Lately before bed I have been reading the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius who was the last in the line of so-called “good Emperors” of Rome in the second century. They were primarily called good because they really did appear so when put in relief against those that followed. Marcus Aurelius’ son, the aptly named Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix’s character in Gladiator) proceeded to flush a lot of the good the previous Emperors had done down, well, the commode. But that’s not the reason I’m reading the Meditations, and the reason I’m reading the Meditations is not the reason I am posting this. Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic philosopher on the side, and I was interested from a historical standpoint in finding out more about Stoicism. Turns out it’s near-Christian ethics plus solipsism, making it the perfect philosophy for any occasion from emperors who want to feel good about their isolation at the top to Southern planters that felt justified in enslaving their fellow men because they convinced themselves that their paternalistic care for them really did improve their lives. Like Christianity, Stoicism commands love for neighbor, but not in order that the neighbor be loved or because they are bearers of the Divine Image, but because the Stoic is the sort of man who loves his neighbor; the object of the love is necessary only so far as it (and the other person can hardly be really conceived as other than “it”, only the self matters, has interiority) allows the self to manifest its love and so keep with the “spark of divinity” within itself.
But this is not the reason I am posting this. The reason I am posting it is because Marcus Aurelius says some pretty funny, strange things. To really see how strange these two meditations I am going to post are, it is necessary to see them in light of the rest of his meditations. Here is a typical example: “Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man, to do steadily what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and a feeling of affection, freedom, and justice.” (Incidentally, this meditation is the one quoted to Binx Bolling in Walker Percy’s wonderful novel, The Moviegoer, by his aunt who is representative of Old South Stoicism.) In contrast to that, the following seems almost intentionally comic, although it is the emperor’s complete seriousness that in the end makes it even funnier “Are you irritated with one whose arm-pits smell? Are you angry with one whose mouth has a foul odor? What good will your anger do you? He has this mouth, he has these arm-pits. Such emanations must come from such things. “But the man has reason,” you will say, “and he could, if he took pains, discover wherein he offends.” I wish you well of your discovery. Now you too have reason; by your rational faculty, stir up his rational faculty; show him his fault, admonish him. For if he listens, you will cure him, and have no need of anger – you are not a ranter or a whore.”
The final passage I will post from the Meditations is, admittedly not quite so funny in my mind as the last, but it is a strange, melodramatic extension of everyone’s mother’s advice, “If you keep making that face, it will freeze that way.” From the seventh book of his meditations, “A scowling look is quite unnatural. When one often assumes it, the result is that all one’s comeliness fades and is at last so completely extinguished that it cannot again be lighted up at all. Look to conclude from this that scowls are contrary to reason. For if all knowledge of doing wrong is lost, what reason is there for living any longer?”
So there you have it: Don’t get mad at folks that smell bad and frowny faces make life not worth living. Thanks Emperor Marcus Aurelius!
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