To these we may add the poets; who, on account of the appearance they exhibit of learning and wisdom, are heard, read, and got by heart, and make a deep impression on our minds.
But when to these are added the people, who are, as it were, one great body of instructors, and the multitude, who declare unanimously for what is wrong, then are we altogether overwhelmed with bad opinions, and revolt entirely from nature.
So that they seem to deprive us of our best guide who have decided that there is nothing better for man, nothing more worthy of being desired by him, nothing more excellent, than honors and commands, and a high reputation with the people; which indeed every excellent man aims at, but while he pursues that only true honor which nature has in view above all other objects, he finds himself busied in arrant trifles, and in pursuit of no conspicuous form of virtue, but only some shadowy representation of glory.
For glory is a real and express substance, not a mere shadow. It consists in the united praise of good men, the free voice of those who form a true judgment of preeminent virtue; it is, as it were, the very echo of virtue, and being generally the attendant on laudable actions, should not be slighted by good men.
But popular fame, which would pretend to imitate it, is hasty and inconsiderate, and generally commends wicked and immoral actions, and throws discredit upon the appearance and beauty of honesty by assuming a resemblance of it.
And it is owing to their not being able to discover the difference between them that some men ignorant of real excellence, and in what it consists, have been the destruction of their country and of themselves. And thus the best men have erred, not so much in their intentions as by a mistaken conduct.
What? Is no cure to be attempted to be applied to those who are carried away by the love of money, or the lust of pleasures, by which they are rendered little short of madmen, which is the case of all weak people? Or is it because the disorders of the mind are less dangerous than those of the body? Or because the body will admit of a cure, while there is no medicine whatever for the mind?
But when to these are added the people, who are, as it were, one great body of instructors, and the multitude, who declare unanimously for what is wrong, then are we altogether overwhelmed with bad opinions, and revolt entirely from nature.
So that they seem to deprive us of our best guide who have decided that there is nothing better for man, nothing more worthy of being desired by him, nothing more excellent, than honors and commands, and a high reputation with the people; which indeed every excellent man aims at, but while he pursues that only true honor which nature has in view above all other objects, he finds himself busied in arrant trifles, and in pursuit of no conspicuous form of virtue, but only some shadowy representation of glory.
For glory is a real and express substance, not a mere shadow. It consists in the united praise of good men, the free voice of those who form a true judgment of preeminent virtue; it is, as it were, the very echo of virtue, and being generally the attendant on laudable actions, should not be slighted by good men.
But popular fame, which would pretend to imitate it, is hasty and inconsiderate, and generally commends wicked and immoral actions, and throws discredit upon the appearance and beauty of honesty by assuming a resemblance of it.
And it is owing to their not being able to discover the difference between them that some men ignorant of real excellence, and in what it consists, have been the destruction of their country and of themselves. And thus the best men have erred, not so much in their intentions as by a mistaken conduct.
What? Is no cure to be attempted to be applied to those who are carried away by the love of money, or the lust of pleasures, by which they are rendered little short of madmen, which is the case of all weak people? Or is it because the disorders of the mind are less dangerous than those of the body? Or because the body will admit of a cure, while there is no medicine whatever for the mind?
—from Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 3.2
I must not let the many hurdles to self-awareness discourage me, always remembering that they are a means to moving forward. A difficulty is not the same as an impossibility, and a hardship should be seen as an opportunity.
The circumstances around me will pull me this way and that, though I remain the authors of my own actions.
Do I question my capacity to reason soundly? The hindrance is only within my own judgments.
Am I under pressure from the fashions of the day? Let me focus on what actually is, not just on what other people say it is.
When Cicero criticizes the poets, I do not take that as a condemnations of the arts, but rather of the way we abuse art to manipulate shallow images, for the sake of cheap answers. I see it all the time in the seductive trickery of the media, the posturing of the celebrities, or the grandstanding of the politicians. Beware of being dazed by mere appearances.
Such efforts are aimed at playing the opinions of the many, as if quantity were more important than quality. While it is certainly possible for something popular to be true, it is hardly the case that something is true because it is popular. There is no elitism or snobbery in pointing out that we find it easier to conform to the majority than to think for ourselves.
In this way, a value in harmony with Nature can quickly be twisted into a perverse caricature. When I speak of honor or glory, what do I really have in mind?
Do I mean a genuine excellence of character, which will bind me into fellowship with all those who follow the virtues, or do I mean putting on the most contrived act, so as to win fame from those most vulnerable to trickery? I can squirm all I like, but I know the difference to be real.
When I am busy looking honest instead of being honest, there may be no malice in me at all, even as I have allowed myself to be duped into thinking that this is how everyone else does it, so this is therefore how I must do it.
As I find myself dealing in trivialities and consumed by petty bickering, I replace a love of righteousness with a lust for gratification. I just fall further in when my so-called friends pat me on the back and urge me on.
I may not even recognize that there is something critically flawed in my feeling and my thinking, or even if I do have a hunch that I suffer from a disorder of the heart and the mind, I may assume that I can brush it aside. What cure could there be for the soul, when they tell me that only the body matters?
Don’t blindly follow the herd. This is why philosophy is the best remedy for any prejudice.
I must not let the many hurdles to self-awareness discourage me, always remembering that they are a means to moving forward. A difficulty is not the same as an impossibility, and a hardship should be seen as an opportunity.
The circumstances around me will pull me this way and that, though I remain the authors of my own actions.
Do I question my capacity to reason soundly? The hindrance is only within my own judgments.
Am I under pressure from the fashions of the day? Let me focus on what actually is, not just on what other people say it is.
When Cicero criticizes the poets, I do not take that as a condemnations of the arts, but rather of the way we abuse art to manipulate shallow images, for the sake of cheap answers. I see it all the time in the seductive trickery of the media, the posturing of the celebrities, or the grandstanding of the politicians. Beware of being dazed by mere appearances.
Such efforts are aimed at playing the opinions of the many, as if quantity were more important than quality. While it is certainly possible for something popular to be true, it is hardly the case that something is true because it is popular. There is no elitism or snobbery in pointing out that we find it easier to conform to the majority than to think for ourselves.
In this way, a value in harmony with Nature can quickly be twisted into a perverse caricature. When I speak of honor or glory, what do I really have in mind?
Do I mean a genuine excellence of character, which will bind me into fellowship with all those who follow the virtues, or do I mean putting on the most contrived act, so as to win fame from those most vulnerable to trickery? I can squirm all I like, but I know the difference to be real.
When I am busy looking honest instead of being honest, there may be no malice in me at all, even as I have allowed myself to be duped into thinking that this is how everyone else does it, so this is therefore how I must do it.
As I find myself dealing in trivialities and consumed by petty bickering, I replace a love of righteousness with a lust for gratification. I just fall further in when my so-called friends pat me on the back and urge me on.
I may not even recognize that there is something critically flawed in my feeling and my thinking, or even if I do have a hunch that I suffer from a disorder of the heart and the mind, I may assume that I can brush it aside. What cure could there be for the soul, when they tell me that only the body matters?
Don’t blindly follow the herd. This is why philosophy is the best remedy for any prejudice.
—Reflection written in 9/1996
IMAGE: James Drummond, The Porteous Mob (1855)
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