Socrates in C0DA: A Brief and somewhat Meta Report

So after writing about women, I wanted to pick another lens to see the lore through, and after all this excitement this week, I have had a lot of great insights and discussions that made me think Socrates was a good and relevant choice.

It was all the Hist-talk we have been having. That line that is getting thrown around lately from C0DA, "DO NOT LET THE SOPHISTS FOOL YOU".

Sophist, a person who believes answers should be made available to those with the means to pay for them. To be sophisticated is to have the means to obtain knowledge and therefore power.

Socrates was not a fan of Sophists. Sophists deal in answers, and in a comment thread with /u/MareloRyan, the Hist deal mostly in answers too.

Socrates was a questions man. His Dialogues are just him asking question after question. He felt that the greatest insight could be obtained from simply asking questions without obsessing over the answers. He delighted in how one question would spawn even more questions, because the answers to them would spawn even more questions.

And that is how we become wise.

Socrates was also a proud and lawful man, and even though his society condemned him to death injustly, although his friends bribed the guards so he could escape, he drank the poison hemlock, because he believed in the social contract that he entered freely. So even though it meant death, and he knew it was all so unfair, he followed the rules, because that is how civilization works.

Are Sophists a universal character? Is there always going to be an elitist or credentialist aspect of civilisation? Do the Hist actually appear in all dreams?

Would the Hist then appear as separate entities in different dreams, or could they physically transport themselves to infect another dream?

Is Sophism one of those elemental qualities that take the form of Hist, the way that the Darkness became Nocturnal or Creation was embodied in Mara?

I have occasionally seen a comment of post here and there that alludes that some people like to consider videogames an art form, and appreciate the lore as a form of literature.

It's not only on the artists and creators to do this, it's also for the appreciators of the craft to raise themselves to the level of art interpreters and curators. It's a community and an industry. If the gaming community acts like a bunch of kids not to be taken seriously, then games will never be taken seriously. It's as simple as that.

In true Socratic tradition I will close with a Question:

If Sophism is the quality embodied by the Hist, and if this is a universal quality in worlds with sentient life, can they peacefully coexist? Or is the Dream always doomed?