Musonius then continued,
"Well, then, let us take another example of two men. One has sailed a
great deal and served as pilot on many boats, the other one has sailed very
little and has never acted as pilot. If the one who had never piloted a ship
should speak most ably on the methods of navigation, and the other very poorly
and ineffectively, which one would you employ as pilot if you were going on a
voyage?" The man said he would take the experienced pilot.
We have
all surely experienced the difference here, between those who can only talk the
talk and those who can actually walk the walk. We may well be guilty of it
ourselves, thinking that an eloquence in theory is far more impressive, and
therefore far more profitable, than an experience in practice.
This
only works on the level of impressions, however, and as soon as our need is
real, when the rubber meets the road, our common sense will hopefully kick in
once again. There is nothing like the urgency of living to rid us of the
illusion of abstract musings. Why have confidence in the man who says he can do
it over the man who is actually doing it?
If I
want to feel assured that I understand the ideal of justice in an academic
sense, for example, I will be tempted by the fine words of the scholar. He has
studied the concept for so many years, read all of the relevant sources, and
has even written a whole slew of articles and books himself. He is what they
call an “authority” in the eyes of his peers.
But if I
find myself embroiled in all the daily struggles of life, bickering with my
neighbor over the spoils we both believe we deserve, will the scholarly text,
complete with extensive citations and footnotes, genuinely help me to become
the better man? Or might I be better served by looking to the example of
someone who is actually at peace with himself and those around him, who has
learned to practice respect, decency, and kindness from the school of hard
knocks?
It will then
make little difference how learned and profound he is, because his character
will be the only necessary qualification. His breeding, his schooling, and his
formal profession are neither here nor there, as long as his insight, however
ungainly and rough around the edges, is expressed in action. It may seem folksy
and primitive, but it gets the job done.
Can I
find the teacher who has both a fluency in theory and in practice? Certainly,
and once again, I must be wary of seeing an opposition where there should only be
a harmony. I rarely meet such people, however, and when I do, they never seem
to draw attention to their mastery of abstractions. I suspect this is because
they understand that theory is in and of itself of no use to us at all, and
that it must always be in the service of practice; they reveal what they know
only in the merit of doing something well, and they care little for the rest.
I am
surely straying from Musonius’ original intent here, but I notice how all the
examples he uses in this lecture speak of those who possess theory alone in terms
of their eloquence, their ability to discuss, and their power of speaking well.
This may reveal a certain ambiguity about what we mean by theory, since we
easily assume that wisdom and artful expression go hand in hand.
But I
suggest that something deeper may be going on here. Wherever reflection is
divorced from deeds, and principles are separated from application, mere words
are all we really have left. Thought fractured from things has no more content,
only the appearance of content. It isn’t that theory is just about the appeal
of empty expressions, but rather that theory without commitment to practice
retains only a veneer of meaning. Without a direction of purpose, it floats
away like so much hot air.
There is
an old military phrase I have now heard many times over, in many variations:
“There’s no one smarter than an officer straight out of the academy, and
there’s no one more useless than an officer straight out of the academy.”
Memorizing all the maps is not enough to get me where I need to be going.
Written in 7/1999
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