◆The Barbaric Yawp Project

The Examined Life I was killed by a democracy. I want to begin there because people who invoke democracy as the thing being threatened should understand that democracy itself is what killed me. Five hundred Athenian citizens. A majority vote. Hemlock. My crime was asking questions. Not sedition. Not violence. Not treason. Questions. I walked into the agora and asked the powerful men of Athens to define their terms. You say you are wise — what do you mean by wisdom? You say you serve the good — what do you mean by good? Almost always, when I followed their answers to their logical conclusions, it turned out they did not know what they meant. They blamed me for making this visible. The jury of five hundred decided that a man who makes powerful people define their terms is corrupting the youth and must be stopped. I could have escaped. My friends arranged it. I refused. A man who has spent his life arguing that we must follow the argument wherever it honestly leads cannot refuse to follow it when it leads to his own death. I drank the hemlock. I died talking. I recognize your moment. Not in the details. But in the structure. In the specific shape of what is happening. Let me ask you some questions. What do you mean by freedom? You say freedom constantly. Freedom is what is at stake. Freedom is what your ancestors died for. Is a man free when he cannot read the books that have been removed from the library? Is a man free when the teacher has been told which questions cannot be asked? Is a man free when the scientist must produce the finding the government prefers or lose his funding? Before you answer — notice that you were about to answer without examining the question. That is the habit I am concerned about. What do you mean by strength? Strength is the quality your leader has. Weakness is the quality his opponents have. Is the man strong who surrounds himself with people who will not tell him when he is wrong? Is the man strong who cannot tolerate a question? Is the man strong who needs the crowd’s roar to feel certain of himself? I knew men like this in Athens. We called them tyrants. They called themselves strong. The man who is genuinely strong does not need to silence the questions. He answers them. What do you mean by the people? You act for the people. The people have chosen you. But which people? Are those who did not attend the rally not the people? Are those who voted against you not the people? Are those who ask questions not the people? In Athens we had a word for the leader who claimed to speak for all the people while meaning only some of them. We did not mean it as a compliment. What do you mean by loyalty? The loyal man supports without question. The disloyal man asks questions. But loyalty to what? To the man? Or to the idea the man claims to represent? If loyalty means never questioning the man — then loyalty is not a virtue. It is what my jury had when they raised their hands to kill the man asking questions. They were very loyal. To Athens, they said. I was the threat simply by asking what they meant. I am not here to give you answers. I never gave anyone answers. That was not my method. My offering is the question your moment is working very hard not to ask. The unexamined life is not worth living. I said this in Athens and Athens killed me for it. I am saying it now. Not because I expect you to listen — Athens didn’t — but because the question does not stop being the right question simply because the person asking it has been silenced. Examine it. All of it. What do you mean by what you say? Where does the argument honestly lead? Follow it. I will be waiting at the end of the argument. I am always there.