The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living/Modern Gadfly

      I agree with the statement that the unexamined life is not worth living. Of course, one could live an unexamined life if he or she chose to, but I see no reason as to why anyone would chose such a lifestyle. People who never stop to examine what they are doing in life or why they are doing it don't learn from past mistakes they have made and generally don't improve their lives in any way. People typically want to be the best they can be in life, and in my opinion, if you don't examine your life, you can't be your best. Everyone needs to take time to figure themselves out. They need to discover what they want to do with their lives and how they are going to achieve their goals. This is a process best done at a young age, because eventually one may realize what they want out of life when it's too late. If you don't know what you want until it's too late to achieve, what was the point in living in the first place? A person who never examines their life will most likely end up being unhappy at some point and it may be too late to change the circumstances.
      I personally don't think that anyone nowadays can be compared to Socrates. Today the term "gadfly" is used in a negative sense, most commonly describe obnoxious politicians who ask too many questions and annoy others, but using that term to describe Socrates has a somewhat different meaning. He asked a lot of questions to try to discover the truth and enlighten others. People don't do that very often now. They do it to intentionally be annoying most of the time and I don't think it's appropriate to compare any of those people to Socrates.