For my part, then, I would choose sickness rather than luxury, for sickness harms only the body, but luxury destroys both body and soul, causing weakness and impotence in the body and lack of self-control and cowardice in the soul.
Furthermore, luxury begets injustice because it also begets covetousness. For no man of extravagant tastes can avoid being lavish in expenditure, nor being lavish can he wish to spend little; but in his desire for many things he cannot refrain from acquiring them, nor again in his effort to acquire can he fail to be grasping and unjust; for no man would succeed in acquiring much by just methods.
Once I figure out that riches aren’t always good for me, I am prone to another terrible mistake, one that comes from swinging between extremes, based upon emotion instead of reason, where I suddenly think that being rich is somehow a bad thing.
This conclusion hardly follows, since riches or poverty, health or illness, luxury or hardship are never good or bad in and of themselves for me; they become good or bad by what I choose to do with them.
Stoicism 101: the man makes something of the conditions, the conditions make nothing of the man.
Being wealthy isn’t a problem, though loving wealth is a problem. Being poor isn’t a problem, though hating poverty is a problem. Indifference to externals means that I will make the best of myself, whatever Providence decides that I should receive. This is only possible by a change of priorities through the Stoic Turn.
Nevertheless, let me be quite practical about all of this. What is most likely to happen when I am given various succulent treats? I will settle for the comfort, and I will ring my wagons around it.
What is most likely to happen if I am denied gratification? I will fortunately have to find another way to make something of myself, a means from within my own judgments, and I will leave the safety of the camp to go into the wilderness.
Would I rather be sick instead of pampered, as Musonius so boldly suggests? Yes, if that is truly necessary to become a more understanding and loving person. My preferences must ultimately bow to my principles.
I should see how my desire for more expensive and convenient “stuff” ends up becoming a burden.
Musonius has the courage to say something I could never quite bring myself to proclaim openly: Fine furnishings never made anyone bad, but bad people have quite the lust for fine furnishings. Look to what is inside the heart and the mind, and you will know precisely who you are.
If I want to live in the grandeur of luxury, I will have to spend much to achieve it. If I want to spend much, I will have to gain much before I can spend it. If I am a grasping man, my life is now about receiving instead of giving. If I only wish to receive, I have now thrown my very humanity out the window.
I am no longer a man of any worth; I am a man who defines himself by everything except himself.
Is it possible for me to be both rich and just? Yes, but only if I am totally ecstatic about throwing away all of the riches for the sake of all of the justice.
Written in 6/2000
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