Socrates was a no good , useless member of society. He went around being a “gadfly” (which he defines himself with ,almost as if he were proud) and basically in todays standard would be no more than a homeless person who mutters crazy ideas. He almost prides himself on his “lack of wisdom” and somehow gets off on constantly asking questions, because I think he knows that he no one will EVER be able to answer them all. With this knowledge he continues to pry until he is either shooed away or the person gives up in disgust , thus giving him reason to believe he has “won” in a matter of speaking. He reached an age few do in those days and to be quite honest I think he started to lose it. Plato had looked up to him for so many years prior to Socrates trial that he played spin doctor and told stories to make the old man look good.
In short, Socrates took the easy painless way out by taking the poison, because he was smart enough to know old age was going to be a painful way to go. The body would just decay and gradually fall apart. Don’t even get me started on how he abandoned his wife and children to only be out on the town drinking and eating with wealthy, filling theirs heads (and ears) with his persistent ponderings only for his family to barely get by. He had no sense of responsibility and death by poison was too good for him! Bibliography:
