Non-Acknowledgment of Truth
Socrates said that if one were so skilled in repartee as to be quite invincible in argument, one could never be sympathetic to the poor.
The meaning of this statement is not immediately clear, for it is difficult to see the connection between skill in repartee and sympathy for the poor. But, on more careful analysis, we find that there is a deep-rooted relationship between the two. What it means is that only such a person can be sympathetic to the poor who knows how to acknowledge the truth, even when that truth pertains to the poor.
The following is an incident which very well illustrates the truth of this saying. A landowner sold his mango orchard to a gardener. When the trees began to bear fruit, they were buffeted by strong winds, which resulted in a heavy loss of fruit. Fearing that he would not get any return on his investment, because he would no doubt incur a loss on the sale of the fruits, the gardener took the fallen mangoes in a basket to the landlord and requested him to make some reduction in the price of the orchard in terms of the loss he anticipated.
At this the landlord became incensed, and asked him if he hadn’t known quite well beforehand that there was no high wall around the orchard to protect it from strong winds. The poor gardener, disheartened by these words, went quietly away.
A friend of the landlord, who was with him at the time, heard the entire conversation, and when the gardener had left, he said to the landlord, “How hard-hearted of you. You showed the poor man no mercy.” The landlord replied, “You educated people probably think that one man is responsible for another, but, in actual fact, it is God alone who is the provider of sustenance. He does provide it to all regardless of the circumstances.”
One hesitates to speak when confronted by the powerful. But in the presence of the weak there is no such feeling of constraint. What often happens is that one is so carried away by one’s own loquacity that one fails to give due consideration to the actual matter in hand. One is less likely then to admit the truth of the matter, or to do justice to it.
