ARISTOTLE: Socrates, Socrates, wake up!
SOCRATES: Wha-at...?
ARISTOTLE: That was only a sleeping solution.
SOCRATES: Huh? My word; they had me convinced that it was hemlock.
ARISTOTLE: We've got to get to work. Greece is in a crisis!
SOCRATES: What do you mean?
ARISTOTLE: This democracy thing; it's going to affect us in the 21st century -- A.D. or something.
SOCRATES: I know I taught you well; but, how can you be that prescient?
ARISTOTLE: Don't worry about it; the vision is very clear to me.
SOCRATES: But, I thought you were busy with that Alexander boy. After his father's death, his mother came screaming for you to take over his education.
ARISTOTLE: Yes, yes – he's such a smartass, he doesn't require that much instruction. Besides, the mutual attraction between him and that Hephastion boy is distracting to all involved.
SOCRATES: What is this about your visions that has gotten you all excited?
ARISTOTLE: Greece is a part of some latter-day states they call Europe. They formed a collective of some sort, and Greece has turned out to be their whipping boy.
SOCRATES: Not Greece! We are the very essence of culture, and we invented the idea of rule by the people. What is the problem?
ARISTOTLE: A Greek majority has just voted to reject the recommendations of that so-called union of Europeans.
SOCRATES: Will that association come down upon our Greek heads?
ARISTOTLE: I don't know; it just happened – stay tuned...
By the way, in a part of the world unknown to us, a nation of historic proportions has just created a society that would be of great interest to my students Alexander and Hephastion.
