Part I: The Ancient World

Socrates: Have you an opinion on my impending Impiety trial, Plato?

Plato:    Of course, Socrates – and I fully intend to be there in the audience.

S:           So what is your speculative opinion of the final decision?

P:           I cannot conceive that you could be convicted, Socrates.  Anyone, who knows you personally as I have almost all of my life known you, knows that you are anything but Impious.

S:           So you believe trials are actually adjudicated on the basis of ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?’

P:           They are supposed to be so adjudged.

S:           Surely you know, Plato, the citizens on juries and Assemblies decide for two reasons.  First on the basis of the ‘evidence’ as presented by Lawyer-Advocates and testimony as attested to by witnesses; and also on the basis of their own individual prejudices and preferences as individual citizens.

P:           Yes, Socrates – that is true.  But Just decisions are ‘supposed’ to be made on ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ – without prejudice.

S:           Are such decisions of juries and the Assembly always Just Decisions, Plato?

P:           They are ‘supposed’  to always be Just decisions.

S:           Have I not repetitively taught you, Plato, that in our Individual Liberty Free Athens, there is no guarantee of Justice in our courts?

P:           Yes you have, Socrates.

S:           My trial will be prosecuted by two Sophisticated-Lawyer-Advocates, one hired by the very Sophists who teach the Rhetoric of Persuasion, and the other hired by the Poet-Dramatists of our beloved Entertainment Industry.  Is that not true, Plato?

P:           Yes, those are all of the irrefutable Facts as defined in a ‘Rational Context of Space and Time’ – just as you taught me to understand real ‘Facts.’

S:           Then you must have noticed that in the several months long public Defamation of Character Campaign that has been run against me, there has been widespread, continual public circulation of copies of Aristophanes’ truly great Sarcastic Comedy “The Clouds.”

P:           Of course, Socrates.  I have encountered in the Agora both copies – the original and the slightly revised – many times.

S:           Do you not find them both very funny as I did – demonstrating my approval at its original performance some 25 years ago by standing up, laughing hysterically, from the audience so all could see the very different real Socrates?  You know, what many today do not know, that my character name is a parody of real Sophists who take money and teach people how to mislead less sophisticated fellow citizens.  I don’t think I ever told you this before, Plato, but the defamation campaign had many young men, you could call them ‘influencers,’ who would walk up to older citizens and tell them the following lie:  “You look like a man who is old enough to pay for his sons’ ‘Education’ – You should beware of the Evil Sophist Socrates who will corrupt them as he corrupted me.’  Once, one of these ‘influencers’ approached me trying to sell me on the same repeated lie.  I couldn’t stop laughing until the young man ran away.

P:           Because I know you personally, Socrates, I know the story of your public appearance of laughter at the original performance.  Of course, I was not there – I was so young that I was barely out of diapers.

S:           Do you remember the amusing parody of my ‘Scientific Inquiry’ into how far a flea can jump?

P:           You mean by Scientific Testing by putting wax on their little feet so that they would leave a trail of ‘flea footprints’ to measure?

S:           Very funny, wasn’t it?

P:           Yes indeed, Socrates.

S:           And you were wise enough to understand that the Facts of Nature can only be Scientifically understood by such activities as Careful Observation and ‘Weighing or Measuring or Counting.’

P:           Thank you again for the compliment, Socrates.  And, yes I do remember the parody.

S:           But do you not also know that everyone can be misled some of the time, and some people can be misled all of the time?

P:           Yes, you have taught me that many times, Socrates.

S:           Do you remember the amusing parody on my absolute insistence on ‘Careful Observation of Nature’ to acquire Reliable Facts?

P:           Which one was that, Socrates?

S:           That was the scene where the character called Socrates was carefully studying the heavens when the reptile on the roof above him defecated on his head.  Do you remember that scene, Plato?

P:           Yes, I do, Socrates – but, when merely reading it, much of the humor is lost.  It has to be watched for its full effect.  I guess you could say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

S:           Exceptionally wise answer, Plato.

P:           Thank you again, Socrates.

S:           Now I ask you about the heart of the false allegation of IMPIETY – the discussion of Thunder and Zeus and the Clouds.  If you remember in the play, it is faithfully believed by all that Zeus, the Thunder God, creates thunder AT HIS WILL.

P:           Yes, I remember that, Socrates.

S:           And, all of my life, I have tried to explain that the DAIMON, the Divine Power, created nature.  Do you not remember that teaching, Plato?

P:           Yes, I do, Socrates.  That is a big part of why I will always think of you as my Teacher.

S:           Back in the play, you must also remember as I pointed out that we only hear Thunder when there are Clouds and rain.

P:           Yes, again, Socrates.

S:           And then I asked that, if it is true that Zeus creates Thunder only by his will, why do we never hear Thunder on a sunny day?  This is the heart of the Impiety charge.  I claim that the Divine Powers, the DAIMON, created Nature and, in Nature, Thunder only occurs NATURALLY in storms.  How can that be Impious?

P:           It cannot, Socrates.

S:           Yet that is what they will convict me of – all out of the ignorance of jurors and the deceit of Sophisticated Educated Lawyer-Advocates.  Surely you must remember how many times I have said:  ‘It is as if I am a physician, arraigned by a confectioner, before a jury of children, and my only refuge, my only defense, is the innocence with which I have lived my entire (publicly known) life?’

