From Progress to Digress

This week in English, we spent a lot of time focusing on ancient Greek philosphers. So far, we've read two of Plato's dialogues which revolve around Socrates. The first was The Apology and the second was Crito. The Apology was Socrates' defense statement that he made to the jury of Athens while he was on trial for corrupting the youth and going against the Greek Gods. I thought that the concept of someone being on trial for corrupting the youth was almost humorous. With all of the "corrupting" influences that we have in today's society that are aimed directly at young people, it's amazing that such a thing could have ever been considered criminal. Billions of dollars are spent on marketing teams who are paid to find out exactly what it is that young people want and how to convince them that their lives are inadequate without the selling product. If the Athenian jury were to see American society today, I'm sure that the verdict would be Hemlock for everyone. However, when California was in such a heated state over Prop 8, many supporters argued that teaching the possibility of homosexual marriage in classrooms would be unacceptable and would give young children the wrong idea. It seems to me that as seemingly far as society comes, the more similar it seems.