Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.17

If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 12.17 (tr Long)

I have been around the block enough times now to have seen all sorts of glimmering appearances and elaborate displays. Corporations will say that they care about you, and politicians will say that they are fighting for justice and decency, and scholars will say that they only want the truth.

A few may really mean it, but most of them are playing you. The corporations want your money, the politicians want your vote, and the scholars want to look important.

I don’t even need to look at the big picture, since the people right around me will do just as well. How often have I heard noble assurances of friendship, of honesty, of commitment, only to watch it all fall down when the breeze changes direction?

We are drawn to mouthing the fine phrases, but when the rubber meets the road, we make excuses and look the other way. This is because words without actions feel easy, theory without practice is cheap, and appearances seem more convenient than realities.

A sure sign you are being played is when all sorts of conditions and exceptions are added to a promise, like those contracts you sign where the fine print actually tells you that the guarantee is not really a guarantee.

The ends suddenly justify the means, because we apparently “have to” hurt some people to benefit others, or a deception is really just a harmless “white lie”, or it is necessary to “bend the rules” to get something done.

And the contradiction behind it all is the claim that we can ever achieve something good by doing something bad, or that to speak the truth we must tell falsehoods. Left is right, and up is down, and things can become better my making things worse. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

I could get quite cynical about life when I see the posturing and the hypocrisy, or I could learn something helpful from it. Now I know who I can trust, and now I know how not to do it. People who do everything sideways are hardly good company, and I am hardly a good man if I don’t move beyond my own hemming and hawing.

If I am a creature of reason, I am made for virtue, and there is no getting around that. Being virtuous will only be hard for me if I fail to genuinely and sincerely change my priorities.

If I am a creature of reason, my speech should reflect what is true and good, and there is no getting around that. Honesty will only be hard for me if I have some other intention in my heart.

As those wise bards of the 1980’s, The Fixx, told us: Do what you say, say what you mean. 

Written in 9/2009