M. AURELIUS: Meditations (Book 1)

Reading Marcus Aurelius is almost like listening to him speak. He’s direct and to the point and makes an impression right from the start: Mr. Aurelius is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He’s thankful for his upbringing and gives full credit for his own character formation to his family and teachers. He tells us that he was lucky because “I didn’t have to waste my time in the public schools but had good tutors at home instead and learned that one cannot spend too much money on such things.” Aurelius would probably have been a big proponent of the Great Books Program. But he doesn’t come off as a bookish sort of man. His tutor taught him “to love hard work, to limit my desires, to rely on myself, to keep my nose out of other people’s affairs, and to turn a deaf ear to gossip.” Those aren’t the kinds of things one gets from reading books. Aurelius was fortunate to have a good family, good teachers, and good friends. Even the gods come in for a share of thanks: “I thank the gods that when I became interested in philosophy I did not fall into the hands of a sophist, or throw away my time reading fictive histories, sifting through obscure arguments, or gazing at the stars.”

Aurelius knows more about his own life than we do. No one can argue about his having good family, teachers and friends because we weren’t there. What’s interesting though is why Aurelius chose to list the particular virtues he’s thankful for receiving. He’s thankful for specific things like having been taught “a keen interest in any proposal for the public good” for example, or “to be vigilant in managing the affairs of the empire…” These aren’t the virtues most ordinary men need to function. Nowhere does Aurelius state that he’s thankful to Smith for teaching him geometry or thankful to Jones for teaching him how to tie his sandals. An emperor has more important things to do. Anyone can determine the truth of a Euclidean proof. Very few of us have what it takes to run a company or a government agency, much less a whole nation or an empire. Reading the Meditations puts us in the presence of a truly great man.

That would be fine if we aspired to be emperors some day. But can M. Aurelius provide guidance to middle class folks living in Nashville, Tennessee in 2008? That’s a good question. The basic question is this: do the values that served M. Aurelius as emperor in ancient Rome still hold true for ordinary modern Americans? That leads to an even more basic question: do values change with the times? Now we’re getting to the bedrock of philosophical speculation. But we’ve already seen that Aurelius is “interested in philosophy” but not interested in merely “gazing at the stars.” He’s a practical man and that trait alone would appeal to many modern Americans. Aurelius didn’t have access to the Internet or movies or TV commercials but he tells us that “I learned to shun trivialities; to doubt the claims of wonder-workers and wizards about spells and exorcisms…” This is clearly not the kind of man to sit around watching TV reality shows or cruising through You Tube sites on the Internet. So how would a man like Aurelius live in today’s world? He’s already told us how to do it: I should learn “to love hard work, to limit my desires, to rely on myself, to keep my nose out of other people’s affairs, and to turn a deaf ear to gossip.” In some circles this attitude may be considered hopelessly old-fashioned and unsophisticated. For that matter, it may have been considered old-fashioned and unsophisticated in ancient Rome too. But this is a new era in history. It’s a fast paced world now and you’ve got to keep up with what’s going on or you’ll fall behind. As they say these days: you need to get with the program. Aurelius has his own program and it doesn’t seem to matter what the times are like. The times may have changed but the values of Aurelius haven’t.
-RDP