Thanks. Certainly, Stalin himself would have compared himself to Socrates, I believe.
I know, but I think old man Stalin who was in charge would say it was a good thing the Greeks had Socrates killed, because he was supporting a rebellion, like Trotsky.
Maybe. But, remember that Stalin saved the life of poet Boris Pasternak, who later wrote Doctor Zhivago. The KGB wanted to arrest him, but Stalin wrote "Don't touch this cloud dweller." Socrates wasn't really a rebel, just a social critic. Stalin could sometimes be surprisingly tolerant of social critics, who weren't actively trying to overthrow him.
True. The Greek ruling class of the time thought Socrates was trying to start a rebellion, to overthrow them. Of course we can't just trust their biased view on him. He was a gadfly and even today you see the elites trying to censor people like us. Stalin was a complicated person, I don't think he was pure good nor pure evil. His poetry as a 15 year old is interesting but I'm sure he changed a lot as we all do. The CIA promoted Doctor Zhivago, as they did Animal Farm.
Regarding censoring, when I posted this on reddit Historical What-IF, they were not happy with it, at all. It wasn't actually removed, but, it was way, way voted down. An awful lot of people really don't like independent thought, at all. It's very threatening, you know!
Did they question how you know Stalin wrote that? Could be fake news.
It's my translation, but, this is a standard poem attributed to Stalin, and published in anthologies. You can look it up online. Here's the original.
Ходил он от дома к дому,
Стучась у чужих дверей,
Со старым дубовым пандури,
С нехитрою песней своей.
А в песне его, а в песне –
Как солнечный блеск чиста,
Звучала великая правда,
Возвышенная мечта.
Сердца, превращенные в камень,
Заставить биться сумел,
У многих будил он разум,
Дремавший в глубокой тьме.
Но вместо величья славы
Люди его земли
Отверженному отраву
В чаше преподнесли.
Сказали ему: “Проклятый,
Пей, осуши до дна...
И песня твоя чужда нам,
И правда твоя не нужна!”
His mother was nuts.
If she hadn't done that then she would have done something else nuts instead, like dress him as a girl.
Well, maybe. But, given how poor she was, and that her husband was a drunk who beat her and young Josef all the time, what else would you expect?
Jiminy |4 pointswritten 2 months ago ago
Good post. It seems like it might be about Socrates.