Men disagree through ignorance. Hence, the ideal of 'real' community, being based on full knowledge of all truth, would be free of internal dissension and perfectly stable, having taken on the characteristics of truth. The hegemony of reason will produce the only enduring social unity and harmony, the only 'real' law and order. Appeal to authorities other than reason produces only a temporary and therefore illusory simulacrum of social order and harmony. Socrates was tried and condemned to death for introducing strange gods and corrupting the youth.
Reason is a strange god and corrupts provincial ignorance and complacency.
Nearly every day Socrates could be found in the busy public square of ancient Athens, where all day long he buttonholed the rich politicians, poets, generals, businessmen, actors, philosophers, and all the intellectuals and 'beautiful people,' all the shrewd old men of power and the clever young men of ambition of his time, and asked them searching questions about what they were doing, what they wanted, what they believed and why they were doing, wanting, believing it. Intellectual independence does not necessitate the repudiation of all tradition. Ample and venerable precedent exists for inaugurating a new enterprise with ten commandments. Do not feel certain of anything. Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence will surely come to light.