A Pocketful of Points to Ponder by Socrates

Bust of Socrates

My current drive-time accompaniment has been a lecture series on Ethics by Peter Kreeft. One quickly observes that a learned man has distilled a lot of material into a clear summation of the great ideas of history. It feels like I should be taking notes and re-listening to what I have already heard.

Socrates is one of the foundation stones of Western philosophy. Kreeft shows early on how all of the main historical positions of ethical scholars were presented, or refuted, by Socrates 500 years B.C. and that in one form or another these schools of thinking continue to be lived out today.

How many times we hear Socrates' most famous quote, "The unexamined life is not worth living." It's repeated so often that it ceases to impress us. Like most of the billboards we drive past on our daily commutes it gets lost in the landscape of our lives. As oft as we hear it, it can almost seem like that was the only thing he ever said, since we so seldom hear any of his other ideas. For this reason, it seemed a good day to share some of his other observations about life. I've placed a little space between each line to help you pause and reflect before moving to the next.


I am a Citizen of the World, and my Nationality is Goodwill.


Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.


The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.


Be the kind of person that you want people to think you are.


Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.


Understanding a question is half an answer.


He is the richest who is content with the least.*


Beware the barrenness of a busy life.


To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.


To find yourself, think for yourself.


The years wrinkle our skin, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles our soul.

* * * *

It is noteworthy that neither of the two most influential men in the history of Western civilization, Socrates and Jesus, wrote books. How their influence extends to us today is quite remarkable, especially when one considers the absence of printing presses and technology. I can't help but wonder who, if anyone, from our generation will be cited as significant 2500 years from now.

* * * *

*Antidote to our tendency toward hoarding?

"Oh, Brave New World!" -- Revisited

"In 1931, when Brave New World was being written, I was convinced that there was still plenty of time. The completely organized society, the scientific caste system, the abolition of free will by methodical conditioning, the servitude made acceptable by regular doses of chemically induced happiness, the orthodoxies drummed in by nightly courses of sleep-teaching -- these things were coming all right, but not in my time, not even in the time of my grandchildren." ~ Aldous Huxley

So begins Huxley's 1958 collection of essays titled Brave New World Revisited. The original story raised red flags about an engineered paradise six centuries off in the future. But less than three decades later Huxley published a book of disturbing observations, post-Hitler and Stalin, that much of what he outlined was happening more quickly than he imagined.

One of the themes in this world of tomorrow is consumerism. It is bad to mend clothes, fix broken things, or play sports that don't involve some kind of consumption of goods. Consumerism helps keep the wheels of progress turning. What an irony to hear the media drums beating this very same message during our 2008 recession economy. "Good heavens, people are not spending enough for Christmas this year!!!!" Oh, brave new world!

In Huxley's original vision of tomorrow, science had answers for all of life's unpleasantries. We wouldn't age, or ever have to be depressed, or ever have to deal with pain, physical or emotional. We are conditioned from conception to enjoy our station in life's socially engineered caste system.

Now that I just finished reading the original Brave New World this past week, I can't help but think today's genetic engineering projects, massive pharmaceutical industry and social manipulations would shock Huxley's shoelaces off and curl his toes.

What's surprising, there are many who would now propose that Huxley is a villain for scaring people away from the brave new world that awaits us as David Pearce argues here.

As we face tomorrow's tomorrows, there are real issues at stake. Central among them, what does it mean to be human? A soul, a person, a personality with mind, will, emotions... a creative force housed in a bio-system energized by a divine spark.

Another theme throughout the original novel was the end of family. No mothers and fathers. We were all twins by the score. Everyone belonged to everyone, and sexual pleasure was with all, indiscriminate. Every man and woman perfect. "Oh brave new world!"

Huxley's character John Savage came from a Southwest reservation where the old ways were still practiced. There were gods, and mothers, and yes, even pain. But this was life. Late in the book he meets and debates one of the ten world controllers, Mustapha Mond. It is a highly illuminating section of the book, as the two world views crash into one another.

Chapter SeventeenART, SCIENCE–you seem to have paid a fairly high price for your happiness," said the Savage, when they were alone. "Anything else?"

"Well, religion, of course," replied the Controller. "There used to be something called God–before the Nine Years' War. But I was forgetting; you know all about God, I suppose."

