Presented to the Gulf Coast Unitarian – Universalist Fellowship sometime in 2002
The Undeniable Socrates in Us All
Some years ago I wrote a column in which I encouraged people to question what they were told and what was going on around them. I’d like to share a portion of that column with you as a means of introducing my topic.
“Some time ago while I was driving to work I found myself behind a car which had a bumper sticker that read ‘Question Authority.’
‘Wise advice,’ I thought. Just think, if everyone in the country questioned the authority of the government, we’d be a whole lot better off today.
I don’t mean that we should disregard laws against stealing, assault, fraud, and the like. But just think, if Americans had questioned the government’s policy of forcing young men into military service, the Vietnam War would never have happened and 58,000 young Americans would not have perished fighting for a politician’s idea of a noble cause.
Thinking about my own questioning attitude caused me to remember an incident from my childhood during which, as a nine year old, I exhibited such an attitude, and no small degree of bravery.
My mother, great-grandmother, older sister, and I were doing up the dinner dishes. I made an ugly face at my sister, and she tattled on me. My great-grandmother scolded me, ‘Be careful young man, if someone hits you on the back of the head while you’re making one of those faces, your face will freeze that way!'
Well now! This gave me reason to pause and consider my actions, as well as my great-grandmother’s warning. It sure sounded like nonsense to me, but on the other hand, why would my great-grandmother lie to me?
I decided to test the theory.
With no small amount of trepidation I went upstairs to the bathroom. Standing on the lowered seat of the toilet I was able to lean over and peer into the bathroom mirror. I first experimented with various funny faces. I had to be very careful, of course, since there was the very real danger that my great-grandmother was telling the truth! I wanted to be sure to use a face that I’d be able to live with the rest of my life.
After a few tries it occurred to me that the face needn’t be anything extravagant. I decided to simply curl up one side of my mouth. I did so E-V-E-R so slightly and then patted myself on the back of the head. I say “patted myself” because, being understandably fearful of the consequences, I was reluctant to give full force to the blow. After several such “pats” I finally drew myself up, took a deep breath, and SMACK, struck myself one good one!
Needless to say, my great grandmother’s warning proved to be nonsense.
From this experience I learned two very important lessons. The first was that I could now make faces at my sister with impunity. I couldn’t be fooled by that old myth anymore! The second lesson was one I have carried with me all my life. That lesson is that one should never take anything at face value. ALWAYS question whatever it is that’s being proposed. The greater the importance of the proposal, the more skepticism it warrants.”
I wrote those words about 10 years ago. Although I haven’t always questioned everything that was important, and sometimes suffered as a result, I’ve generally questioned matters of concern for humanity in general.
I’ve questioned things not because I made a conscious decision to do so, but because I simply was inclined to question. Just as the nine-year-old questioned his great-grandmother’s warning about his face, the adult has engaged in questioning of philosophical premises.
I thought of all this while reading Christopher Phillips’ book “Socrates Café.” Mr. Phillips is a philosopher who goes around the country starting up discussion groups about philosophy.
Basically, he arranges a meeting place, places an ad in the local media, then sits back and waits for the response.
A number of things have struck me about the book. One is the tremendous response he receives everywhere he goes. I had despaired that most Americans had given up asking questions about philosophical issues. I’ve often lamented that too few people bother to define “right and wrong” anymore. Reading how many people came to these Socrates Cafes opened my eyes to the fact that many Americans are STARVED for philosophical inquiry.
I must note here that the Socrates Café was given its name in honor of the philosopher Socrates. Socrates, you may know, spent his adult life questioning EVERYTHING. To him, life and happiness were to be found in the search for questions, not answers. Answers, he believed, were simply doorways to further questions.
Can you imagine a life like that? Think about how wonderful it is to be a child surrounded by a new world which teaches you something new every way you turn! Socrates found the way to be like a child and continually discover new worlds to explore, even as we become older and perhaps a bit jaded.
Another characteristic about the Socrates Café that intrigued me was the depth of the questioning that went on. Sure, Christopher Phillips facilitated the questioning, but the people attending the meetings enthusiastically rose to his challenges.
One of the questions raised was “What is wisdom?” Another, raised by a man who called himself “Wolf,” was “Isn’t philosophy really the study of ‘why?’”
I like that take on philosophy, primarily because it goes back to the child within us all. What do children do? They continually ask “Why.”
Why is grass green? The sky blue? Why do I have to eat my vegetables?
Of course, children also ask “What” and “Where;’ questions such as “Where do babies come from,” but concerning matters of philosophy, I think “Why” is the primary question.
