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June    2nd

PLATO’S VIEW

“How    beautifully Plato   put it. Whenever    you want    to  talk    about   people, it’s    best    to  take    a   bird’s-

eye view    and see everything  all at  once—of gatherings, armies, farms,  weddings    and divorces,

births  and deaths, noisy   courtrooms  or  silent  spaces, every   foreign people, holidays,   memorials,

markets—all blended together    and arranged    in  a   pairing of  opposites.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    7.48

here is a beautiful dialogue called “Icaromenippus, an Aerial Expedition” by the poet Lucian in
which the narrator is given the ability to fly and sees the world from above. Turning his eyes
earthward, he sees how comically small even the richest people, the biggest estates, and entire empires
look from above. All their battles and concerns were made petty in perspective.
In ancient times, this exercise was only theoretical—the highest anyone could get was the top of a
mountain or a building a few stories tall. But as technology has progressed, humans have been able to
actually take that bird’s-eye view—and greater.
Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut, was one of the first people to see the earth from outer space. As he later
recounted:

“In outer   space   you develop an  instant global  consciousness,  a   people  orientation,    an  intense

dissatisfaction with    the state   of  the world,  and a   compulsion  to  do  something   about   it. From    out

there   on  the moon,   international   politics    look    so  petty.  You want    to  grab    a   politician  by  the scruff

of  the neck    and drag    him a   quarter of  a   million miles   out and say,    ‘Look   at  that,   you son of  a

bitch.’”

Many    a   problem can be  solved  with    the perspective of  Plato’s view.   Use it.