Plato

So I failed, on one of the first assignments of the semester! I forgot to do a blog post on Plato, so I figure I'll do it now, regardless of what happens.

Plato:

Plato's work is created through dialogue between (often) two "characters", Socrates, and one other one. In this particular work, it happens to be Protarchus. The discussion between the two leads to the statement that "Ignorance...is an evil". From here, they discuss the three large incidents, if you will, of ignorance in people, ignorance of wealth, beauty, and wisdom. They also claim that the ignorance of wisdom is the most severe. But then they address something else. How through people we see, we gain pleasure from their ignorance of themselves (or at least for me, extreme ignorance of just about anything).

Plato and Protarchus argue that we get pleasure at other's pain (in some cases just their ignorance). I totally agree with this. Although this particular song does not refer to laughter, it's the same idea, that we get pleasure out of other people's pain and misfortune. Why? It makes us feel better about ourselves. Maynard, the vocalist and the lyricist of this song (Vicarious by Tool) hits exactly what Plato was trying to get at.

And "that's all I have to say about that."