Concerning the question of what wisdom is, the participants in this discussion went on to discuss whether it was a good idea for a person to share his knowledge indiscriminately. Couldn’t there be “bad” knowledge, such as how to defraud an ATM machine, that shouldn’t be shared? This insight was provided by a convict.
Concerning “good” knowledge, they wondered whether it was always a good idea to share that knowledge as well. Isn’t it best, sometimes, that a person find his own answers in his own way? Could it not corrupt, permanently, a person’s search for answers if he is “given” certain knowledge instead of being allowed to discover it on his own?
Pretty deep stuff. And it’s coming from “average” people! Housewives, business executives, high school kids, nine-year-olds, criminals in the penitentiary. During one Café, a homeless man responded to a question and then pulled a rumpled copy of Plato’s Dialogues from his back pocket, turned to the page he wanted and read a passage that was germane to the subject at hand.
That was perhaps what pleased me the most. That regular folks were engaging in such discussions. That ordinary people pondered weighty matters.
I believe the thing for which Socrates was best known was his persistent, critical questioning of the status quo. It was his questioning that eventually caused government officials to execute him. These officials feared that Socrates was corrupting the youth by urging them to question their elders.
The desire of people in power to keep their subjects ignorant is not a new phenomenon.
Critical thinking. Isn’t that characterized by objective, non-judgmental consideration of the facts at hand?
Isn’t that the type of questioning engaged in by a healthy, happy child?
As I’ve mentioned many times before, in urging all of us to indulge the child which really isn’t within us, but which we are, Jesus held a child on his knee and stated, “In order to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must be as this child.”
A child is wide-eyed, innocent, non-judgmental; objective.
To a child, the world and universe are endless. There is never a lack of new things to learn.
For adults, does not the same situation exist? Do we not have an infinite range of things we can ponder, to our hearts’ content?
So why do so many people fail to engage in critical thought?
The answer to that came to me, interestingly enough, by a question posed to me by Hannah Jackson, one of our members.
We were discussing our lives and I told her how I don’t ever want to be limited in the things I pursue. I want to explore all avenues of my life.
She responded by saying, “But, don’t you need to set boundaries, so that you can conduct your life in some direction?”
I think she has a good point, to an extent. Sure, in order to choose a “direction” as far as a career or social progression we must set boundaries to what we learn.
But what if our “direction” is the complete exploration of our own lives? What if we don’t care about doing “what’s right” with our lives; which is another way of saying “what everyone else is doing”? What then?
One of the things Christopher Phillips points out in his book is that many of the regular attendees of his cafes come alone and probably live alone. This was comforting to me, since I’ve spent most of my life alone. By choice. Even though I felt perceived as an odd-ball, I couldn’t ignore my desire for those things that made me “different” from many others. That is, my need to ask questions.
In his book “The Road Less Traveled” M. Scott Peck states that most people stop growing during adolescence. At this point, he believes, such people form a certain view of the world and try to cling to that view for the rest of their lives.
I think he had a good point. For a number of years I gave speeches in my Toastmasters group encouraging people to question what they were being told about their government on the television. All I did was make people mad!
People who cared about me tried to make me understand that I was threatening the other people’s belief systems and thus they would never come around to my point of view.
I thought that was sad, and quite frustrating. I never expected anyone to hear my speeches and say “Holy cow Wayne! It’s all crystal clear to me now! Thanks!”
I simply wanted people to listen, and if they had legitimate objections to my views, to tell me. That’s all I wanted. But I was being told by older, wiser people, that these folks didn’t want to even HEAR what I was saying, much less think about it.
Imagine yourselves in such a situation. You’ve formed your view of the world. Categorized the different types of people that exist under two general headings: Good and Bad.
Then you encounter someone who doesn’t fit any of your categories. What do you do? If you are to avoid the risk of having your entire belief system come crashing down upon you, you must find a way to MAKE that person fit into one of your categories.
If a person is explaining, in a convincing manner, that your way of viewing the world is all wet, you must stop them somehow. Either you shut them out entirely, shout them down, or call them names. Anything to stop their infernal attempt to make you grow!
That’s not healthy!
Refusing to continue to ask questions, that is, refusing to maintain a steady growth, I think, is the cause of many mental illnesses.
Think of the mental contortions a person must engage in, in order to maintain a consistent view of the world based upon a belief system that was formed when they were a teenager; or even just ten years ago.
Most of us in this room engage in questioning of some sort. Many of us are like children in our curiosity about life.
