From Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations":
“And these your professed politicians, the only true practical philosophers in 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?”
It seems to me that in modern day American, we have a lot of collective vitriol and anger directed toward politicians. I always figured that things were different in ancient Rome. Not that there wasn't graft, corruption, and greed among ancient Roman/Greek politicians, because there is ample evidence of that. But I never imagined the people having such a deep dislike and mistrust of the politicians as we seem to today. Apparently, I was wrong. It's very interesting that Aurelius would take the politicians to task in such strong terms: vile and contemptible.
Personally, I feel as though many politicians today have good intentions and are at least trying to do good. What they think is good and what I think is good, may not be the same, but I generally respect most of their intentions. Of course, I'm sure there are some bad apples, but generally I figure they're much like all human beings: a mixed bag of good and bad. It seems like Aurelius really felt like politicians in Rome in his day were a pretty bad lot. Maybe we have it better?
“And these your professed politicians, the only true practical philosophers in 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?”
It seems to me that in modern day American, we have a lot of collective vitriol and anger directed toward politicians. I always figured that things were different in ancient Rome. Not that there wasn't graft, corruption, and greed among ancient Roman/Greek politicians, because there is ample evidence of that. But I never imagined the people having such a deep dislike and mistrust of the politicians as we seem to today. Apparently, I was wrong. It's very interesting that Aurelius would take the politicians to task in such strong terms: vile and contemptible.
Personally, I feel as though many politicians today have good intentions and are at least trying to do good. What they think is good and what I think is good, may not be the same, but I generally respect most of their intentions. Of course, I'm sure there are some bad apples, but generally I figure they're much like all human beings: a mixed bag of good and bad. It seems like Aurelius really felt like politicians in Rome in his day were a pretty bad lot. Maybe we have it better?
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