thoughts and things

   “What shall we say about those spectators, then, who can see a plurality of beautiful things, but not beauty itself, and who are incapable of following if someone else tries to lead them to it, and who can see many moral actions, but not morality itself, and so on? That they only ever entertain beliefs, and do not know any of the things they believe?”

― Plato, The Republic

Isn't it interesting that those ancient peoples thought about and commented on the same things we do today? Many people much more learned than myself have written commentaries on Plato and all the other ancient scholars. I have not made a study of their works, nor indeed, read all of their works. A great deal of it is dry and boring, difficult to understand. They were "politicians" of a sort selling ideas as truth. And Plato's Republic is concerned with the difference between thoughts and things. As he put it, entertaining belief without knowing what it is they believe in. That, in my opinion is quite evident today. And just as today those ancient philosophers were often at odds with the rulers of the day, and the public in general. Truth is a sharp sword and cuts deeply.

Now Plato was a student of Socrates. He wasn't there when Socrates was condemned to death though. Socrates was condemned for not believing in the Gods the government did, and for influencing the children. Yes, Socrates stated his truths and taught them to students. (children) Plato would continue in his teachings, all the while founding his own school. Plato managed to just die of old age. Plato was teaching, for the most part, the difference between thoughts and things. We can have the best thoughts, the highest ideals, morals and ethics and still be deceived by belief. Plato was a stoic. Scholars may point out that Plato was before the stoics and was not strictly a stoic. I'll leave that argument to them. What Plato was talking about, in my opinion, is the non-rational part of our psyches. In short, emotions. Emotions are often not a rational response to a situation. That's entertaining beliefs without knowing what it is.

Some time back I wrote, "emotions are great motivators but seldom good guides." That is about as close to a Plato thought as I can muster and I'm being generous with myself at that. My thought is the same as Plato's though. You can't just go on emotions, on belief, but should proceed on knowledge. Still Plato held his own beliefs about life and death. Plato thought of the universe as a sort of being, or intelligence. Not exactly a God to be worshipped but a creator of sorts, responsible for the world. Plato thought this world existed on many levels and that after death you just went to another level, a sort of reincarnation. He did teach that virtue was the ultimate goal, the way we should conduct ourselves. Wisdom was the key in his opinion. You could only live a good life by being virtuous. Only a morally good person can be happy. The proper functioning of the soul is how he described that. To exist in harmony with the universe. The universe being a universal soul, a collective.

Another way of saying what Plato said in my opening quote from The Republic is, not seeing the forest for the trees. That is the fastest way to get lost that I know of. We have a lot of lost people these days! Wandering around on belief and ignoring reality altogether. Yes they have great thoughts, great ideals, but no basis in reality. You have to deal with what is, not what you believe it should be. That is the non rational portion that concerns me and many others of my generation. The "boomers" as we have been labeled.

Yes, we "boomers" had our time chasing fantasies, dreaming of what could be, but reality set in and we woke up. It's my thinking each generation goes through a similar experience. The issue today is the speed with which such thoughts are disseminated to the public in general. In truth, it is almost a global experience. Appealing to the emotions of the young and impetuous will inspire action. Those actions are often destructive in nature. They tear at the fabric of society. Capitalism, socialisms, and communism are examples of all that. The capitalists are the most stoic of all the groups. Socialism is an illusion soon dispelled by reality, and in the end becomes communism.

All change begins with a movement. The question being, should we move off our current position? That is to say, make a change? You hear all the talk of redistribution of wealth. That is taking from those that earned that wealth to give to those that did not. Is that a virtuous action, or a selfish one? You hear all the talk of equality. Well. as I have pointed out in the past, in my observation "everyone wants to be treated equally, until they are." It is at that point exceptions and exemptions are justified. The thing is, each of us believing we are that exception or exemption.

So what is our position presently? Our position is defined by our Constitution. The necessity for that constitution was explained in the declaration of independence.

The opening words of the Declaration of Independence are as follows: When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.

 You have to ask yourself what is the cause to impel that separation today? Is the cause solely for your own gain? That is, to benefit yourself? Certainly being given monies, properties, or benefits I haven't earned is a benefit. Entitlement must be earned, not issued. That is what tyranny is all about, the distribution of entitlement, although usually it just the withholding of that. The removal of morality and virtue from society can not lead to a good society any more than it can lead to a good life. And yes morality and virtue need to be defined, they are not transient things, not just thoughts, they are things.