Daily Advice 12.16.20

[readoldthings]

 The main focus of this blog is going to be Seneca's On Providence until I make my way through the whole thing. Every sentence is gold.

Flee luxury, flee enfeebling good fortune, from which men's minds grow sodden, and if nothing intervenes to remind them of the common lot, they sink, as it were, into the stupor of unending drunkenness. The man who has always had glazed windows to shield him from a drought, whose feet have been kept warm by hot applications renewed from time to time, whose dining- halls have been tempered by hot air passing beneath the floor and circulating round the walls, - this man will run great risk if he is brushed by a gentle breeze. While all excesses are hurtful, the most dangerous is unlimited good fortune.
 

I really think that this is the condition in which we find ourselves these days. Today on my Facebook account, a picture came up that I took on this day 3 years ago. I was living in California, and the largest wildfire in the state's history had just broken out. Over the next few months it would burn 280,000 acres. Then when the winter rains finally put it out, they caused a series of enormous mudslides which killed another 20 people in the hills near Santa Barbara. 

The debate then and now is-- Did this happen because of global warming or because we don't cut down enough trees? 

The answer, of course, depends upon whether you voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden. 

Well, again, that was 3 years ago. Not that long, really. And now we're in the middle of a pandemic which has-- supposedly-- caused an excess of 200-300,000 American deaths. Whose fault is it, and what can be done about it? Again, the answer depends upon whether you voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden.

Maybe we're all wrong, though. Maybe the Thomas Fire happened because these things happen. And the Coronavirus is happening because these things happen. 

Maybe the reason we're so shocked by it all, and so desperate to find some cause, someone we can pin it on, and something that can make it stop is because we've just been through about 80 years of unprecedented good fortune-- an era of peace and prosperity unprecedented in human history. 

Maybe we've all been enfeebled by all of this good fortune, and sunk, as it were, into a stupor of drunkenness-- from which the gods are now, slowly, painfully, awakening us.

Comments

[ronp]

I would offer a different view in regards to what we normally think of as excess here in our western world. We hear that quite a bit these days, and there is some valid argument to be made for it, but I would offer an alternative perspective.

I don't know that it is excess that we suffer from, or that there is an excess of anything in regards to material goods, entertainment, etc. Instead, what I suggest is that, as a culture, we are in a state in which we severely lack certain things. What do we lack? Critical thinking skills, compassion, integrity, discernment, just to name a few.

This last item, discernment, really comes into play here, as well as correct and critical thinking. It's not that we necessarily have an overabundance. It's that we lack discernment and correct thinking. Do we really "need" that Ipad, new car, fancy clothes, gourmet coffee? Do we really need all of those rooms in that house we are considering buying, that big of a yard, or all of that genetically modified crap that we eat? Do we really need vitamin water, yet another flavor of gum, or yet another type of natural sweetener that is anything but natural?

You get the picture? Yes...we do have all of these choices, and so much more, but what is lacking is the ability to choose what it is that we truly need, and leave all of the crap that we don't. The markets are driven by consumer want, not consumer need, and consumers seem to want, want, want.....so the manufacturers and markets produce and supply the products to appease those wants. If, instead, we were to change our outlooks and provide ourselves with what we actually need, then the manufacturers and markets would reflect that instead.

Yes...there is excess of a sort, of that there is no doubt. But who is responsible for that excess? Is it truly 'the system', or is it instead the result of 'the people' going along with the system like sheep following the shepherd? If the sheep were to think clearly, they might figure out that the shepherd isn't a good shepherd at all and might perhaps start thinking for themselves.

Although there is a great deal of a type of excess, I would suggest that the excess is in the choices that we have, and most choices offered are bad choices. There is also a severe problem of lack as well. Lack of good judgment, compassion, honesty, integrity, caring, tolerance, acceptance of differences, etc. If there were an abundance of these types of qualities, the ridiculous excesses might, perhaps, dwindle down and a great many of our various problems might correct themselves.

If people chose to consume what was needed instead of everything that was wanted, a great many of these excesses would go away. No one is going to sell 50,000 dollar SUV's if no one is buying, or reality TV if no one is watching. Expensive electronic devices are not going to sell if no one is buying them, nor will they be manufactured if no one is buying. Ridiculous salaries will not be paid to employees for senseless spectator programming if people are no longer being those spectators.

[readoldthings]

Thank you for the meditation!

I don't think that what you're saying contradicts what Seneca is saying here. We do indeed have an excess of material abundance available. But-- and this is the heart of Stoicism-- it is within our power to choose how we relate to that excess.