Building upon many years of privately shared thoughts on the real benefits of Stoic Philosophy, Liam Milburn eventually published a selection of Stoic passages that had helped him to live well. They were accompanied by some of his own personal reflections. This blog hopes to continue his mission of encouraging the wisdom of Stoicism in the exercise of everyday life. All the reflections are taken from his notes, from late 1992 to early 2017.
Reflections
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Primary Sources
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Sunday, December 23, 2018
The Ballad of Accounting
Life is all about buying and selling, they tell me, and so I naturally ask what currency we are trading. Is it convenience and privilege, or should it be merit and character? Young men may be drawn to songs full of passion, about changing the world, committed to high values and noble ideals. We are apparently supposed to grow out of this, to become what they call realists, to stop with all the principles and get down to business. The problem with me, I suspect, is that this never happened. Ewan MacColl's "Ballad of Accounting" doesn't just mean as much to me as when i was eighteen, it now means even more. The 1964 version with Peggy Seeger is the best known, though I have a weakness for the 2007 cover by my old favorites, Battlefield Band.
In the morning we built the city In the afternoon walked through its streets Evening saw us leaving
We wandered through our days as if they would never end All of us imagined we had endless time to spend We hardly saw the crossroads and small attention gave To landmarks on the journey from the cradle to the grave, Cradle to the grave, cradle to the grave
Did you learn to dream in the morning? Abandon dreams in the afternoon? Wait without hope in the evening?
Did you stand there in the traces and let 'em feed you lies? Did you trail along behind them wearing blinkers on your eyes? Did you kiss the foot that kicked you, did you thank them for Their scorn? Did you ask for their forgiveness for the act of being born, Act of being born, act of being born?
Did you alter the face of the city? Make any change in the world you found? Or did you observe all the warnings?
Did you read the trespass notices, did you keep off the grass? Did you shuffle up the pavements just to let your betters pass? Did you learn to keep your mouth shut, were you seen but never heard? Did you learn to be obedient and jump to at a word, Jump to at a word, jump to at a word?
Did you demand any answers? The who and the what and the reason why? Did you ever question the setup?
Did you stand aside and let 'em choose while you took second best? Did you let 'em skim the cream off and give to you the rest? Did you settle for the shoddy and did you think it right To let 'em rob you right and left and never make a fight, Never make a fight, never make a fight?
What did you learn in the morning? How much did you know in the afternoon? Were you content in the evening?
Did they teach you how to question when you were at the school? Did the factory help you, were you the maker or the tool? Did the place where you were living enrich your life and then Did you reach some understanding of all your fellow men, All your fellow men, all your fellow men?
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