Twitter and the Ring of Gyges

Reflecting on Twitter, I wonder if anybody should hold that much power, in a collective think tank, where mob mentality has such a sway over any human being. Trump certainly, but even the most civilized of people. Think about it with me for a moment, Twitter is the inverse of the Ring Of Gyges allegory in Plato’s Republic. Here’s this man named Gyges, he’s tilling the ground and then sees a crater in the ground, where a bronze statue is laying within, and one of its fingers is a ring. Gyges puts it on and it turns him invisible. What does he do with such power? He does what he damn well pleases, he kills the king and takes the queen. But the question isn’t what do people do, it’s what OUGHT people do. Well, the difference with Twitter is that people aren’t invisible, but in a sense, they lose their identity collectively, they lose self-identity too easily and get swept up in a wave of social dynamics as a result. It can be used for good, but it’s too damn easy to submit to the id and display vice.