"Well …" The Savage hesitated. He would have liked to say something about solitude, about night, about the mesa lying pale under the moon, about the precipice, the plunge into shadowy darkness, about death. He would have liked to speak; but there were no words. Not even in Shakespeare.

The Controller then shared with the Savage a number of books which he kept locked up because they were dangerous. This discussion ensued.

"Call it the fault of civilization. God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut. People would be shocked it …"

The Savage interrupted him. "But isn't it natural to feel there's a God?"

"You might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers," said the Controller sarcastically. "You remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley. He defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons–that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to.

"But all the same," insisted the Savage, "it is natural to believe in God when you're alone–quite alone, in the night, thinking about death …"

"But people never are alone now," said Mustapha Mond. "We make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it's almost impossible for them ever to have it."

The Savage nodded gloomily. At Malpais he had suffered because they had shut him out from the communal activities of the pueblo, in civilized London he was suffering because he could never escape from those communal activities, never be quietly alone.

At the heart of all is a question which echoes throughout the history of philosophy, articulated by Socrates and re-evaluated with every new generation: What is a good life? Or the modern corollary thought: how can a socially engineered existence reveal virtue when making a free will choice is an abnormality?

That discussion has been going on for twenty-five centuries... so I think I will just leave off here.

EdNotes
1) Today's post is a re-post of my Dec 14, 2008 blog entry. 
2) If you like futuristic stories with a sci-fi theme, N&L Publishing just launched the eBook Intergalactica (which I co-produced with Kate Dupre and Patty Mahnke) last week at the Apple Store.
Don't have an iPad? Download our PDF version. BOTH VERSIONS ARE FREE.

Quo Vadis

"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing." ~ Socrates

This week I've been listening to a lecture series by Peter Kreeft on Ethics. The man is incredibly lucid and I recommend this audio series to anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of oneself, as well as the times we live in. On my way to the recycle center this a.m. I was listening to lecture three on Socrates. Fascinating.

Other than Jesus, no human has more profoundly influenced our world. Nietzsche himself cited Jesus and Socrates as the most significant men and minds of history.

How did Socrates become such a wise man? Here's the story. Socrates had a friend who was granted the opportunity to ask a question of the Oracle at Delphi. The Oracle always answered accurately though also with an abstruse ambiguity. When you have only one question to ask of the god, you don't want to be frivolous about the matter. Socrates' friend thus asked, "Who is the wisest man in the world?" The Oracle replied that it was his friend Socrates.

Socrates was astonished to say the least, for he did not consider himself a wise man at all. Therefore, he set about to find just one wiser man than himself to prove the Oracle wrong. Each time he met someone who claimed to be wise or was purported to be wise, he'd needle him or her with questions. Was this person really wise? Socrates sincerely wanted to know. The questions dismantled the facade of wisdom and revealed its lack.

Thus began the Socratic method which ultimately became Socrates' claim to fame. Ask questions. Ask good questions. Ask thoughtful and probing questions. In the process, Socrates indeed became the wise man that the Oracle had prophesied.

Philosophy can be incredibly rewarding, and fun, too. The study of philosophy sweeps us into what is known as "the Great Conversation." By studying the history of philosophy we have an opportunity to dialogue with the great minds of history as they grapple with the three great questions.
1. Who am I?

2. Where did I come from?

3. Where am I going?

These are not religious questions per se. They are heart and soul and mind questions that help us get a handle on what we're about. Part of growing up involves the self-awareness that results from allowing these questions to probe us. How can we choose careers or a life path without knowing, or at least having an inkling of who we are, where we came from and what we're about?

The Latin expression "Quo Vadis" means just this: Where are you going? Are you moving toward illumination, or avoiding the facts of your life? Are you striving to gain understanding and seeking answers to the deep questions of your heart? Or is it only diversion you seek as you move away from the firelight into the desert darkness beyond?

I strongly recommend Peter Kreeft's writings, and especially his Modern Scholar Lecture Series on Ethics. But it doesn't matter to me where you start really. Philosophy is a wonderful and worthy pursuit. And any thread on the garment will lead you to other threads of thought that lead you to yet still more in the great tapestry of life and thought. Carpe diem!

NOTE: The clay figures 'round the campfire were created by my son Micah when he was young and at home.

"Oh, Brave New World!"

