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convict these women and sentence them to exile from humanity is one over which they themselves possess no authority, a quality thrust upon them willy-nilly at birth. This is the antithesis of freedom, is it not? It is the use one makes of a slave. We treat even our dogs and horses better, granting to them their subtleties and contradictions of character and esteeming or contemning them thereby.”
    Socrates drew up and inquired of the company if any found fault with his meditation thus far. He was endorsed by all and exhorted to continue.
    “And yet we who consider ourselves free men often act in this manner not only toward others but toward ourselves as well. We accountand define our persons by qualities gifted to or deprived us at birth, to the exclusion of those earned or acquired thereafter, brought into being by enterprise and will. This to my mind is an evil greater than degradation. It is self-degradation.”
    He glanced subtly toward Alcibiades. Our master of revels clearly discerned this look and returned it, amused and intrigued, and not without irony.
    Socrates resumed. “Pondering this state of self-slavery, I began to puzzle: what precisely are the qualities which make men free?”
    “Our will, as you said,” put in Acumenus the physician.
    “And the force to exercise it,” added Mantitheus.
    “My thoughts precisely, gentlemen. You are running along with me, and even outpacing my poor ruminations. But what is free will? We must agree that nothing that does not possess free will may be called free. And that which is unfree is degraded; that is, diminished to a state lesser than that intended by the gods.”
    “I think I see where this is going,” Alcibiades put in with a smile. “I feel chastisement coming, gentlemen, of myself and us all.”
    “Shall I break off?” Socrates inquired. “Perhaps our master of revels is fatigued, worn out from heroism and the adulation of his peers.”
    The company urged their comrade to recommence.
    “I was observing the young soldiers of the camp. Conformity to the norm is their overmastering impetus, is it not? Each unprompted wears his curls like every other, drapes his hem to the same length, and strides about and even postures in the identical attitude. Inclusion in the hierarchy is all; exclusion the paramount fear.”
    “This doesn’t sound much like freedom,” volunteered Acumenus.
    “It sounds like democracy,” put in Euryptolemus with a laugh.
    “Would you agree, gentlemen, that these youths, tyrannized by the good opinion of their peers, do not possess freedom?”
    All concurred.
    “In fact they are slaves, are they not? They act not by the dictates of their own hearts, but to please others. There are two words for this. Demagoguery. And fashion.”
    The company responded with whistles and cheers. “To whose dictates you, Socrates, are mercifully immune,” declared Alcibiades.
    “No doubt with my poor cloak and sword–barbered beard I amperceived throughout the camp as a figure of fun. Yet I maintain that, unfettered by the constraints of the mode, I am the most free of men.”
    Socrates expanded his metaphor to include the Assembly at Athens. “Does there exist beneath heaven a spectacle more debased than that of a demagogue orating before the masses? Each syllable screeches of shamelessness, and why? Because we discern, hearing this vile wretch pimp himself to the multitude, that his speech springs not from the true conviction of his soul, but is crafted cunningly to truckle to the whim of the mob. He seeks his own advancement by their favor and will say anything, however wicked or infamous, to promote his stature in their eyes. In other words the politician is the supreme slave.”
    Alcibiades was thoroughly enjoying this give-and-get. “In other words you would declare of me, my friend, that by pursuing politics I act the pimp and panderer, seeking to advance my station among my peers, and that by so doing, I neglect my nobler self in favor