Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.1

What is badness? It is that which you have often seen.

And on the occasion of everything that happens, keep this in mind, that it is that which you have often seen.

Everywhere, up and down, you will find the same things, with which the old histories are filled, those of the middle ages and those of our own day, with which cities and houses are filled now. There is nothing new. All things are both familiar and short-lived.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7 (tr Long)

When I was a teenager, the liberals told me that Reagan was the worst thing that had ever happened to America. We’ve never seen this level of greed, corruption, and hate before. It came no worse than this, they said.

A while later, the conservatives told me that Clinton was the worst thing that had ever happened to America. We’ve never seen this level of sleaze, lies, and depravity before. It came no worse than this, they said.

But here’s the thing. Decent people will always be decent people. Scoundrels will always be scoundrels. Whether they choose to be elephants or donkeys makes no difference at all.

For all of our love of progress, the human condition has never really changed, and has never gotten any better or worse, because our nature never really changes, as long as we are still human. It isn’t about sweeping ideals, or about placing people into convenient groups. It’s about individual judgments and choices. At each and every moment in history, there are no inevitable social forces. There are only people, one by one, who decide what is right and what is wrong.

Don’t tell me that the habits of our days are the most terrible, or the most wonderful. I know my history. Don’t tell me that everything is so much worse, or so much better, than it used to be. I know my history.

There has been great virtue, and there has been great vice. It has been that way for many thousands of years, and it is exactly the same way now. Providence and Nature have not failed us. Providence and Nature, I suspect, have something deeper in mind. They are asking each of us, one at a time, to live well, to learn about what is true and false, to discover our own place within the order of all things.

This happens not by conforming to what is popular, or surrendering to the fashions of the age. It happens by a single choice, one that I must make, and one that we all must make. No one can make it for us.

It is all so different, but it all so much the same. The wheel turns. I should worry less about all of the politics, or about all the posturing in tribalism. I need to take an account of myself.

Written in 8/2007