Seneca, On Peace of Mind 10.7

There are many who need to cling to their high pinnacle of power, because they cannot descend from it save by falling headlong.

 Yet they assure us that their greatest burden is being obliged to be burdensome to others, and that they are nailed to their lofty post rather than raised to it.

Let them then, by dispensing justice, clemency, and kindness with an open and liberal hand, provide themselves with assistance to break their fall, and looking forward to this maintain their position more hopefully.

Give me more than I need to be happy, and I will be prone to growing dependent on my supposed acquisitions, thinking they are mine when they are not mine at all, and trading a self-reliance for a reliance on luxuries, badges of honor, and playthings.

I have known it within myself on a smaller scale, and I have observed it in others on a larger scale. The necessary is confused with the extraneous. I once thought I could never survive without a steady supply of whiskey and cigarettes, but I am now doing just fine. I had a student who told me her life would be over if she didn’t get into one of her top three picks for law school. She attended her last pick, and is no worse off as a result.

It is no different in kind with the bigwigs, though the risks are far greater in degree. You can sense their dread when the possibility arises that they won’t win the next election, or they fail to secure a lucrative contract, or some dirt about them has found its way into the papers. They have built up their high thrones, and now they are afraid they will fall all the way back down. Yes, it will hurt.

If they had worked with Nature, and not allied themselves with Fortune, they would have no fear of falling to begin with. They are right to be worried, but not for the reasons they tell us. They are not victims, and wealth or influence have done nothing at all to them; they have taken these conditions and sold themselves to them.

No man is good or bad because he is rich, just as no man is good or bad because he is poor. What he loves, what he wants, what he thinks he needs, and what he acts for will be the critical factors. If he is put into a position of authority, now is the moment to seek the guidance of his conscience all the more.

Can he employ his power to live with virtue himself, and to assist others in living with virtue? Will he resist the temptation to throw his weight around, and instead carry the weight of those in need? Is he perhaps willing to give everything for the sake of others, rather than asking others to give everything for his sake?

Compassion and mercy are always required for a good life, but they become all the more important when the stakes are higher. Our lives will now touch the lives of others more deeply than we can imagine.

Keep your neighbor from falling, and you will also manage to keep yourself from falling. We are made for one another. 

Written in 10/2011