Socrates was the first influencer

Translation: Victoria Bakshina

We are pretty lost in life. Fortunately, we have people whom we can look up to, see how much better they are and mimic their behavior. This could be anyone as long as the person maintains an Instagram page. These people are called influencers. We, the average folks, don’t influence anyone except for a handful of people in our micro-environment, but there are people who got their act together and pursued the lifestyle of the influencer with sheer professionalism. To this elite belong Patrek Jaime, Sunneva Einars and the Kardashian family. Among their followers one may find a myriad of common people from all over the world. However, many forget that there was once a man called Socrates, whose influence among the public was so great the authorities were frightened by it. He was the first influencer, so far ahead of his contemporaries, he was almost living in tomorrow.

In the dialogues of Plato, Socrates appears as a laid-back eccentric. But it does not mean that he did not have “beef” with other people. In Gorgias, Plato tells a tale about Socrates’ argument with a group of sophists.[1] Their leader was Polus, a student of Gorgias, who was in a way the Kim K of his time. Socrates was, of course, Taylor Swift in this context, the “beef” between them was massive, though they were both on keto. The topic of this argument was the nature of rhetoric; whether it should be a craft or an art. It was the sole topic in long disputes between Socrates and sophists. Later scholars and playwrights (Aristophanes among them) suspected that Socrates himself had accepted payments for his teaching, even though he had constantly criticized sophists for that. Then it would be nothing but hypocrisy, comparable to modern influencers advertising “sponsored” products without a full disclosure.

Socrates spoke against hidden advertisements in Laches, in which he argued against military service as a part of education. His opponents were the generals Nicias and Laches, as well as others. Socrates was clearly a mid-level influencer, i.e. he was not as big as corporations such as Marvel Studios (who have worked closely with the American military over the past few decades), but he was certainly at the point where he could stridently object to the military authorities. Despite that he was executed for opposing the government of Thirty Tyrants and the democratic government after them, which can be compared to John Cena who was once compelled to publish a lengthy apology to the people of China after he alluded that Taiwan was an independent state.

One of Thirty Tyrants was Critias who was an addressee of Socrates in the same-titled work. In Critias, Plato recalls a story of the origin, development, and demise of the mythical city of Atlantis. The story is another version of the Great Flood as described in the Bible, Theogony by Hesiod, and more writings, but the cause is always the same: the corruption of mankind. This is pretty similar to when influencers advocate for a healthier lifestyle, nature protection and the kind treatment of animals.

Socrates was, in fact, someone who in our day would be called a lifestyle guru. He favored a certain lifestyle, and like many TikTok stars, was not afraid to spread his ideas. Like the astrologers of the modern world, he believed in the principle of universal connection and development that dominates the lives of all of us. The manifestation of that can be found in Lysis where he argues that two persons can only be friends if they are alike. The collaboration between two influencers can only be successful if both have the same brand, like the influencer collective Áttan. Likewise, he said that mankind was just different, imperfect manifestations of a perfect Idea of the human.[2] The soul is the middle ground of these two forms, but the body is just a storage capsule that resembles a rusted container. Socrates couldn’t imagine allowing the body to moulder, he encouraged an equal cultivation of a mortal body and an eternal soul. One will find a lot of examples:

1. In Charmides, Socrates speaks about self-control (σωφροσύνη, sophrosyne), which is in many ways comparable to the self-control needed for a keto diet.

2. Nothing was more important for Socrates than mindfulness, as was clearly stated in Theaetetus where he contemplates the nature of knowledge and perception. In this context it should be mentioned that he is concerned about how his ideas are perceived (the brand is all that matters), and whether his reasoning should be supported by something (pics or it didn’t happen).

3. He was a spokesman for a minimalistic lifestyle as is well evidenced in Philebus. There he was obviously older and started to downsize like PewDiePie.

The influence of Socrates is perceptible during his lifetime. In Meno, Socrates argues that wisdom is congenital by implementing a rhetorical form that is traditionally called a Socratic method or refutation/elenchus (ἔλεγχος, elenkos). It consists of leading the interlocutor into the situation where one lacks arguments, so the only way out is to recognize the value of the opponent’s arguments. This method is still applied by politicians, businessmen and other influencers, but what does one call the influencer who influenced all subsequent influencers? Yes, the first influencer.

We all make mistakes, but when influencers make one, everyone and their grandma has an opinion about it, so the influencer needs to come up with an apology. When Socrates was condemned for blasphemy and corruption of the Athenian youth, he delivered a speech to protect himself. That speech, which carries a very appropriate name The Defense Speech of Socrates, resembles the apologies that YouTubers regularly post. Such as Logan Paul did after he uploaded a video of himself strolling in the Japanese forest full of dead bodies, or PewDiePie after he paid an Indian entertainer five dollars for repeating a Nazi speech about the Holocaust. But like many current influencers, Socrates didn’t really apologize but declared that he deserved a thank you for his services to society and that he didn’t do anything wrong.