Socrates Vs King

Socrates and Martin Luther King were quite different types of people and one being from a very different time. However, they together shared something in common, and that was a pursuit for justice. These three men stood up for what they believed in and were each killed through their tries. Socrates and Bonheoffer were put to death and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Each man questioned the laws that were in tact and tried to get others to question such things as they reached out to anyone and everyone who would listen. Socrates, Dietrich Bonheoffer and Martin Luther King all dealt with injustice in a way hoping to prevent or stop it. Their struggle is recognized as highly honorable and their vision of how to treat unjust laws remains with us today.

Socrates was put on trial for his life after being charged with corrupting the youth of Athens and for not believing in the Gods of whom were approved by the state. Socrates often would often rock the boat by discussing status quo. He would produce questions, create debates and engage in arguments with others to prove his views about certain laws being unjust. Socrates however, did not believe in breaking the law, he often stood up and represented the laws through personification. ?What complaint have you against us and the state, that you are trying to destroy us?? (Plato 50d) He made it clear that by living in a city where the laws have been there just as long if not longer than the person breaking them when it is convenient, would eventually lead to the society becoming an anarchy. Through one person disobeying the law it is unfair to those whom obey it. Eventually others will begin disobeying too. Doing what one wants when they wish to is not fair and it leads to chaos and destruction of both the city and the city’s system. The effects could easily multiply and bestow a decline in law and order. In an extreme case scenario, it could lead to civil war.

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