '"Ivory Tower" defined' (revised) of 2 Dec 1995
RI-361i 'Why LRH invited SP "OT's" as staff (GOLD!)' of 17 Nov 1995
RI-281i 'How LRH could make up for his tyranny (in Syracuse)' 7 Oct 95
RI-239i 'Koos and LRH and Ethics' of 17 July 1995
RI-080RBi'The Eternal Critics - Exposed' 28 Jan 95, revised 3 Mar 96
RI-029Ri 'Koos, LRH, Miscavige - the Truth' of 7 Dec 1994
RI-003i 'SEC CHECK Marc Yager RTC' of 14 Sept 1994
- Bulletins about or mentioning Benjamin Franklin
RI-674i 'Benjamin Franklin returning from France - Part III' 30 July 96
RI-656i 'Benjamin Franklin returning from France - Part II' 30 July 96
RI-647i 'Benjamin Franklin returning from France - Part I' 30 July 96
RI-724i 'Miscavige compared to between-lives Implanters' issued 16 Feb 97
RI-133i 'Benjamin Franklin's right to NOT be' of 31 Mar 1995
RI-797i 'A lively definition of "money"' of 21 Feb 97
- Bulletins about or mentioning Vincent van Gogh
RI-727Ri 'Van Gogh's "Starry Night"-painting' of 29 Oct 96
RI-704Ri 'Real Art is not hard to understand' of 30 Sept 1996
RI-678i 'Vincent Van Gogh and his Misery' of 22 Aug 1996
RI-108i 'LRH on Exchange, Money, Friendship - Van Gogh' 14 Mar 95
RI-380Ri 'Obtaining Truth from the RI-Bulletins' of 1 Nov 1995
RI-50RQi 'RI-xxxi series Archive - Content and Use' 28 Dec 94
Revised and Replaced on 6 March 1996
These and other RI-Bulletins can well be obtained here - or
at the Library of Koos' writings on
http://Art-Org.com
or (also accessible with WWW-browser) at
ftp://thetics.europa.com/outgoing/adams/RI
Back to the RI-Bulletin index.