"In 1931, when Brave New World was being written, I was convinced that there was still plenty of time. The completely organized society, the scientific caste system, the abolition of free will by methodical conditioning, the servitude made acceptable by regular doses of chemically induced happiness, the orthodoxies drummed in by nightly courses of sleep-teaching -- these things were coming all right, but not in my time, not even in the time of my grandchildren." ~ Aldous Huxley

So begins Huxley's 1958 collection of essays titled Brave New World Revisited. The original story raised red flags about an engineered paradise six centuries off in the future. But less than three decades later Huxley published a book of disturbing observations, post-Hitler and Stalin, that much of what he outlined was happening more quickly than he imagined.

One of the themes in this world of tomorrow is consumerism. It is bad to mend clothes, fix broken things, to play sports that don't involve some kind of consumption of goods. Consumerism helps keep the wheels of progress turning. What an irony to hear the media drums beating this very same message in our 2008 recession economy. "Good heavens, people are not spending enough for Christmas this year!!!!" Oh, brave new world!

In Huxley's original vision of tomorrow, science had answers for all of life's unpleasantries. We wouldn't age, or ever have to be depressed, or ever have to deal with pain, physical or emotional. We are conditioned from conception to enjoy our station in life's socially engineered caste system.

Now that I just finished reading the original Brave New World this past week, I can't help but think today's genetic engineering projects, massive pharmaceutical industry and social manipulations would shock Huxley's shoelaces off and curl his toes.

What's surprising, there are many who would now propose that Huxley is a villain for scaring people away from the brave new world that awaits us as David Pearce argues here.

As we face tomorrow's tomorrows, there are real issues at stake. Central among them, what does it mean to be human? A soul, a person, a personality with mind, will, emotions... a creative force housed in a bio-system energized by a divine spark.

Another theme throughout the original novel was the end of family. No mothers and fathers. We were all twins by the score. Everyone belonged to everyone, and sexual pleasure was with all, indiscriminate. Every man and woman perfect. "Oh brave new world!"

Huxley's character John Savage came from a Southwest reservation where the old ways were still practiced. There were gods, and mothers, and yes, even pain. But this was life. Late in the book he meets and debates one of the ten world controllers, Mustapha Mond. It is a highly illuminating section of the book, as the two world views crash into one another.

Chapter Seventeen
ART, SCIENCE–you seem to have paid a fairly high price for your happiness," said the Savage, when they were alone. "Anything else?"

"Well, religion, of course," replied the Controller. "There used to be something called God–before the Nine Years' War. But I was forgetting; you know all about God, I suppose."

"Well …" The Savage hesitated. He would have liked to say something about solitude, about night, about the mesa lying pale under the moon, about the precipice, the plunge into shadowy darkness, about death. He would have liked to speak; but there were no words. Not even in Shakespeare.

The Controller then shared with the Savage a number of books which he kept locked up because they were dangerous. This discussion ensued.

"Call it the fault of civilization. God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut. People would be shocked it …"

The Savage interrupted him. "But isn't it natural to feel there's a God?"

"You might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers," said the Controller sarcastically. "You remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley. He defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons–that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to.

"But all the same," insisted the Savage, "it is natural to believe in God when you're alone–quite alone, in the night, thinking about death …"

"But people never are alone now," said Mustapha Mond. "We make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it's almost impossible for them ever to have it."

The Savage nodded gloomily. At Malpais he had suffered because they had shut him out from the communal activities of the pueblo, in civilized London he was suffering because he could never escape from those communal activities, never be quietly alone.

At the heart of all is a question which echoes throughout the history of philosophy, articulated by Socrates and re-evaluated with every new generation: What is a good life? Or the modern corollary thought: how can a socially engineered existence reveal virtue when making a free will choice is an abnormality?

That discussion has been going on for twenty-five centuries... so I think I will just leave off here.

The Verdict On Twitter

Do you twitter? That's how the article began in the Wall Street Journal or some other high culture rag where I first heard of the site. Twitter is the name of the site, it was explained, because it is something akin to a bird twittering, short chirps in brief bursts.

The website, http://www.twitter.com/, is essentially a web based social network of sorts that is different from MySpace or FaceBook, but offering an easier version of a similar thing. When you log in to the site, it asks, "What are you doing?" You have a one hundred forty character limit. You don't have a lot of space, so you need to be efficient. It's a twitter, not a sonata.

