I do not know about anyone else, but I tired of selfcongratulatory political talk a long time ago. Fact is, I have never liked it much. One candidate interviewed yesterday had nothing at all good to say about the present administration. In the process of lambasting its record on just about every front, this individual never once offered any specifics as to how he would go about creating jobs, ending Medicare fraud, or terminating these idiotic wars that we seem intent on embroiling ourselves in.
As he considers his imminent death, Socrates declares that entering into the political arena never appealed to him because he was too concerned with discovering and telling the truth. Admittedly, his dialogic approach to unearthing the truth of such things as justice and friendship can at times be a bit dizzying, but he figured, rightly, that he needed the freedom of an apolitical life in order to sustain and nourish his lifelong journey in search of wisdom.
I have some trouble accepting his notion that it is when the soul is ultimately freed from the body that wisdom is finally achieved. Be that as it may, his aversion to partisan politics makes a great deal of sense, since truth seems as elusive and unwelcome to most politicians as the plague.
One of the attractions of Socrates is his uncanny ability to force us to reconsider our most basic assumptions.
Questioning one’s assumptions requires character. It is easy to put on blinders and happily cruise along through life feeling so certain about things that periodic reexaminations of one’s beliefs become anathema. I feel pretty certain about some things. For instance, I know that every day at about six in the morning and four in the afternoon my dog Gabby will pester me to feed her. Her stomach is a pretty reliable clock. I am as certain as I can be that our seven new chickens will fare well if I take good care of them. It is also fair to assume that given human nature’s penchant for digging itself into ideological corners, the culture wars that characterize contemporary life will continue.
The question is, what is one to do?I wrestle with that all the time. I wish I could devotethat time to other more rewarding mental pursuits.
In his “Confessions,” Rousseau writes of the interminable and unavoidable conflict between the individual and society. Ideally, a society would provide for the harmonious coupling of both.
An individual is married to the society in which he finds himself, like it or not. Any relationship, if it is to not only survive, but flourish, requires both hard work and compromise.
Right now there are too many people hard at work finding ways to divide us. And compromise, as an effective strategy for the achievement of harmony, has fallen prey to selfishness, blind adherence to ideology, and a culture of impassioned distrust that should have anyone familiar with history a bit worried.
Perhaps we can arrest what sometimes feels like a freefall into disaster if we start to think of ourselves as individuals living together in a community whose existence depends on our collective ability to give more than take. Unfortunately, we live in a winner take all society where the rights, feelings, and inclinations of those who find themselves in a numerically significant minority are routinely maligned and ignored.
That makes possible a tyranny that serves no one while undermining us all.
Hawthorn Hill
June 17, 2011
Up On Hawthorn Hill: Wisdom
- Hawthorn Hill
-
- Swallow talk and bluebird vigilance I assume the swallows have returned to Capistrano. They have returned to Hawthorn Hill as well.
- 'Geezering: an act of doing stuff with another old guy It is a bright sunny day. I should be out back in our woodlot geezering with my neighbor John.
- Winter tree sparrow visitations have been rare on the hill Tree sparrows are lovely little birds, most conspicuous for their russet caps, white breasts and a distinctive charcoal smudge about mid-breast that makes one think that they are perpetual Ash Wednesday celebrants.
- Of Carolina wrens and crossbills We will remember this year for a number of reasons, among them first-time visitors to our bird feeders. Aside from reporting data to Cornell every five days as part of the Project Feeder Watch program, I keep on close watch over all the avian activity up here on the hill.
-
Think before you speak, tweet
One of our dearest and most valued gifts is our ability to both think about and talk about ourselves. That is the gift of language. I have always felt that every living thing has some sort of language, but we are so lucky to be able to communicate through speech and writing.
- Of bikes, fishing rods and philosophy Every time I go to the garage, either to get something or start up the car, I am reminded of at least two activities that I thought I might get to at some point, even in earnest. Intentionality is something philosophers give some thought to. I suspect I would be an ideal case study.
- End of the season; time for a break By tomorrow afternoon we will have harvested the last of our vegetables. Two lonely stalks of kale, today snow capped and a bit bent over after being buffeted by the hurricane's winds last week, will take up primary residence in a kale soup whose makeup we have yet to determine.
- Election Day thoughts I have voted, and despite my strong feelings about who the winner should be, I intend to focus on other things the rest of the day. Let the talking heads spin themselves into rhetorical dizziness until the wee hours of the morning. The sun is shinning. There are some late fall chores to turn to. I look forward to an outside day preoccupied with sunny thoughts.
- Walking, across the pond One of the best reasons to travel is to get out of one's cultural skin for a while. It is also a great way to pick up some pretty useful ideas.
-
Gabby
This is not an essay I want to write. We had to say good-bye to Gabby several weeks ago.
- More Hawthorn Hill Headlines
