The Death of the Socratic Method

It's gone, at least where I live

The capacity of human beings to learn things

By passionately debating about what they mean

Plagues can change a culture in this way

The filthy tide of catastrophe washes in

When it recedes, after the rejoicing

We realize that we must live with what remains

How soaked with fresh significance

Is the word "mask," let alone the concept, or the object

As compared to its former, banal invisibility?

Plagues can change a culture in this way

Formerly, when I got very excited and peppered my pupils with questions about plot and theme, they were amused, and a few had interesting answers

Of late, most are offended that I have the temerity to request that they read anything, let alone subject it to interrogation. The very idea that I would question them, "in front of everyone," about things that can be looked up on a phone in seconds, is simply outrageous. Who do I think I am? Where are the slides? Why isn't everything smooth and convenient and easily understood by anyone paying the slightest attention?

It's demoralizing

The person who operated the elevator had two options:

Find another way to thrive, or perish

Automation has always had its casualties

We are being coaxed into liking it, of late

Which seems utterly irrational

"This will cause terrible pain and suffering for millions who have scratched and scrambled their way into ways of working and living that are bearable. They will be rendered redundant by our brave new thing. Of course, we empathize, and may have some use for you in time, but please collect your things and go. You will embrace it, our fascinating innovation, with enthusiasm nonetheless. What, are you afraid of new technology? Luddite. Paradise awaits, but first: hell, then purgatory."

No is a fine answer to all of this

Especially when much of it is being financed by the money

You give the government to leave you alone, and help when it can

Evidently, this technology will make it much easier for the government to bother people more often, and it might generate bullshit on the fly with some style, but is that all we are looking for?

I think most of my pupils would prefer a friendly, corporate hologram to my antics

The thing is, they used to enjoy the process, more or less

Now, they're just angry and confused

They expected smiling customer service

What they got was an annoying conversation about how manner and matter combine to make meanings, and they are worth analyzing and interpreting for several reasons

If you can interpret a story in a plausible, intriguing, even unorthodox way, and make a persuasive case for that interpretation, you're golden, at least by current standards

The truth of your premises and the validity of your argument should factor in, but today, if you've got a moving story, we'll feel now and check the facts later, thank you

If you haven't read it, you can't interpret it

Is anything more obvious?

What you are accustomed to, in this new, cultural modality, this naive and grandiose, post-plague way of being

Is slides, made more interesting or amusing by jokes or autobiographical digressions

You cannot be taught by dialogical means

You are always paying attention to the internet

Offline is inferior to online, in your estimation

The answers come easily, online

You do not have to think at all

Let alone remember

You want someone to use technology efficiently

To make it easy for you to get an excellent grade

Without taking up too much time, or demanding too much effort

After all, I'm paying for this

Or my parent or guardian or enigmatic, benevolent patron

Is paying for it; same difference

Give me the information I want

Do not try to lead me to think the matter through myself

And arrive at a conclusion through the feeling of what happens when I understand how a world and the characters in it were made, and why, and how that small world both mimics, and has the capacity to alter, our own

That's weird, or boring

Probably both

Just get on with it, I guess

Don't ask me anything

I'll just be on my phone, or whatever

That's the wailing at the funeral of what I loved doing

You see, I think it's possible to take Socrates as a model, which means that I think people can come to know and understand things that they did not know they knew, or thought they did not understand, before.

Through dialogue.

I think Socratic irony is real, but not quite as ubiquitous as some allege. That is, I think there are some instances in which he feigns ignorance while knowing where the dialogue ought to go and how to get it there. I think it is possible to watch his understanding of the matter develop through the dialogical process as well, however

That's when it really hums. When everyone has done enough of the reading to understand what the rest of us are talking about, and understands that arguing for various interpretations of it can be great fun and extremely enlightening

I can see this clearly in a clean, rearview mirror

It was not that long ago

I'm already obsolete

Following the elevator operator

Across the street, to ask that gentleman

For his copy of the want ads

How I enjoyed elevating human beings

I suppose they love and trust the machine alone, now

It will get them where they need to go

Why does a person have to be involved?

Other than the customer, of course

The customer is holy

Until the transaction is closed

They are only of interest after that

If they become customers again

If this is our new way of doing things

Human beings will not be human in quite the same way

Critical thinking has become a cliche

Using reason to try to better understand ourselves and the world

Through animated dialogue with other humans

With a keenly honed ability to compare different ways of being and select for optimal conditions for freely becoming yourself

Is our only, possible lifejacket

In the ocean of nonsense that is life, now

If the way of teaching favored by a character in some ancient conversations I read about with childish delight

Is dead

So am I

Never to ask again, "going up?"