History Repeats Itself

Fort Lauderdale, November 2006: America, the modern world’s first democracy since the original democ-racy in ancient Athens, has undergone a transformation into first a corporate cleptocracy and now into an as-piring world empire. The empire that ruled the world at the time of America’s birth in the Revolution was the British Empire. That empire was challenged in an act of defiance called the “Boston tea party” which histori-ans refer to as an example of “gesture politics.” It had the desired effect of outraging the king and coalescing the American colonist’s opposition to “taxation without representation” which led to the Revolution, the de-feat of the British Empire, and the birth of the American nation. The only thing more threatening than defi-ance to corrupted authority, is public defiance. In a new book, Socrates 2000, author John Anderson suggests the strategy of a new example of “gesture politics” to regain democratic governance and a return of the Bill of Rights for Americans and the world.

Socrates 2000 or The Marijuana Merry Op'ra begins by acknowledging the 1999 anniversary of the trial of Socrates (399BC) and an examination of the ironic historic parallels between the death of democracy in Athens by the aristocracy at that time, and its death in present day America by the corporate state under capi-talism.

It continues with a comparative examination of Socrates' belief in an oxymoronic “dual justice” system as described in Plato's The Republic with America's present day government's nullification of the Bill of Rights and the resulting lawless anarchistic state.
It goes on to an examination of the ancient Greek concepts of the “Agora” – (marketplace), the “Logos” – (language), “Sophia” – (wisdom), the “Polis” – (the city state, politics), the “Demos” – (people, democ-racy), “Gaia” – (the earth) and the “Psychs” (soul, mind, self-consciousness).

It proceeds to a Socratic Method evaluation of the American government's war on hemp and other en-theogens (God engendering within, naturally occurring, God created, drug containing plants). It then sug-gests a strategy to oppose the war that includes a description of the most important five minutes in human and planetary history.
And finally concludes with a complete “Op'ra” inspired by the Logos.