Modern Day Socrates

Yesterday, I just watched the 10th and final episode of season one of a brilliant television drama called "The Newsroom." (For all those who haven't heard of it, I highly recommend it- or at least watch the first ten minutes of it on YouTube which will definitely leave you thinking.) Written by Aaron Sorkin, this show surrounds a fictional news corporation with real life news stories, ranging from the BP Oil Spill to the death of Osama bin Laden. Yet the plot of the show is centered on the news anchor, Will McAvoy, as he and his team try a whole new style of reporting only facts and the truth, free of bias and irrelevance.

Now you would think that this revolutionary idea of reporting the truth wouldn't be all that revolutionary, and that Will McAvoy would be supported for sharing the truth. But if that were the case, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN would all be reporting stories free of irrelevance with only important, truthful news. And this isn't the case because people nowadays want to be entertained, not informed. And when you inform people, they switch the channel- which is why people like Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather are no longer reporting the real news.

And so the criticism for Will McAvoy began. Tabloid stories tarnish his character on a weekly basis. Editorials come out criticizing the new style of reporting. Will is faced with death threats. His attempt to report facts and ask tough questions makes him viewed as more biased than other reporters who report on rhetoric, and even the executives of the news corporation try to find ways to fire him.

Like Socrates, Will McAvoy is trying to spread the truth, and is ridiculed and criticized by many. Their messages were parallel: to bring the light to those who don't have it. And yet people reject that light. They don't want to see it. They're content with the life they're living and don't wish to drastically adjust it. Hopefully, over time, people will begin to adjust, and if all goes well, the civilization living a century from now will look upon this age as we look upon Socrates': as a less advanced, less informed people. In other words, hopefully the intellect of humans will only get brighter as time moves on.