Yes dear reader I’m back. Pinky promise I’ll do better in the near future, qua posting frequency.
A new strand of posts is to start with the first one; this. On Virtue.
As you may notice, this isn’t exactly a new strand. [Those of you who now expected me to continue using that word where ‘thread’ would fit: Bad luck, I don’t tend to do as expected.] Some earlier posts were already on the subject, and may have been precursors since I’m inclined to aim for some consistency and funneling focus.
These were here (please do read nay study), here, here, here, here (and some four before, see there), here, here, here. Those of you who now think I haven’t read a book, let alone on the subject, since, are, as per Oxford, wrong. Per the contrarian I may appear, I’ve read more and even more relevant books (you know, the troves of wisdom missed by non-readers that have to make-do with the virtue equivalent of finding out that one plus one makes two unless a politician tell them otherwise) but hadn’t the time (i.e., zeal) to do more Books By Quote.
That for that.
Now for Galenius: “The materialism of the rich and powerful … who honour … pleasure above virtue, consider of no account those who possess some finer knowledge and can impart it to others … But the respect they give to men of learning corresponds only to their practical need of them. They do not see the particular beauty of each study and they cannot stand intellectuals. Geometry and arithmetic they need only in calculating expenses and in improving their mansions, astronomy and divination only in forecasting whose money they are gong to inherit.”
This from bit-short-of 2000 years ago. Still absolutely accurate. Of course with ‘inheritance’ translated to ‘IPO rip deal’ etc. May we consider that we, again and again, will need new rules against these ‘people’? As society is about trying to let everyone live their lives as little encumbered by others as possible, and inherently flaws are in any model or system and also, the existence of Time through human ingenuity leads to ‘progress’ hence in due time, re-adjustments are necessary. Over and over again.
Now may be one such era-end-cum-era-start. As predicted by the Mayans <link in here with a twist but relevant> and unfortunately playing out over a longer time than our awareness can span.
May we suggest to keep this in mind as one sub-strand/thread of our Virtue discussion? I haven’t seen much lately on the mid-level arena where personal Virtue of the Classical kind [anywhere around the globe; of course the world isn’t flat; it’s round like a pizza!] mixes with sociology of not only the descriptive but also the prescriptive, normative kind. And consider that, now that the world no longer allows for escape to the Wild West anywhere, we’ll have to make do with our neighbours.
Other sub-strand definitions may follow.
Cheers; leaving you with:
[The sort of countermeasures I built when young. Own build, own analog pic…]