Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.16

No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.16 (tr Long)

Talking, like any human activity, will only be as good as the end toward which it is ordered. Sometimes, a good conversation will help to reveal the truth, and will stir us to action. Sometimes, word are just words, and will only stroke our vanity. The value of what I say will be revealed in why I chose to say it, whether out of service or out of self-service.

For many years, academia was the world I was most familiar with, and I wondered if there was any end at all to the constant babbling. But I slowly began to see that it was not so different in business, law, politics, the media, or public service. The problem wasn’t that people had things to say, but rather that this was all that they had. It was about how they looked, and not what they actually did, how well they spoke, not how well they lived.

Of course, if all I can do is complain about how little people will manage to get done, then I am hardly getting much done myself, am I? I have gone to so many conferences, and listened to so many speeches, and read so many policy statements that I feel like my head could explode. Well, that stress is of my own making, and no one else’s, so let me put my own thoughts and words into action.

Marcus Aurelius, like any philosopher up to the task, reminds me that I’ve done enough talking, and now need to get on with the living. What good will it do for me if I can define prudence, or fortitude, or temperance, or justice in all sorts of clever ways, but I can’t be bothered to apply them in daily practice?

I am not qualified to be human by the school I went to, or by how many articles I wrote, or by what positions I have held. I am qualified to be human when I struggle to express virtue in the most immediate ways, and whenever I manage to treat others as people and not as things. Whatever my profession may be, or even if I have one at all, will be quite irrelevant in the face of my character.

Janitors, librarians, or bartenders have often helped me far more than bankers, lawyers, or doctors, and this is not because of some angry principle of class warfare, but because truly good people aren’t really worried about impressing anyone. They just get the job done, instead of talking about all their plans for the job.

My own experience teaches me that mere talk gives a false sense of security, a feeling that it is all being addressed, even if nothing is ever actually achieved. It mistakenly looks like commitment without risk, all the while forgetting that there can be no commitment without action, and that there is no risk of losing anything if I can win back my humanity. 

Written in 1/2009