“What am I to say of power and of the
honors of office, which you raise to heaven because you know not true honored
power? What fires belched forth from Ætna's flames, what overwhelming flood
could deal such ruin as these when they fall into the hands of evil men?
“I am sure you remember how your
forefathers wished to do away with the consular power, which had been the very
foundation of liberty, because of the overbearing pride of the consuls, just as
your ancestors had too in earlier times expunged from the state the name of
king on account of the same pride.
“But if, as rarely happens, places of
honor are granted to honest men, what else is delightful in them but the
honesty they practice thereby? Wherefore honor comes not to virtue from holding
office, but comes to office from virtues there practiced.
“But what is the power that you seek
and esteem so highly? O creatures of the earth, can you not think over whom you
are set? If you saw in a community of mice, one mouse asserting his rights and
his power over the others, with what mirth you would greet the sight! Yet if
you consider the body, what can you find weaker than humanity?
“Cannot a tiny gnat by its bite, or by
creeping into the inmost parts, kill that body?” . . .
—from
Book 2, Prose 6
Here is
the root of so much of our self-imposed misery. We confuse position and merit,
assuming that the latter is made better by the former, when, in fact, the
former is made better by the latter.
Power in
the world can so easily go either way. It is all about how we employ the means
to an end. Give a man influence over others, through money, reputation, or
office, and you do indeed give him a chance to do great things. You also give
him an equal chance to do terrible things. Who may have power has nothing to do
with what is right and wrong, but how it is employed is the deciding factor.
Shall we
abolish kingship, because kings may be tyrants? Shall we remove the senate, or
the consuls, because these men may become oligarchs? Shall we abolish
democracy, because the people may become an unruly mob, who abuse their right
to rule?
I recall
that good people will do what is good, and that bad people will do what is bad,
regardless of the positions they hold. I am no longer impressed only by their
titles, or their bank accounts, or their many trophies. You have so many pieces
of paper to your name, but none of it convinces me that you are worthy of
respect. Only the worthiness of your actions can prove that.
Show me
a King of the Mice, and I may laugh at the silliness of the very idea. Now show
me a King of Men, and I should do exactly the same. True power and true honor proceed
for the virtue of what is done, not from the recognition of what is admired.
Some
people tell me that my view is all about sour grapes, since I couldn’t make
something of myself. Define making something of myself. I shamefully admit that
I am grateful to have snarky answers for that, whenever overachievers try to
tell me how great they are.
“Wait,
you were only magna cum laude? I was summa cum laude.” “Really, you weren’t
inducted into Phi Beta Kappa? What a shame!” “I’m sorry, you mean you didn’t
write a dissertation on the subject?” All of that is irony, of course, but the
irony is lost on the real losers.
The fact
is that I have learned to see all those things as completely useless in
themselves, even as others would so like to define their lives by them. Few
things will frustrate the grasping man as much as another man who has outdone
him, and most especially another man who no longer values those false standards
at all. King of the Mice, indeed!
None of
what I did when I was younger was ever really to my credit, but proceeded from
playing a certain game. When I no longer agreed with the game, I discovered my
own rules. Our measures of success make all the difference. Who is truly the
better man?
How weak
and feeble the whole setup is, and how deeply destructive an illusion it turns
out to be. A few tiny bugs can easily destroy my body, just as a few little termites
can bring down my house, or a few well-placed words can destroy my fortune.
The
trick is to not care for my body, or my house, or my fortune. I should stick to
what is reliable, and to what is actually my own.
Written in 9/2015
No comments:
Post a Comment