In Ridley Scott’s 2000 blockbuster film “Gladiator,” the inestimable Richard Harris, who played the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, said:
This quote comes from a movie, not from history, but when delivered by the wonderful Richard Harris, you could almost believe it was real. That quote, while talking about Rome, describes the present-day thin veneer of civilization all too clearly. Once more, now, today, we are facing a time when our thin whisper of civilization may not survive the coming winter.
The real Marcus Aurelius was not an actor. He was an Emperor of Rome, generally considered one of the “good Emperors,” and he was also an accomplished philosopher and writer.
Per my odd habit of reading classical and sometimes rather arcane stuff, I’ve recently been rereading Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations.” It’s a fascinating read, and for having written this around 1,800 years ago, this Roman Emperor had some insights that still apply today – some almost uncannily. Here are a few choice quotes from the old boy’s masterwork.
Moreover I learned of him to write letters without any affectation, or curiosity; such as that was, which by him was written to my mother from Sinuessa: and to be easy and ready to be reconciled, and well pleased again with them that had offended me, as soon as any of them would be content to seek unto me again. To read with diligence; not to rest satisfied with a light and superficial knowledge, nor quickly to assent to things commonly spoken of…
“To read with diligence.” How many people do that anymore? It took me years to learn to seek out differing viewpoints; the Old Man used to exhort me to vigorously challenge my own opinions, but I was probably in my forties before I really took that advice to heart, and it did result in my changing my mind on a few issues. My current worldview, that of a somewhat prickly minarchist libertarian, arose from my following of that advice. And “…nor quickly to assent to things commonly spoken of,” applies as well. In simple, modern English: The “common wisdom” usually isn’t. This is something that our current education system, at all levels, is utterly failing to do today; the university system in particular seems only to teach entitlement and selected outrage. This is not a recipe for either intellectual attainment or success later in life.
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And these your professed politicians, the only true practical philosophers of the world, (as they think of themselves) so full of affected gravity, or such professed lovers of virtue and honesty, what wretches be they in very deed; how vile and contemptible in themselves?
Boy howdy! Does this ever apply to most modern politicians or what? “…what wretches they be in very deed,” as in profiting hugely from their service, even if it’s indirectly; say, by laundering bribe money from a Ukrainian oil company by placing your ne’er-do-well son in a plush “position” on their Board of Directors. And this is only one of the members of the federal government who mysteriously grow monstrously rich on relatively modest government salaries.
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What is that that is slow, and yet quick? merry, and yet grave? He that in all things doth follow reason for his guide.
This kind of fits in with the first item, doesn’t it? When used as a verb, ‘reason’ may be defined as to “think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic.” Now read Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other various social media platforms, and see how many people you think are thinking, understanding, and forming opinions by a process of logic. I can answer that in advance: Almost none. Many of them can’t even string together a coherent sentence. Part of this is the general failure of our systems of basic education. Part of it is likely just plain slothfulness. And part of it is likely due to idiots claiming that speaking and writing in coherent, understandable English is “racist” or “white supremacy.”
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He that runs away from his master is a fugitive. But the law is every man’s master. He therefore that forsakes the law, is a fugitive. So is he, whosoever he be, that is either sorry, angry, or afraid, or for anything that either hath been, is, or shall be by his appointment, who is the Lord and Governor of the universe.
The key takeaway from this? “…the law is every man’s master.” But today, the law is not every man’s master; too many people (like, say, Hunter Biden) get away with too much, with too many things, that common people never would. “…the law is every man’s master” is another way of saying “equal treatment under the law,” which is, as we have documented many times in these virtual pages, effectively dead in this country today.
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Marcus Aurelius was in many ways no prize by today’s standards. He was an Emperor, by definition an autocrat. But he was the last of what Machiavelli more-or-less accurately described as the “Five Good Emperors,” and the Greek historian Herodian wrote of him:
“To his subjects he revealed himself as a mild and moderate emperor; he gave audience to those who asked for it and forbade his bodyguard to drive off those who happened to meet him. Alone of the emperors, he gave proof of his learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but by his blameless character and temperate way of life. His reign thus produced a very large number of intelligent men, for subjects like to imitate the example set by their ruler..”
Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations,” these 18 centuries later, are still worth reading – and reflecting upon. Some of our political employees would do well to mark his words. For those of us who are not politicians, the study of old Rome still may bear bitter fruit, as the similarities between the United States and the late Roman Republic – some 200 years before Emperor Marcus Aurelius – are too many and too uncanny to take lightly.