We are what we value

There are so many ways in which ancient Rome was a worse place to be than modern day America.  For one thing, we have computers, so we can, like, play on pinterest and instagram.  Yes, we have more technology than they did.

But I often wonder if they weren't also better than us in some ways as well.  Take this line from Seneca, who reprimands people for allowing legislation to function as their ethical standard:

"How limited is the innocence whose standard of virtue is the law!  How much more comprehensive is the principle of ethical obligation than that of the law!  How many are the demands laid upon us by the sense of familial duty(pietas), humanity (humanitas), generosity (liberalitas), justice (iustitia), and integrity (fides), all of which lie outside the statue books!" - Seneca, De Ira

Yes, the standard for good and praiseworthy action was a communal conception of ethics.  And this standard was not establish by elected officials or judges.  In fact, as Seneca points out, the law was much narrower in its conception than was the domain of ethical obligation.  People were motivated by virtues, not by fear of legal consequences.  They were averse to wrongdoing not just because they would be incarcerated, but because wrong action was ethically reprehensible and, importantly, this fact mattered to them.  

Granted, the Romans did some pretty brutal stuff.  They punished persons who killed their own parents by sewing the criminal into a sack and dropping them into the sea.  They did not retrieve them before they drowned.  

But it is an admirable thing to hold virtue and good character so high.  It is, by my estimation, a wonderful thing to educate children with a view to the future and what they ought to grow up to be, rather than to coddle them and indulge their--quite literal--childish whims.  

"It will be of the utmost profit, I say, to give children sound training from the very beginning. [...]  By freedom the spirit grows, by servitude it is crushed; if it is commended and is led to expect good things of itself, it mounts up, but these same measures breed insolence and temper; therefore we must guide the child between the wo extremes, using now the curb, now the spur.  [...]. Whenever he gets the upper hand and does something praiseworthy, we should allow him to be encouraged but not elated, for elation leads to exultation, exultation to over-conceit and a too high opinion of oneself.  We shall grant him some relaxation, though we shall not let him lapse into sloth and ease, and we shall keep him far from all taint of pampering; for there is nothing that makes the child hot-tempered so much as a soft and coddling bringing up.  Therefore the more a only child is indulged, and the more liberty a ward is allowed, the more will his disposition be spoiled.  He will not withstand rebuffs who has never been denied anything, whose tears have always been wiped away by an anxious mother, we has been allowed to have his own way with his tutor. " -Seneca, De Ira

What would our world be like if our ethics were more far reaching than our laws?  If we heeded the urging of virtue more than the threats of the law?  If taught children how to be good and moderate adults instead of how to remain over-indulgent, carefree children?  If we used all of our "advances" to project images of moral heroes and heroines rather than stories that glamorize the very evil we want gone from the world?  What if, instead of watching the coverage of a mass shooting so that we can feel sad about a disaster, we instead folded ourselves into a book so that we can feel good about learning how to make the world just a little bit better?  The world being better starts with individuals.  Each of us is a new beginning.  Each of us has to make the decision.

This is the first thing I've written about the Sandy Hook shooting.  Writing about sadness and deep turmoil seems to be all the rage in the blogging community.  It took me longer than that to even begin processing my thoughts on the incident.  And, perhaps as is to be expected from someone who studies ancient philosophy and is a proponent of virtue ethics, I want to focus on the values which motivate people to act in the ways they do--the deep down values that encapsulate one's conception of good and bad--before even beginning to consider gun legislation or mental illness.  I realize that those conversations need to happen, but those conversations are relatively easy.

And, for the record, I'm not saying that we lost our values when we lost God.  I'll leave that insanity to Mike Huckabee.  When I call on the ancient Romans as ethical exemplars I am not promoting Christianity.

I think that's enough of that for now.  Please share your thoughts on this topic.

P.S.:

Today's run:
Distance - 3 miles
Time- 27:00

Keith's "lungs were burning" and I had a side cramp from hell.  We were quite the pair out there.