"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance."
If I could draw just one conclusion throughout the period of my lifetime, one truth, it is this idea put into the words of a great thinker. Socrates was part of a dying breed, the philosophers; men who weren't satisfied with existence, they wanted to know. They wanted to think for themselves, to ask questions, to cast doubt onto the society they lived in.
Since then, however, the philosophers have all but disappeared. Nobody wants to think for themselves anymore. They are willing to continue an existence without thought. Only a rare few actually question the media and the government.
Is that really what happened? Is there another side to the story?
When has anyone asked themselves that?
Whoever said that money was the root of all evil, he was dead wrong. It is not the root. It is a branch. Ignorance is the root, the seed.
It is the seed that bears the fruit of prejuduce and crime. Those who follow the path of evil are misguided by ignorance. The saddest thing, is that no one is safe from it. Ignorance is the cause of scapegoating. Throughout history, it has caused us to make horrible mistakes; and through even further ignorance, we are making even more mistakes.
In the end, Socrates' ideas have been forgotten. Ignorance still plagues us. Why hasn't education stopped it? Because nobody cares about learning anymore. People have become lazy. Much like the novel "1984", we have a higher power to think for us.
So, in an ironic twist, Jack Thompson has proven to be much more evil than any act in video games. He has displayed an amount of ignorance that is both unsettling and moronic. He makes no effort to learn anything, he does not wait for more info about Bully. He displays the true evil source which has plagued us for thousands of centuries. If this continues, it does not only mean the endangerment of games; it means the endangerment of the human race, and eventually, our extermination.
Rest in peace, Socrates. While hope seems bleak now, we must wait for a time where the people want to learn. We must wait for the next generation of modern philosophers.
(I originally posted this on Gfaqs, and have posted it here at Lord-Z's request)
