"in the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present. 'i am rising to the work of a human being. why then am i dissatified if i am going to do the things for which i exist and for which i was brought into the world? or have i been made for this, to lie in the bedclothes and keep myself warm'. but this is more pleasant, dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure and not all action and exertion? dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their several part sof the universe?and art thou willing to do the work of a human being and dost thou not make haste to do that which is according to nature?"
in "as i please 68" from 3 january 1947 george orwell suggests we print this out in "large letters" and "place it opposite our beds"...for at least once george and i disagree thoroughly...i have a lot on my walls but this is not joining the group...first off marcus was a stoic and i have no use for stoicism...it smacks of quietism and an evasion of life on all its levels...oh the stoics say cicero and senneca stood up to power..and what happened? marc anthony had cicero skagged because he did not know when to shut up and nero bade the ur-christian senneca do himself in because he was basically an avaricious pain in the ass...i have no input on cicero's behavior when the inevitable happened...he was such a sycophantic wannabe that perhaps the idea that one of the real elite wanted him dead rendered him numb...as for senneca, per tacitus, he "...embraced his wife and, with a tenderness very different form his philosophical impreturbability, entreated her to be moderate..."...stoic bad faith...all this philosophy brings marcus into question...marcus was the emperor as well...his "work of a human being" was to protect and extend the privelige of himself and his elite cohort...which all leads to a number of questions...is there a consensus about what the definition the "work of a human being" is? as far as the birds and the ants and spiders and bees goes, yes we all need to address subsistence one way or another...beyond that i am thinking not...ignatius loyola would probably maintain it is the strict adherence to the tenets of the catholic church...baruch spinoz, finding your own god...descartes, trying to think your way out of absolute doubt ( one supposes that in spite of his doubt he was often convinced he was seated at a table eating...and he like to stay warm in the bedclothes as well...slug-a-bed )...none of which has much to do with sustenance...so whatever old marcus defined as "the work of a human being" my thinking is that it was something that buttressed his authority and aggrandized himself and his elite supporters...which, nearly as i can ascertain, has been the definiton elites have given it since the neolithic revolution and the rise of social stratification...and one supposes this is close to what elites think today...certainly by working i contribute taxes to the government...and cash to health care auto and property insurers...utilities and sundry services...oil companies...and a host of pther petty extractors of wealth...some of which may be necessary...i'd like the small amount of trash and the larger amount of recycling i produce picked up on a regular basis for instance...but not all...and who extracts more wealth from the corporate concern i work for, me or the sclerotic bureaucrats? i know the answer, i have the numbers...and don't pull that "merit " bullshit on me...and algorithm could do the ceo's job as effectively for much less remuneration...so? i may "risest unwillingly" at times and shuiffle off to aggrandize elites so my garbage gets picked up and i can nuke a spud...then again i'm off today and i stayed in bed a couple of extra hours...old marcus aurelius can get bent.
