Socrates's Death As Depicted In 'Citro' By Plato

In ‘Citro” by the greek philosopher Plato, one of the wise lessons Socrates, the classical philosopher, taught us was to not let the opinion of the people worry us. This lesson taught by a man who died in 399 BC is still thriving today in modern society. In this literary review I will prove that worrying about the opinion of the people can be harmful and even deadly. In proving this, we will see the importance of this lesson Socrates has taught us.
In this dialogue, Socrates has been sentenced to death for corruption of the youth and inventing new gods. He is in his prison cell awaiting his death when he is visited by Citro, a good friend of Socrates. Citro has visited Socrates to tell him that the day of his death is approaching and to convince
Worrying about what other students or people think about them, eats at them, and in some cases, devastatingly leads to them taking their own lives. In Britain a study was conducted and it was found that half of the deaths of young people from suicide resulted from bullying (Bullying 2014). A sophomore at Clay-Chalkville Alabama overdosed on 40-300 milligram aspirin after receiving a text from a fellow student telling her to ‘go kill herself.’ The girl did survive the lethal overdose. Her mother said that she always wanted everyone to like her and when they didn’t it was hard for her daughter to accept that (Dingle 2016). Hannah Smith of Lutterworth, England, hung herself in her bedroom after receiving anonymous messages on ask.fm. These messages included being bullied about her weight and the recent loss of a family member (Real... 2013). The teen was also told to ‘drink bleach’ and ‘cut herself’ (Quoted in Real... 2013). Angle Green was repeatedly called ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ and teased about her father who was in jail for abusing her. She hung herself from a tree where her tormentors would find her, next to their school bus stop. Angle left a note for her mother, at the end of the letter she wrote “P.S. it’s bullying that killed me. Please seek justice” (Quoted in Goad 2015). Similar stories of
Citro is worried about the opinion of the people if he lets his friend die without a second fight. Socrates teaches us to not worry about the opinion of the people, but only of the good. The consequences of worrying about the opinions of bad people was proved through the devastating reports of suicide triggered by bullying in young teens. Maybe if these students had listen to the opinions of their parents and loves ones, the good people, things would have ended differently. This is what Socrates advises us to do, only listen to the good people in life. Although this lesson comes from the B.C it is a lesson we should continue to remind ourselves of. We should never let the evil people in life, such as bullies, effect our emotions and let us think negative thoughts about ourselves, as their only purpose is to hurt us. By letting them hurt us, they are