Like Plaxo, and some other social networking sites that have shroomed, you also have a chance to "follow" people in your network, and they can choose to follow you.

I became interested in part because I am inquisitive, and in part because I am in marketing/advertising. I like staying in touch with what is happening, what's new, to evaluate what it is and determine its value as both a business opportunity as well as a social phenomenon. I have posted a couple vids on YouTube and built a MySpace space, which I don't think I could find again. Made a podcast of myself singing four part harmony. And maintaining a blog sprang from the same impetus, to learn through doing.

After several months of twittering, I have made the following observation. I find it interesting that I would bother to write on the Internet what I am doing at any time. I mean, in thirty years of journal writing I have almost never written what is going on in my life, what I am doing. Rather, I usually write about what I am thinking or feeling, what I am experiencing on the inside or my inward wrestling with ideas, concepts, situations. So this twittering business just feels strange to me.

Add to this that other people can follow you... I am impressed that some people can be so transparent. They lay their lives bare, it seems. As for me, it seems doubtful that people are going to also share their warts, their inadequacies, self-doubts and fears in the same manner with a host of unknown followers.

I wonder, too, what people like Mother Teresa would think about twittering. Would she take time to invite others to follow her? Would she take time to tell all the details of her day while on the fly pouring herself out to the handicapped, hungry and needy?

Then my mind flits to Jesus. WWJT? What Would Jesus Twitter? "Just finished healing a blind man. Put mud on his eyes. He washed and could see."

Would Socrates tell what he was doing all day? Or, would he just ask questions? "Are you doing the right thing or just doing what you think the gods will approve?" or "Where do we come from? And where are we going? How can you know for sure?" Or "Why are you here? Why is there air? And who is Bill Cosby?"

At the end of the day, the verdict is still out for me. It's interesting to observe emerging trends in social networking, and probably difficult to predict where they will lead. For now, I'll play along and see what happens. That's why I Twitter anyways. How about you?

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

The current July/August edition of The Atlantic has an eye-riveting cover story: Is Google Making Us Stupid? The sub-head of this feature by Nicholas Carr is, WHAT THE INTERNET IS DOING TO OUR BRAINS.

Carr insists he is not a Luddite, no doubt for fear that if he gets labelled "anti-progress" his thesis will not be taken seriously. He claims that computers in general, and the Internet more specifically, and Google most deliberately, are changing the way we think in ways that should alarm us.

The positive side of Google is self-evident. Information that once might have taken days for a college paper may often be located in minutes, or faster. There are tremendous efficiencies here with regard to information.

But Carr proposes that what's going on has insidious side effects with regard to our human-ness in the same way the Industrial Age crushed people through its commitment to "maximum speed, maximum efficiency, and maximum output." Google's mission, he says, is to make our brains more efficient.

According to Google's chief exec Eric Schmidt, the company is founded on the idea of total measurement and systematization. The mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Who can argue with that? We all know about useless data and useless information.

Carr points out that this kind of efficiency creates new absolutes that do not leave room for "the fuzziness of contemplation. Ambiguity is not an opening for insight but a bug to be fixed."

In some ways this is not a new phenomenon. Edwin Aldrin, in his walk on the moon with Neil Armstrong in 1969, had fifteen seconds for "being human." The rest of his four hour stint was an effort to efficiently set up and execute eight hours of experiments. Some would say, "Hey, you got the privilege to have someone else pay for the ride that gave you a dream experience." But it could also be argued that this scientific approach to everything does something unkind to the soul.

Maybe that's Carr's concern. I don't really know how much weight to give it, but I sort of hear where he's coming from.

The author appears fair in his assessments. That is, he notes how Socrates objected to writing because people would rely on the written word and not use their brains to remember things. Yet the written word has opened worlds for us. And Gutenberg likewise had critics, but the availability of books has likewise created manifold blessings.

My take here is that we need to assume some personal responsibility in this matter. I myself do art, putz about the yard trimming a few branches, listen to music and in this manner bring balance to that "other side." And a daily time of reflection, journal writing, re-centering is for me something akin to the "breathe in, breathe out" rhythm of life. The goal of life is not to become a brain, but to become fully human, which includes mind, will, emotions... and soul.