About
fame: Look at the minds of those who seek fame, observe what they are, and what
kind of things they avoid, and what kind of things they pursue.
And
consider that as the heaps of sand piled on one another hide the former sands,
so in life the events that go before are soon covered by those that come after.
—Marcus
Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7 (tr
Long)
Those who run after fame aren’t only
those who crave great celebrity and stardom. Whatever the degree of our goals
may be, we have succumbed to the power of fame whenever we define ourselves by
what others may think, by whatever happens to be fashionable, or by the comfort
of conformity. We do this by putting reputation ahead of character.
Notice how tempting this can be for
all of us. I know that I am starting to get pulled in when I observe certain
signs in myself. I begin to change both what I am doing, and the reasons why I
am doing it. I become interested in how things appear, and not how they are. My
actions begin to proceed from images that will be admired, and my motives begin
to be ordered toward attention and recognition.
The question, then, is no longer
whether something is right, but
whether it will be perceived as being
right by others. It makes a big difference. Thoughts and deeds are then no
longer desired for their own sake. They are desired for the sake of something
else. Virtue, therefore, ceases to be an absolute measure for a man, and
instead becomes something relative, that is measured by completely accidental
circumstances.
If I am motivated by moral character
above all else, I will strive to act with justice in each and every case. If I
am motivated by fame, I will act “fairly” only when it is convenient for me in
other ways. It isn’t justice at all anymore, of course, because the right
intention is not present.
Action suddenly isn’t for the sake
of right action, since my motives have been completely redirected. I am hoping
for something else, to have a good name, to be respected, or loved, or perhaps
even feared.
Yet all of those conditions are, as
St. Thomas Aquinas might say, like straw. They have nothing to do with me at
all, and as much as I may think that my fame will live on and on, it is the
most precarious and fleeting of things. Water will wash new sand over the old.
The winds will constantly raise up different dunes. What once was is now
covered over, and what now is will soon be erased.
Written in 11/2007
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