Who is the Modern Gadfly?

               Socrates was a social gadfly. He was always questioning the ethics, ideas, and beliefs of people in order to make them think about their lives and eventually question their own ideals. He was stirring up the state (in Athens) and making people question not only themselves, but also the society they live in. Was this an annoyance to some? Yes, but his ideas and methods have been prevalent and used throughout history.

                Today, there is not one singular person who I think stands out as a modern day Socrates. With the technology, and global connection that exists today, there are gadflies all over the world. However, two groups that are often brought up and criticized are politicians and large Internet bloggers. Politicians always have opinions. Whether it is questioning the public or other politicians, they are always trying to incite deep thinking and change people’s views to their advantage. They are on every social media site available advocating their thoughts. In the same way, one can seldom turn the TV to a news channel and not catch a discussion between politicians and business professionals. They are a permanent part of a country’s life and they will always be around to state their own views and attempt to make a mockery of each other.  

                The Internet community also acts as a modern gadfly. For every issue you can find hundreds of blogs, chat rooms, and posts; people are always questioning and getting under each other’s skin. The lack of face-to-face contact and advantage of anonymous commenting lets people say almost anything they want to, and for the most part they do. This makes online conversations especially opinionated, and aggressive. People will say things they would never even think about saying in public. They can even talk about issues for days on end. This is almost more annoying that Socrates himself as there are arguments happening all over the world.