The Most Annoying Person In History?

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There are any number of people who are annoying. But in all of history, we learn that the all-time champion of being annoying was none other than the greatest philosophical mind ever known. That’s right… Socrates is hands down the winner of being the most annoying person to ever live.

Why?

In Socratic Debate, he would begin his discourses with what has become known as the “What Is Question.” For example, “What is beauty?” Or “what is Justice?” After one of his listeners would give an answer, Socrates would issue his elenchus, or “refutation.” In this refutation, he would detail his explanation of why the answer just given was completely and totally wrong.

That would get old after a bit. And it no doubt contributed more than a small measure to the cup that would finally kill him.

Still, it is Socrates who provides the greatest influence on Plato, who in turn provides influence to the great republican philosophers of the Enlightenment by defining what exactly a republic is. Or at least what it should be. Or at least, what it could be.

At least until the arrival of Montesquieu who then rearranged the whole thing. Then in turn, he was upended by the convention of 1787, leaving it so that – despite Ben Franklin – nobody knew anymore what a republic actual was.

One thing was certain according to Brutus and his elenchus: what was in the proposed Constitution is most definitely NOT a republic.

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Hamilton’s Folly

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Two days after the Committee of the Whole accepts the 3/5th’s Compromise and adds another four resolutions to the Virginian’s Plan, it is now clear that the Virginian’s mean to abolish the Articles of Confederation and establish a new government based on the principles of Liberty and freedom. This presents a difficult moral challenge to them as a group and represents the apex of their ideas presented at the Convention.

New Jersey steps up with an alternate plan, which, like the Virginia Plan promises to fix and improve the Articles of Confederation, but unlike the Virginia Plan, actually does. Now comes the moment that the two plans are laid before the Convention, debated and it is decided to pursue one and abandon the other. But which plan will go forward?

As the Convention prepares to call for the vote, one man, New Yorker, Alexander Hamilton, stands to have his say. He will speak for the entire day, and he will come to rue this day…

 

NOTE: At one point Dave refers to Hamilton being on the $20 Bill. Obviously, he meant the $10 Bill…

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