Reference: Crito Wikipedia Entry
Source: Crito at Project Gutenberg
Background: The third dialogue in the first tetralogy of Plato's Socratic Dialogues, Crito examines Socrates response to injustice.
Discussion: This is the only dialogue so far in which I feel slightly sympathetic to Socrates but even here that is tempered.
Visited in his cell by his friend Crito who urges him to escape Socrates refuses. His reasons - Answering injustice with injustice is wrong and laws, even when flawed, deserve respect from those who consent to be governed by them (As Socrates did when he remained in Athens upon reaching adulthood).
Those sentiments are ones I can identify with (although I may disagree with Socrates on what an injustice is and I reserve the right to attempt to have the law changed) but then he goes and bungs it up with his statement that the opinion of the common man means nothing because they are too ignorant to be allowed an opinion. A little bit of foreshadowing of the need for Philosopher Kings in the Republic maybe?
Actually since I think chronologically "The Republic" takes place first it may just be a re-expression of that view. Timothy Shutt who lectures on Plato at Kenyon College says in his Portbale Professor course "Foundations of Western Thought: Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans" that the government outlined in "The Republic" was essentially a fictionalized version of Sparta. Maybe that is what the Athenians meant by making "The worse appear the better"
books, great books, western canon, Plato, Socrates, Socratic Dialogues, Crito