take from the weaker and the better, more gifted rule and take from the less? Do stronger, better and more powerful mean the same thing? Is the Mass of men stronger than the individual? Do the majority believe that equality and not inequality is right? That it is baser to do wrong than to suffer wrong? Socrates uses the same line of reasoning while Callicles keeps changing his explanations of the meaning of better and stronger. How can a man be happy when everyone else rules him? The first philosophy is conventional thinking verses natural ways of life. Conventional thinking is the rule of the majority. Its limitation is that not everyone agrees with it and people do not like to be told what to do that goes against their beliefs. The natural way of life is survival of the fittest. The limitation to this is that men behave like animals and one can attack the other for any reason. This brings men down to the lower, less intelligent forms of life. The strong shall rule over the weak. The strong are defined as the wisest, most intelligent in political matters. The strong are also defined as the masses and the bravest. Having excess, luxury, and licence does not necessarily equate to happiness and virtue. What good are materialistic objects if a person does not have love? Being a person that has a temperate life and is satisfied with what he has is not good either. If a person is poor and starving, then how can one be satisfied with this? A good example of an application to a contemporary issue would be retaliatory attacks. This shows the attacker that the people being attack will retaliate even stronger and more powerful. This shows survival of the fittest. The people that can attack wiser, stronger, and win are the strongest, bravest, and fittest. ...
