So why does philosophy and the Sophists matter anyway? Who cares if they wandered the streets of Ancient Greece adjusting their bedsheet togas and pontificating on life. And what does this have to do Wisdom, Gaia, and ascension?
Well I came across a succinct explanation of Sophists in modern era over at Philosophical Journey that perfectly sums it up for me.
"One of the realities of Athenian life that Socrates lamented the most was the prominence of the sophists. These sophists prided themselves on being able to 'make the weaker argument the stronger.'
Relying on persuasion and rhetoric, sophists would argue in support of which ever side of a case they believed would serve their best interests, or whichever side they were being paid to argue for.
Socrates decried the sophists because they did not recognize a difference between truth and opinion, believing that everything was relative."
The rest of the page connects the dots between Sophists and advertisers, politicians, and lawyers. Definitely worth the read if you are making these connections the first time around. For me personally, the cracks of the world started to show when I began looking closely at advertising history. I may post a more complete Intro with books on that at a later time.
For this tidbit of an idea, the connection I'm making is about the word itself. And the clear need for discernment because not everything labeled as Wisdom, not everything named Soph, is what it pretends to be. The result of discourse and rhetoric isn't just sales, it's about nothing less than creating reality or rather, creating realities. From a multidimensional perspective the skill/wisdom/ability of persuasion is the aggregation of consciousness.
As you aggregate consciousness you shore up power. But usually the easiest way to access and apply that power is to create an object of focus (an idea) which once it becomes adopted as "true" begins to fall like a seed into the collective consciousness where it may grow and even bear fruit in the future.
Many people are using the terms predictive programming, priming, or imprinting, to this phenomenon.
So ideas are very much directing consciousness and thus creation. And the Sophists were technically able to plant these seeds of creation into the public mind. (This is when Edward Bernays' PR dream was just a twinkle of a twinkle in Walter Lippmann's eye.)
Anyway time to sign off for now
With love,
Maria