"But although this kind of censorship may be absurd and sinister, it is ironically fitting that Plato, of all philosophers, should be targeted by a regime worried about the effect of subversive ideas on tender minds. Almost 2,500 years ago, Plato’s teacher, Socrates, was sentenced to death by the city of Athens for exactly the same reason. “What do they say? Something of this sort: That Socrates is a doer of evil, and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state.” That is how the charges against him are described in the Apology, one of Plato’s early works, which reports or imagines the speech Socrates delivered in his defense at his trial. He warns his fellow citizens about “the evil name which you will get from the detractors of the city, who will say that you killed Socrates, a wise man.” The fate of Socrates convinced Plato that the conflict between philosophy and society was inevitable—especially in a democracy, where public opinion is sacred. In the parable of the cave, in the Republic, Plato compares human beings to cave dwellers who never see the sun, but perceive everything by shadowy firelight. Only the philosopher is able to escape the cave and see the way things really are. But when he returns to share what he’s discovered, and tries to get the others to leave the cave too, they laugh at him, or worse: “If they were somehow able to get their hands on and kill the man who attempts to release and lead up, wouldn’t they kill him?” Socrates asks. “No doubt about it,” replies his conversation partner, Glaucon (who in real life was Plato’s older brother). The Enlightenment began to challenge this pessimistic view in the 18th century. Jefferson was naturally hostile to Plato’s elitism: If all men are created equal, as the Declaration of Independence said, then everyone should be able to understand the truth, once the weight of authority and tradition is lifted from their shoulders."