“To be sure, disobedience and the
disobedient person are terms of reproach and shame, but refusing to do what one
ought not to do merits praise rather than blame. Therefore, whether one's
father or the archon or even the tyrant orders something wrong or unjust or
shameful, and one does not carry out the order, he is in no way disobeying,
inasmuch as he does no wrong nor fails of doing right. He only disobeys who
disregards and refuses to carry out good and honorable and useful orders. Such
is the disobedient man.
“But the obedient person behaves
in just the opposite way and is completely different from him; he would be the
kind of man who listens to anyone who counsels what is fitting and follows it
voluntarily. That is the obedient man.
“Thus in relation to his parents
also, one is obedient when he does voluntarily whatever they counsel that is
good and fitting. For my part, moreover, I should say that anyone who did what
was right and expedient, even when his parents did not counsel it, was obeying
his parents, and in support of my reasoning, consider this.”
My head will get dizzy, my thoughts terribly
muddled, when I try to work out all the different levels and degrees of responsibilities
I somehow assume I have. I see so many apparent tensions and conflicts, taking
for granted that in order to do some good over here, I will then have to do some
bad over there.
I get caught up in different sorts of utilitarian
formulas, where some must suffer harm so that others can receive a benefit,
where a vague idea of a greater good excuses the committing of lesser evils,
where I comfort myself by saying that the ends justify the means.
None of this is necessary, if I only stick to the
basic premise of Stoic ethics, that nothing is in itself good or bad for human
nature except a life according to virtue or vice.
Since I share that very same human nature with all
of my neighbors, what is good for all of us is good for one of us, and what is
good for one of us is good for all of us.
Since human nature exists as a part of the whole of
Nature, given meaning and purpose by Providence, everything that is good for a
man is also a good for the Universe.
Only my own ignorance, where I separate one piece from
the other, where I replace principle with preference, where I confuse what is truly
virtuous with what is merely indifferent, will get in the way of clarity and
commitment.
“But it would be wrong to disobey my father, or a
priest, or the magistrate!” They abandon their authority if they ask you in any
way to act with greed, or hatred, or deception.
“But I may have to lie, or steal, or do another
some harm to get the job done!” If the job that needs to be done is to act with
kindness, and love, and integrity, I will need to do nothing of the sort.
“But it won’t really be all that good if I have to
lose my wealth, or my status, or even my life to achieve it!” I would only
think that if I believed that the presence or absence of such qualities defined
my merit and happiness.
Once I see that it is only disobedient to arrogantly
reject what is virtuous, and only obedient to freely embrace what is virtuous,
all my doubts and worries will disappear.
Written in 3/2000
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