Great persons always take risks. In fact, no one can be great without taking risks. And the greatest risks that great persons take is to go against the grain of society–of conventions–of constraining forces that bind us to the static and traditional–that makes of us puppets of society. Socrates did take that risk. He put all Athens to trial and put all Sophists (official teachers of Athens) to shame. He showed to the wise men their folly; the experts their foolishness; the rich their poverty; the great their smallness. Because he went against social convention—society charged him with scandal, atheism, subversion and sentenced him to death. Today nobody ever remembers the sophists who put Socrates to death but everybody remembers Socrates. He is a great man. Jesus was a simple son of a carpenter who was courageous enough to question the temple who pays tribute to Rome. He dared social convention in search of a higher truth. Society put him to death. He is a great man. Great persons are risk takers–they dare to be post conventional to show the world a higher truth and a new form of being. We owe our humanity to them.
