19:52 Oct 21 2020
Times Read: 432
In Cato’s time, Caesar’s partisans wanted to cast his usurpation of the Republic as somebody else’s fault. The system is broken, they said. The old ways don’t work anymore. Don’t blame Caesar, it’s really Cato’s fault, they said. He is too uncompromising, too resistant to change. Why couldn’t he be more like Cicero, willing to go along? By being so difficult, they said, he forced Caesar’s hand.
It’s an old refrain. European fascists in the 20th century used the same playbook, but with an added wrinkle: You NEED us to do this, they said. They excused their abuses, their violence, their destruction of old institutions by claiming that the socialists and communists would be much worse if they did not intercede on the people’s behalf. They might be the devil, but they were the devil you knew. When we interviewed Anne Applebaum, the Pulitzer Prize-winning expert on authoritarianism, she actually pointed out that even Vichy France made this argument: We are surrendering to the Nazis, they said, to protect you from left-wing illiberalism.
It’s a preposterous argument, of course, but one that dupes people when argued forcefully. It’s classic: Blame the other side for violating norms… to cover for the norms your side is violating. The Stoics struggled with it in their own time. On the one hand, you had opposition to Nero by Stoics like Thrasea and Helvidius and Agrippinus and Musonius Rufus, who fought the emperor at every turn. And then on the other hand, you had Seneca, on the inside, working for Nero. He likely told himself that he was mitigating Nero’s worst impulses, that he was containing the damage, that he was making a difference and that, don’t forget, whoever comes next might be worse.
While the Stoic opposition was not perfect, and Cato was not blameless in Rome’s troubles from an earlier generation, these figures were largely correct. They saw tyranny for what it was. They risked their lives, quite literally, to fight it. They put differences of opinion aside, along with petty politics, and took a stand. They were criticized for this in their own time and in the pages of Tacitus: For being uncompromising, for being difficult, for not playing along, and on and on. Other Stoics and fellow travelers like Cicero and Seneca, while still good men, chose instead to be complicit. Their arguments were persuasive—and always well-written—but their judgment was impaired. Their fear and self-interest blinded them to the reality of what they were supporting. It’s like that old line, “You can’t get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.” They couldn't see what was obvious, what was right, because it would have cost them so much. It would have been too painful to realize. Sure, they’re more “realistic” than idealistic, but they also helped oversee the destruction of the Rome they claimed to love.
When the Stoics talked of clear judgment, of resisting the passions of the mob, of doing the right thing no matter what, it was these kinds of situations they were hoping to prepare us for. They knew that politics were tricky, they knew how conflicting obligations can lead people astray, they knew that power corrupted. They wanted to make sure that you knew how to keep your head amidst all this, and they wanted to remind you that in the end, what counts is character. Your character and the character of the leaders you support. Remember Marcus Aurelius: We have to do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.
Everything after that is rationalization… or worse, appeasement.
We’re sending this before election day in the US because during the pandemic, some states are offering early voting and others absentee voting. We want to encourage every Daily Stoic reader to make an informed vote in your elections, as safely and as early as possible. Also, no matter what country you live in, it’s a Stoic’s duty to be engaged and active in their government and so it’s never a bad time to be reminded to vote. The New York Times made this tool for figuring out the options to vote in every state, and Slate published an article on the best way to make sure your vote counts...The Daily Stoic
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