"Socrates-the protagonist of the dialogues-was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth of Athens. That's essentially what A&M is accusing the dialogues of doing now. Now we refer to "wokeness" instead of "corruption," but the underlying assumption is the same: Students were pure of heart and mind, untroubled by unpopular thoughts, until a teacher led them astray. Um, no. It wasn't true then, and it isn't true now."
"For that matter, neither has "the Western tradition," to the extent that it makes sense to use the definite article. The folks who try to use "tradition" to bash, say, homosexuality, might blush at the ancient Greeks' sexual practices. Speaking of blushing, those who embrace Stephen Miller's assertion that power has only ever been about force might face some awkward questions encountering Thrasymachus's"
Students and young people are not, and never have been, inherently pure of heart and mind; accusations that teachers "corrupt" them repeat an ancient charge that led to Socrates' sentence. The contemporary label "wokeness" functions like the old charge of corruption, preserving the same underlying assumption. The Western tradition is not a single, uniformly pure inheritance; appeals to tradition can clash with historical practices and philosophical insights. Moments in Plato expose flaws in simple force-based views of power. Aristotle distinguishes friends, enemies, and flatterers, with flatterers undermining character. Augustine frames purity as aspirational and sin as a default tendency.
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