Dear Friends,
It seems to me that true wisdom, foundational wisdom, stands the test of time. By time, I don’t mean the ideas are still talked about, like the Spartan civilization, but are still relevant.
Take Confucius. His philosophy is as relevant today as it was then. His theory of the Jen Man, (Gentleman), is meta-societal. The mean that the Jen Man lives is very similar to the Aristotle’s mean. No matter the society one finds himself in the Jen Man finds the moral mean. He is never off balance because he lives the mean.
Why would a person ever be off balance if they always lived the moral average of the society in which they live? To live the average makes a person average. Mediocrity in morality is not repellant. But the extremely moral person makes the average sinner feel inferior just as the reprobate makes the average sinner feel superior. No matter that comparing is a sin we all do it comparing is human nature. That is why the person who lives the golden mean is never off balance… Timeless advice from 550BC.
I look at the modern incarnations of sages and find them wanting. They are full of advice about selling your home or getting a date. There is nothing wrong or foolish about these things. But they are tied to this time and this place. Similarly Marx’s and Justus Moser’s philosophies were mired in time and place.
In the time and place it was written this type of philosophy can be quite useful and sagely advice. But it does not become foundational wisdom. Such foundational wisdom can be found throughout the ages and in many places. The Bhagavaad Gita is another ancient example from India.
When the founders of governments have these foundational insights in mind, the governments created by such men, are like niobium magnets to the iron filings of able people. People are drawn to those nations even against their own will.
An ancient example is Rome. As Livy described it, after Romulus founded Rome, he opened it up to immigration, anyone, no matter the reason they wanted in, could come. The result was Rome was filled with extremely ambitious and able men. It could be argued that the most ambitious people from all across the Italian peninsula and beyond settled Rome. Certainly Greeks from some of the Greek colonies on the peninsula at the time came and became Romans. When Numa Pompi wrote the Laws of Rome, Laws that would stand for 900 years, he had foundational wisdom in mind. With the combination of an ambitious people and well crafted laws, (for the time), Rome became one of the most advanced civilizations the planet has seen.
A modern example being the United States of America. The founders had, firmly in mind, foundational truths. They read and were familiar with, not only Christian doctrine and philosophy, but the philosophy of many others as well. In the Federalist Papers Madison refers to Aristotle, Smith, and Montesquieu. He discussed some of the spurious arguments socialists would bring up later and deftly explains the sophistry of them. The founders were well read and keen minded, individualists, in the sense that De Toquville had in mind. They understood human nature and the Constitution they wrote is a shining example of their insight.
For all the hate America rhetoric around the World, there is no other nation of Earth, that has so many people, from across the world, clamoring to get into it. If the American experience is so bad why do so many people seek it and vote with their feet for it? Remember actions speak louder than words. No matter how loudly a person says they hate everything the US stands for, if they seek to immigrate to the US, their actions bely their words. Because who seeks to immigrate to North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, ETC…? No matter the extreme level of equality. Equally paid, fed, housed, clothed, health services and tyrannized.
That is because the foundation of those governments, are mired in a time and a place, and as a jealous reaction, to the surplus of supply, generated by the advent of the market system. Therefore they are doomed. No amount of tinkering can fix a car that never worked from the time it was brand new. No matter how well built an internal combustion engine cannot run on water. If the design is flawed there is no use… it must be destroyed and rebuilt.
So why would anyone in their right mind ever want to change the USA into North Korea? It defies logic. But that is exactly where the road leads that the Obama administration has put us on. Dragging the recalcitrant American people every step. The outright rage seen in the American electorate is clear evidence they have no interest in that destination.
Everyone agrees it is not a place anyone wants to go to… So why go there?