Mike and Chris Kayes love to study birds. Dave Waldorf is a physicist, for goodness’ sake. Imagine the questioning that HE engages in. Elizabeth is interested in environmental issues and the plant world. I’ve become somewhat knowledgeable in political philosophy and our nation’s government. I at least know more than some college professors, apparently. Mildred is very knowledgeable in religions. I think Faye is also very curious about religions and philosophy. I know she does a lot of thinking and reading on those subjects.
Recall I mentioned earlier that people who question reality often find themselves alone in the world.
M. Scott Peck stated that the “Road Less Traveled” was the road of truth. The vehicle which we use for driving along that road is the “Question.”
Dr. Peck stated that the biggest drawback for those of us who take the road less traveled is that we will find ourselves way out in front of our contemporaries. We will have left behind the majority of people; those who made up their minds about the world when they were teenagers or at best in their early 20’s, and haven’t changed since.
Frankly, regardless of how lonely it may be, I’d rather be me. I’m better off than the people who try to make their view of the world today fit their view of it from 20 or 30 years ago.
I think all of us in this room would rather be that way. I think this is why we’re so offended by Christian fundamentalists who insist that their way is the only way, and everyone else is going to hell.
Not only do we know they’re full of baloney, since, thanks to our questioning and our Religious Education we know that the bible is mostly myths and fables, but I think we’re also offended by the obvious fact that with them, no enlightenment is possible.
Imagine a brick wall with arms and legs. And worse, a mouth! I think that is why we’re so turned off by bigots. They think they have everything figured out; when in fact, most of us know that the more we learn, the more we realize how much we DON’T know.
Asking questions is essential for our survival. Not just personally, but collectively.
And since it’s essential for survival, it comes to us naturally. When we are children, we engage in questioning almost CONSTANTLY, because there’s so much we need to learn in order to form our understanding of the world.
It is the tendency to STOP asking questions, as we get older, that is unnatural. We’re stunted by our desire to “fit in.” We want to appear like everyone else, so we tend not to question things so much, for fear of embarrassing someone and making ourselves unpopular.
Or, perhaps, we’re afraid that if we ask questions too much, we’ll be branded as stupid since, after all, “EVERYONE” knows the things we’re asking about.
I don’t know about other cultures, but in America, it seems as though “growing up” means ceasing to ask questions and learning to work within the status quo.
Unquestioningly doing what others do has resulted in a people who are in debt up to their eyeballs in order to own fancy cars, the biggest computers, houses that are far bigger and fancier than we need a house for; that is, to protect us from the elements.
Failing to question ordinary things also leaves us susceptible to charlatans who want us to act in certain ways to benefit their interests.
How much of our slang, how much of our home decoration, how many of our career paths are influenced by what we see on television?
Imagine if none of us ever had our child-like attitudes stifled. What would our world look like?
Well, some of us would probably live in tree forts! Others would live in real neat caves, that we dug ourselves! We’d spend lots of time playing with our friends and neighbors, instead of rushing around in the SUV trying to balance all kinds of activities.
In short, if we had been able to remain as children, within the limits required to earn a living, we would have made FUN our priority, instead of “getting ahead.”
We see people like that around us, now and then. The weirdos who dress funny, do odd things, but have a tremendous amount of fun!
I think we’d be a very different nation today, had we continued on such a path.
I don’t have a fancy house. I don’t have a fancy car. In fact, my truck is in the shop getting the engine replaced. I’d rather spend $2k fixing it up than take on a car note for $15 or 20K.
I don’t own a lot of “things.”
I also don’t have much to worry about.
This ties in, I think, with Jesus’ parable about a fully laden camel passing through the eye of the needle sooner than a rich man will enter the kingdom of heaven.
The DESIRE for possessions enslaves us.
It distracts us from the IMPORTANT things in life. Mainly, happiness.
It’s easy to get off on the wrong path in our lives. However, if we practice the art of critical thinking, if we ask questions; question what we’re doing, we can discover our errors and correct them.
I think our culture tends to stifle questioning. The television continually tells us what “everyone else” is doing; and we believe it!
How many times have we been told something like “Americans are worried about the situation in Israel” and thought to ourselves, “I’m not worried about it. Am I the only one? Perhaps I should act like I’m worried.”
The enthusiasm expressed by the participants of the various Socrates Café’s in Christopher Phillips’ book shows me that there are a lot of people in this country who feel stifled; who LONG for intellectual debate in official circles; as well as on television.
And to those who would say that the average Joe or Jane isn’t up to it, I’d refer you to the broad cross-section of people attending Mr. Phillips’ cafes.
They come from all walks of life; all educational levels.
And yet, they’re easily capable of getting right into the middle of a discussion about “the meaning of life.”
What they’ve discovered is that it’s real easy to be a child, a Socrates, so long as we don’t forget that that is what we are.