Greek Philosophy and the Development of Modern Western Society

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle’s struggle was one to save humanity if you really think about it. While the Sophists thought they were smart and cunning for their discovery of a fundamental truth, Their discovery would lead humanity down the path of greed, capitalism, war, and deceit. That truth is essentially that if you take immoral and deceitful steps in life, they can benefit you. The most blaring example is of a politician who lies to his constituency in order to win their following and then use that to proceed his actual hidden agenda. For example George Bush using 9/11 as a means to start wars, and a reason to lie to the public at large, or Ancient Athenian politicians deceiving the masses for their own selfish purpose. The most classic definition of justice can be traced back to the moment when Socrates publicly criticized corrupt politicians despite the consequences for history to admire, and Plato’s idea that the city must have egalitarianism between specializations of labor. But the greatest injustice occurred when Socrates was put to death. It is a metaphor for triumph of sophist immorality in humanity, despite the gentle trickle of Socrates revolutionary ideas down through his students.
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were all philosopher of a respective time period who saw the influence of the sophists on society, and those who created vice and sin, and attempted to warn society against such self-destructive practices. Socrates focused on rewards in the afterlife, Plato on rewards in the current life, and Aristotle was more concerned with happiness and health. Yet despite their differences like Marx, Lenin, and Mao, they all share the same fundamental ideology. For the Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle it was this belief that society could be run by moral good rather than rampant addiction to power, wealth, and pleasure that leaves us feeling empty inside.
The Sophists on the other hand, sought rampant power, wealth, and pleasure and their beliefs have had unimaginable influence on the modern world. As they executed Socrates; only Plato’s student was left to teach other free thinkers in society the truth about being moral. This represents how social justice movements throughout history have always been underground struggling against corrupt oppressors. Socrates’ death paved the way for absolute control of the hierarchy in western society by those who put morals aside and get the job done with a iron fist. When taking office George Bush had sought to invade Iraq in order to open up the state-owned oil company to him and his buddy Cheney’s oil company Halliburton. When terrorists attacked the country however, he cleverly deceived Americans into blaming the middle east as a whole allowing him the breathing space to begin war maneuvers against Iraq. That’s the result of injustice created by the execution of Socrates. If Socrates had never died such leaders would not exsist.
Plato’s city in interesting because it stress egalitarianism between leaders, workers, and soldiers in terms of material goods, and this redistribution of goods based on what makes the most logical sense to attain general happiness of the society as a whole has been the struggle of revolutionaries since the day of Plato. Plato’s city illustrated in a very basic way that there was a way to avoid divisions within a populace, make everyone happy, keep specialization of labor, do away with poverty, and have a happy functioning society. This is a key ancient definition of justice.
In summary, the Sophists triumphed over moral Greek philosophers through their deceiving and cunning use of power. Their whole demeanor may represent what is unjust in society today. Although originally deceiving for goals, they end up only in search of power, wealth, and pleasure. Socrates and his followers faced death and persecution for warning all of western society of the dangers that unmoral sophism would bring, and now we are left with a crumbling capitalist economy, global war of terror, and people dying due to the lack of infrastructure their country has been left with due to the rampant greed of lying filthy rich capitalist politicians all over the world.