Related Directory Categories
- Social Sciences (23258)
- Sciences humaines et sociales (5424)
- Linguistics (5215)
- Archaeology (5178)
- Languages (3895)
- Psychology (3590)
- Natural (3397)
- Social Studies (3029)
- Economics (2523)
- Philosophie (2001)
Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Gadfly (social)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Gadfly" is a term for people who upset the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or attempt to stimulate innovation by proving an irritant.
The term "gadfly" was used by Plato to describe Socrates' relationship of uncomfortable goad to the Athenian political scene, which he compared to a slow and dimwitted horse. The Christian bible also references the gadfly in terms of political influence. Specifically, the book of Jeremiah, chapter 46 verse 20. The term has been used to describe many politicians and social commentators.
During his defense when on trial for his life, Socrates, according to Plato's writings, pointed out that dissent, like the tiny (relative to the size of a horse) gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high. "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me," because his role was that of a gadfly, "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth."
It is important to note that in modern politics, gadfly is a demeaning term that is used to refer to folks who constantly complain about the political system just to hear themselves complain.
In local politics it is commonly used to describe the people who believe that they have to talk about every issue on an agenda. It is often used to describe those folks who constantly support the losing candidate.