"No one can be a good man and a good general at the same time”.
- Seneca, On Benefits, 4.37.2
Seneca might as well have said: "No one can be a good man and a good politician at the same time. Along these lines:
The Stoics wanted us to "participate in politics":
"They say that the wise man will participate in politics unless something prevents him, according to Chrysippus in book 1 of On Ways of Life; for he will restrain vice and promote virtue.”
- Diogenes Laertius 7.1211
But this does not mean that we should get a career in "politics". We are citizens in two republics - the local one we happened to be born in and the global republic: the brotherhood of man.
"Let's embrace the idea that there are two commonwealths. The one is vast and truly common to all, and includes the gods as well as mankind within it, we look neither to this mere comer nor to that, but we measure the boundaries of our state by the sun's course. The other is the one in which we are enrolled by the circumstances of our birth - I mean Athens or Carthage or any other city that belongs not to the whole of mankind but to a particular population. Certain people give devoted service to both commonwealths, the greater and the lesser, at the same time, some serve only the lesser, some only the greater."
- Seneca, On Leisure, 4.11
When Seneca wrote On Leisure he still seemed to think that it was theoretically possible for a good man to serve both commonwealths - the lesser one during business hours and the larger one in leisure, so to speak. He writes:
"This greater commonwealth we can serve with devotion even in leisure; or rather, I'm inclined to think, even better in leisure."
- On Leisure 4.2
When he wrote the letters - less than a year before being ordered to commit suicide by Nero he seems to have lost all faith in any form of traditional politics and goes to great lengths to warn us that it is both futile and self-destructive to engage in traditional politics. The top priority for anyone who wants to live as a Stoic is to strive to be a good human being and that rules out a career in politics.
Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark
It somehow makes good sense — in both ways I can understand it (first regarding a division between local politics and global politics, second regarding politics vs humankind).
But assuming that politics are somehow a necessity, is this then worse for politics, humankind, or the individual human being/politician?
A good man is able to expand his goodness to the situational circumstances that the current role demands of him. It's up to him to decide which growth opportunities serve him and the world best and which steps need to be taken next.
A good Stoic would probably avoid traditional politics and become a writer or other kind of moral influencer without too much unwanted exposition to the bad.
There are many, many ways to participate in politics. Perhaps the most corrupting is to actually BE a politician. But there are still many other things you can do like canvassing or even labor organizing.
The old 60s saying "The personal is political" expands this even further. So teaching language to immigrants on as a volunteer or many other types of volunteer activities can be seen as "political." I guess in this sense, you cannot avoide politics. Even avoiding politics is itself a political act and IMO an inherently conservative one.
I agree with Seneca completely on this point. My own involvement with politics was brief but potentially corrupting, and I was only involved in a county's political party. Now I study war and politics (which is the continuation of war by other means) from afar and pester my so-called representatives on a routine basis. I might get out on the streets again one day, but I will never support another candidate for office again.
It somehow makes good sense — in both ways I can understand it (first regarding a division between local politics and global politics, second regarding politics vs humankind).
But assuming that politics are somehow a necessity, is this then worse for politics, humankind, or the individual human being/politician?
A good man is able to expand his goodness to the situational circumstances that the current role demands of him. It's up to him to decide which growth opportunities serve him and the world best and which steps need to be taken next.
A good Stoic would probably avoid traditional politics and become a writer or other kind of moral influencer without too much unwanted exposition to the bad.
There are many, many ways to participate in politics. Perhaps the most corrupting is to actually BE a politician. But there are still many other things you can do like canvassing or even labor organizing.
The old 60s saying "The personal is political" expands this even further. So teaching language to immigrants on as a volunteer or many other types of volunteer activities can be seen as "political." I guess in this sense, you cannot avoide politics. Even avoiding politics is itself a political act and IMO an inherently conservative one.
I agree with Seneca completely on this point. My own involvement with politics was brief but potentially corrupting, and I was only involved in a county's political party. Now I study war and politics (which is the continuation of war by other means) from afar and pester my so-called representatives on a routine basis. I might get out on the streets again one day, but I will never support another candidate for office again.