Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.49

Consider the past, such great changes of political supremacies.

You may foresee also the things that will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of the things which take place now.

Accordingly, to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years. For what more will you see?

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

I was always rather dim when it came to politics, not because I couldn’t think for myself, but because I was foolishly too submissive to others who spoke with style and confidence. I recall a “Young Republican”, complete with the patriotic tie clip, trying to convince me that I could be the cock of the walk. I also recall a “Voice for Change” girl, complete with the nose piercing, trying to convince me that I could end the arms race and world hunger just by signing a petition.

Perhaps age has slowed me down, but perhaps also a touch of wisdom, just a little bit, has set me right. The world will never be fixed by the politicians, not of any sort. This has been true since the beginning, and it will always be true.

It will not be made better by the grandstanding of ideology, or by yelling, or by attacking the other side. What is helpful won’t come from the top down, from force and intimidation, but only from the bottom up, from the free choice of individual efforts.

The world will only be improved by love. As hokey as it sounds, I believe it to be true. I care little for your party, or for your agenda, or for your platform. I care only for my neighbor, whether he lives next door, or is a million miles away. I do not care about his race, or his creed, or his color, or his beliefs. Every man or woman is my brother or sister. It’s as simple as that.

Don’t tell me how to live, if you can’t love your neighbor. Your neighbors are not the people you happen to like, or who seem to agree with you, or who travel in your narrow social circles. Love has no bounds.

Yet you tell me that I am unacceptable, because we may disagree about some of the specifics of what is right or wrong. Instead of showing understanding and respect, you offer dismissal and condemnation. You exclude me, whatever side you happen to be on, and you spit your venom. Passion triumphs over reason.

All of us were made to be together, and not apart. Can’t you see that? How does the mockery, and how do the insults, make us any better?

Yes, others do wrong. Let’s not do wrong in return. Others hate. Let’s not hate in return. Others deceive. Let’s not deceive in return. Others play the game. Let’s not play it.

Marcus Aurelius, himself a man of great power, understood that the way of human politics has always been the same, and will surely always remain the same. This is because human nature is what it always was, and always will be. Man is capable of both baseness and greatness. Man always becomes better through his own personal conscience and character, and never by the strength of arms or the banner he waves.

If we judge by the ways of those who seek might, we will inevitably lose. If we judge by the ways of those who seek understanding, we may still have something to gain, but by one life at a time. There is nothing new under the sun. 

Written in 7/2002