This week’s Senior Symposium lecture was given by Lynchburg College’s own Dr Joe Freeman (2016), Professor Emeritus of Political Science. This lecture addressed Book 8 and the beginning of Book 9 in Greek philosopher Plato’s seminal text The Republic. These sections are some of the most famous due to their candor on the topics of modern governments. Freeman’s (2016) lecture discussed the way in which Plato’s Socrates defined four different types of unjust governments and the manners in which each form government tended to devolve into the next form. Freeman (2016), near the end of this lecture, after discussing the nature of democracy and tyranny extensively in both modern American and Ancient Greek contexts said something that seemed to resonate
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Plato’s Socrates states it this way on page 260, “for instance, a father gets into the habit of behaving like a child and fearing his son, and his son gets into the habit of behaving like a father, feeling nether shame nor fear in front of his parents” (Plato 2004). The core idea of this statement is that when a citizen is given the opportunity to have a choose in every aspect of their lives they come to have absolutely no respect for authority of any kind. The quoted example is a son who no longer has any respect for the authority of his parents and acts indignant when punished. Plato wasn 't using this example to strictly discuss the nature of children in democratic societies, in fact it can aptly be applied to the modern relationship between the American public and law-enforcement. Modern law-enforcement has become afraid of the public in many situations. There have been dozens of highly publicized cases of law-enforcement acting inappropriately in moments of crisis, causing the loss of innocent civilian life. The officers involved with theses occurrences chose to let fear dictate their decisions rather then the authority of their well established training. It is also undeniable that these cases seem to be becoming more frequently popularized then in the past, increasing along side the increasing list of american freedoms. Civilians have also recently shown that they also have no respect for authority. Events like the 2016 Dallas police officer massacre and the 2015 Baltimore riot show that people are no longer simply indifferent to authority but actively fed up with
Plato’s Socrates states it this way on page 260, “for instance, a father gets into the habit of behaving like a child and fearing his son, and his son gets into the habit of behaving like a father, feeling nether shame nor fear in front of his parents” (Plato 2004). The core idea of this statement is that when a citizen is given the opportunity to have a choose in every aspect of their lives they come to have absolutely no respect for authority of any kind. The quoted example is a son who no longer has any respect for the authority of his parents and acts indignant when punished. Plato wasn 't using this example to strictly discuss the nature of children in democratic societies, in fact it can aptly be applied to the modern relationship between the American public and law-enforcement. Modern law-enforcement has become afraid of the public in many situations. There have been dozens of highly publicized cases of law-enforcement acting inappropriately in moments of crisis, causing the loss of innocent civilian life. The officers involved with theses occurrences chose to let fear dictate their decisions rather then the authority of their well established training. It is also undeniable that these cases seem to be becoming more frequently popularized then in the past, increasing along side the increasing list of american freedoms. Civilians have also recently shown that they also have no respect for authority. Events like the 2016 Dallas police officer massacre and the 2015 Baltimore riot show that people are no longer simply indifferent to authority but actively fed up with