Good Work
Another magnificent day, a morning all sunshine.
I spoke with a friend about preparing for the growing season. He grows dahlias, and I grow vegetables. Nature is one of the bonds between us. Another bond, we see one another almost daily at the Geneva Starbucks. Perhaps both of us prefers dark roast coffee?
Last night a group of us discussed the neo-Stoicism of Martha Nussbaum. Nussbaum is a University of Chicago scholar, the author of many books. She advocates a Stoic form of life, a practice from antiquity which she renovates for our time of hyperculture, of revisionist nationalism, of climate warming, and of war. Nussbaum advances a measured expression of emotion to qualify the Stoic valorization of reason. The ideal of a Stoic sage, rational, a man or woman of imperturbable tranquility would be maladaptive for our time. Reason may be cold, calculating, but reason is not enough for raising our children or growing dahlias and vegetables.
History is a matter of story telling. Who tells a given story, and to what purpose? Never mind the many philosophies of history that scholars have proposed, it is clear that no historical epoch is easily comparable to any other. Only tangentially can I compare my American experience with that of Marcus Aurelius descriptions of his day to day exertions to maintain the cohesion of Rome’s colonial holdings. Can I have any idea of Seneca’s experience when his former student Nero, now Augustus was amok, intoxicated with power? I doubt it. Nevertheless both of these individuals, as flawed as I am, found an internal mooring in reason. According to what we have in Aurelius’ journals, and in Seneca’s letters both individuals cultivated their sense of self even as they bore heavy responsibility, as well as great hazard.
I think there is promise that I too will find a way to remain sane in a time when there is a rear-guard conservative attempt to overturn a democratic government. I understand the nostalgia for the tradition that father-knows-best, and that America is the best of all nations. The opposition to this insurgent eruption of Trump mania, is the attempt to maintain the status quo, to keep the system just-as-it-is, with the octogenarian President to remain in office. This is no simple food fight within America’s communal cafeteria. The consequences will impact the future, no matter where one may live on the globe. How to keep one’s balance in the midst of these circumstances?
Martha Nussbaum is doing good work. By all means peruse the books that she has written. I recommend The Therapy of Desire!
What would life be without music? The tune by The Cranberries seems to be apt for today. Dreams by The Cranberries. The visuals of this video are exceptional. Can you hear the drumming back beat? That’s the heartbeat of the universe! Homo Sapiens are creatures of desire/emotion!
2 thoughts on “Good Work”
I believe that then outward calling of Trumpism is for returning to some idealized version of the past, but the underlying intent is to create something wholly new, at least in terms of the United States. Many in the Trump camp have made it clear that the U.S. Constitution is more of annoyance rather than a guiding light. The architects of a potential Trumpian era seek to build a new country based on authoritarian principles etched in history by Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler, et al, and currently by Putin, Xi, el-Sisi, Orban, and many others who believe they have a manifest destiny to rule in whatever manner they so choose.
And perhaps that is the appropriate state of affairs for humanity. People in general appear to desire being placed into a tight box where no decisions are necessary. Where the rules, no matter how cruel and unfair to a great number of others, are clear cut and monolithic in nature.
Of course, for some of us, we see this as an antithesis to evolving into a better creature, where humanity as a whole embraces change, science, inclusion, and mindfulness. But again, maybe we are the outliers, the ones who are out of step with an evolutionary process that will reset life on earth by eliminating the pest that has wrought so much devastation, so perhaps we should just step aside and allow whatever form of armageddon that is marching towards us to just proceed. Nature takes a Mulligan on Homo sapiens. Let the cockroaches take a turn.
‘Humanity’ is an abstract term. The right-wingers live in a particular abstract construction of revisionist history, religious fantasy, and cruel judgments about ‘outsiders.’ Are the liberal-minded a minority, outliers? Impossible to say. I’d bet most of the casual Trump program supporters are a complex, contradictory collection of sentiments, and valuations. How is this upheaval going to play out? No one knows. If Armageddon on a global scale is in store, some of us will look back to speculate whether any group would have made a difference if they had chosen differently. The question to that would be: Prospectively do any of us have a choice?