 

Part II:  2024 – A Contemporary Hypothetical Dialogue between ‘Socrates’ and an anonymous honest American voter named ‘Plato’

Socrates:  What is  your speculative opinion about the results of the coming 2024 Presidential Election, Plato?

Plato:    Everyday new opinion polls news reports seem to change.  I do not know how to so judge.

S:           Surely you do not believe such opinion polls are reliable facts, Plato?

P:           Well, no I do not – but what else is there to speculatively judge by?

S:           A wise answer.  Perhaps predicting the results is a non-rational waste of time and effort.

P:           That makes sense to me.

S:           Then let me ask you what SHOULD the results of the 2024 election be if JUSTICE is to prevail?

P:           Not wishing to sound cynical, I ask you, Socrates – why should anyone believe Justice will or will not inevitably prevail?

S:           A brilliantly wise point, Plato – you have finally, belatedly, begun to understand True Justice.  Again I ask what ‘should’ the results of the election be in the context of Justice prevailing going forward?

P:           All the voters will be legal citizen voters, all such legal votes should be fairly and honestly counted, and the judgement of every individual voter should be based on ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’

S:           (Laughing uncontrollably for five minutes.)

P:           If I may continue – if Justice is to prevail going forward, Socrates, what do you believe will determine the votes of the voters that then determine the winning candidate?

S:           Is it not obvious in this polarized country that there are those who sincerely believe Donald J. Trump is the epitome of Evil – and, by contrast, there are those who believe that, for the first time in as much as 35 years, Donald J. Trump truly, honestly and fully represents their personal view of Right versus Wrong and Good versus Evil – i.e., ‘Justice.’

P:           This in incontrovertibly true, Socrates.

S:           Therefore the vote of the voters will be determined by the sincere beliefs of each and every voter.

P:           That is obviously true, Socrates.

S:           Is it not also true that for Donald J. Trump to be Evil, his CHARACTER must be Evil.

P:           True again, Socrates.

S:           Therefore, judgment of the Character of Donald J. Trump by the individual voter will ultimately determine their individual choice of who to vote for.

P:           Absolutely true, Socrates.

S:           How do people rationally judge the character of public figures that they do not know personally and for some time?

P:           By each and every, public and private, relevant communication that they hear and believe to be true, Socrates.

S:           A wise answer, Plato.  And so I ask:  has Donald J. Trump, for 8-9 years not been the victim of a Defamation of Character Campaign by the ‘Elites’ – starting even before the 2016 unprosecuted criminal pre-election conspiracy called OPERATION CROSSFIRE HURRICANE by the UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATORS led by President Obama, Vice-President Joseph Biden, FBI Director James Comey, candidate Hillary Clinton, British Spy Christopher Steele and hundreds of lesser criminals which has been placed in the MEMORY HOLE of Society as some weird and unimportant ‘Russia Hoax,’

P:           I forgot all that, Socrates.

S:           Of course you forgot.  No one dares speak of it for fear of retribution from the Ruling Class so-called ‘Elites.’  And, furthermore, is it not also true that the anti-Trump Defamation of Character Campaign was twenty times as long ongoing and thousands of times more massive than the Defamation of Character Campaign in Athens against the original Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, from the deme of Alopeke, from the tribe of Antiochus – that caused his Unjust Impiety Trial and conviction and one month thence execution in 399 BCE?

P:           That is irrefutably true, Socrates.

S:           Without going into the endless thousands of defamatory lies individually rationally debunked for all eternity, is there a better way for an honest individual voter to privately, individually, arrive at their own rational judgment of the Real Character of Donald J. Trump that you can think of?

P:           My mind is completely ‘boggled.’  Do you have a recommendation, Socrates?

S:           Tell me what you think of this, Plato.  Since the defamations invariably are built around alleged ‘quotes’ of what he said, which are by their very nature incomplete, let me ask you if you can name three 90-minute Trump rallies that you have personally, privately, studied for yourself on television or computer?

P:           I have never watched one nanosecond of any such rally, Socrates.

S:           You do know that his followers make great personal sacrifices to attend, gain no personal advantage for their careers or lives from their attendance, and, unlike every other political rally for anything and anyone in the entire world’s history, even ‘clean up’ at the end.

P:           No, I did not know that, Socrates.

S:           Therefore, when any voter says “I just don’t like Trump,” is the solution for such socially pressured ‘brainwashing’ the independent private individual investigation of at least one, optimally three, such rallies by the ‘open-minded’ honest and honorable voter.  At least then, a truly Just judgment would not be based on extracted, edited sound-bites and half quotes but would be based on ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ – would it not, Plato?

P:           Unassailably true, Socrates.

S:           [Hint:  In human nature it is true to say that being verbally unsophisticated, even clumsy, is not at all dishonest, but infinitely more likely to be compulsively honest.  The smooth-talking slicksters – like the ‘Great Prevaricator – GP’ (1993-2001) and the ‘Folksy Flim-Flam Fraud – FFFF’ (2009-2017) who are both mega-millionaires from Big Government are the NARCISSISTIC SOCIOPATHIC LIARS.]

P:           Unassailably true again, Socrates.