At the height of his career, he could be found working as a fixer
for the emperor, Nero. Nero, although he had begun as a promising
student of Seneca, did not make his teacher’s job easy. He was
deranged, selfish, distractible, paranoid, and coldhearted. Imagine
that you spend your evenings writing about the importance of doing
the right thing, of temperance and wisdom, and then by day you have
to help your all-powerful boss justify trying to assassinate his
mother. Seneca knew he should walk away; he probably wanted to,
but he never did.
What is virtue? Seneca would ask. His answer: “True and
steadfast judgment.” And from virtue comes good decisions and
happiness and peace. It emanates from the soul and directs the mind
and the body.
Yet when we look at Seneca’s life, we get the sense that he was the
type of man whose ambition did not provide much peace, but instead
skewed his decision making. Seneca wrote eloquently of the
meaninglessness of wealth, yet came to possess an enormous fortune
through questionable means. He believed in mercy, kindness, and
compassion, but he willingly served two different emperors who were
probably psychopaths. It was as if he didn’t believe in his own
philosophy enough to put it wholly into practice—he couldn’t quite
accept that virtue would provide enough to live on.
Money, power, fame just seemed a little more urgent.
Seneca knew of the virtuous path, but chased the prizes that drew
him away from it. This choice cost him many sleepless nights and
forced him into ethically taxing dilemmas. In the end, it cost him his
life. In AD 65, Nero turned on his former teacher and forced him to
commit suicide—the evil Seneca had rationalized for so long, it
eventually cost him everything.
There’s no question it’s possible to get ahead in life by lying and
cheating and generally being awful to other people. This may even be
a quick way to the top. But it comes at the expense of not only your
self-respect, but your security too.
Virtue, on the other hand, as crazy as it might seem, is a far more
attainable and sustainable way to succeed.
How’s that? Recognition is dependent on other people. Getting
rich requires business opportunities. You can be blocked from your
barry
(Barry)
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