In Response to Mr. Davidson's "America"

Socrates would be one among many who would not have "enough faith in people to act virtuously by themselves." This belief might actually point to why humans first formed societies out of a state of nature. For it's possible that Thomas Hobbes was right when he said something like this: the state of nature is a state of war with all against all. Thus it is a disputable claim to say that savages (that is, uncivilized people) could produce more justice in their own "Savage [according to Hobbes, inevitably war-torn] Society" than we 21st century folk have produced in our nearly global society.

With regards to whether Socrates believes "this system [do you mean the American political system or the Athenian?] causes people to focus their souls on lesser things than virtue,": Socrates maintains that Athenian democracy (if not American democracy) produces wealth and decadent lifestyles and thus people who are pleasure-seekers over virtue-seekers. The Sophists (educated men; rhetoricians, orators) appealed greatly to the pleasure-seekers and claimed to be ones themselves because they believed that it produces happiness or, as Plato really means it, eudaimonia, which essentially means a "good life". Socrates did not think much of Pericles, who he believed to have procured the Athenians wealth and luxury. Yet it seems to me that if he thinks these things about his own society and ours is also a form of democracy, then he might think the same things about ours. If, of course, as Mr. Davidson said, "he were able to," and he simply researched global consumption and credit card debt statistics, it is possible that he might make that conclusion without even needing to know that we are in fact a democratic society.

The Henry Ward Beecher quote is certainly poetic, but what does he mean by "long breath" in relation to every aspect that is important to the modern world when determining the policies and structure of a state? Knowing what would be necessary in order to know what he thinks the bounds of one's liberty ought to be in the modern world. For I assume that Mr. Davidson takes the quote to be relevant to the modern world, which is why he thinks that it "sums it up nicely."