“Technically, the United States does not celebrate national holidays,” says the U.S. Department of State’s website. Now, go ask 5-year-old Americans and they will beg to differ. Regardless, Americans love their holidays, the long weekends, the shopping, the sleeping and especially the food. Half of the time we don’t even know what we’re celebrating: “Is it Veterans Day or Memorial Day? Same diff. Let’s barbeque.”
What I propose is a new kind of holiday – a day to remember the man himself.Socrates. Ask intellectuals throughout the world who they think has been the single most influential individual in terms of Western thought and chances are they will tell you Socrates.
By the way, if they say Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Hobbes, Halevi or Al-Kindi, forgive them (because they really mean Socrates but just don’t know any better). What we need is to save ourselves from everything we do on holidays – shop, eat, sleep and basically consume.
Since 399 B.C., Socrates has addressed many of the issues America struggles with today. In case you live under a rock or behind the Orange Curtain, Socrates is a Classical Greek philosopher best known for his contributions in ethics and epistemology. Also significant is his development of the Socratic method of analyzing dilemmas, which is used in fancy law schools across the country.
Socrates believed that the only good is knowledge and that the only evil is ignorance. Currently, Democrat and Republican candidates alike thrive on platforms involving education and school reform. Red or blue, the issue of education, or the quest for knowledge, is rigorously sought after. But at the same time, voters rarely find the time and energy to flip through their voter guides, let alone conduct primary research on such legislative reforms.
This fits nicely with another key Socratic ideal, which is the pursuit of virtue. In his opinion, the most valuable life was one in which an individual’s focus was on self-development rather than the pursuit of material wealth.
Maybe if Americans didn’t have to work as much (and live month-to-month to stay adorned in the hippest brands and drive the hottest SUVs or a token hybrid), they’d have more time for those voter guides. They’d have more time for the pursuit of knowledge and self-discovery, and be able to contribute to the community in addition to their bank loan debts.
Finally, Socrates also coined the phrase “eat to live, don’t live to eat.” Don’t get me wrong, I love food, cooking, wine and even a little MSG every once in a while. But as our country faces an obesity epidemic riddled with diabetes and heart disease, a Socratic holiday to remind us of this phrase might do us good – aesthetically, physically and mentally.
In a way, Socrates is like Jesus; both had larger scopes of influence and died for what they believed in, although the precise details have probably been lost in translation. The difference is that Socrates never wanted people to think like him, or to subscribe to his belief system. He just wanted people to think. He said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Of course, the U.S. is not the only nation that could benefit from a Socratic holiday. As our planet continues to globalize, every human could benefit from Socrates’ statement” “I am not an Athenian nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”
In the meantime though, I urge you to do yourself a favor and take a little time out to think WWSD (what would Socrates do) if not an entire day, and I guarantee you your life will change – probably for the better.
Cynthia Romanowski is a senior journalism major and an assistant news editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.
