States will never be happy until rulers become philosophers or philosophers become rulers. —PLATO, The Republic
We humans have a tendency of thinking that we are special. We think the time we live in is unprecedented and this has never happened before. But if we read history closely, the same things have happened in one version or another. The reason we don’t learn from history is that we are often taught about what happened, but we never taught how and why it happened.
Not learning history leads us to have misconceptions such as we are different than people who lived hundreds of years ago. We think that we have changed and have become more sophisticated. In certain ways we have, but laws of human nature do not change just in centuries. Think of the laws of human nature as the 4 nucleotides in DNA (Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine) that create the base of all life on this earth. We all might look different, but we all have the same base. The same thing goes for human nature. We might think that we have evolved and our cultures might look different, but the base emotions and laws that our ancestors had thousands of years ago still lurk within us.
This total ignorance of our emotions and human nature is what gets us in trouble. We think that our country, our culture, and our time period are very special and history is just “history” and will never happen again. This is why we see history being repeated again and again in some form or another.
The thinking that we are special is very normal. Heck, we were just born. To us, we are the most important living thing in this world. So thinking that the world revolves around us is very normal as well. But, why am I talking about human nature in a post that pertains to a Philosopher king? It will make sense in a bit. So, let’s get back to Marcus.
So, who was Marcus Aurelius? What made him different than you and I? Why his book called the Meditations has been cherished by millions for thousands of years? Before we get into who he was and what made him special, I highly recommend downloading these 2 books. The first one is his original book called Meditations translated in Project Gutenberg and the other one is a very good translation of Meditations by Gregory Hay.
So, what made Marcus special? He was special because he was different. He was not like previous rulers. See, often rulers have a certain way of ruling. As people become rulers, their worst comes out because power can corrupt – especially if there are no checks on their power.
The reason it often corrupts is because ultimate power warps perception. When Plato said that states can only be happy when philosophers become rulers, he meant that philosophy can often help people curb their worst and bring out their best. And until leaders start working on bringing out their best, they will default to their worst.
But again, I feel like the question of why Marcus is popular is still not answered. In my humble opinion, Marcus is popular because he was what is called a Black swan. “Black swan” is the same reason leaders such as Gandhi, Mandela are revered while other leaders are forgotten. It is hard to think that some people are different than others, but that is the truth. A black swan is an event described by Duncan Watts in his book called everything is obvious as an event that comes rarely but changes the course of history. These events do not happen often, but they do leave their mark in the history books.
Marcus used philosophy to guide his kingdom. Usually, when we think of kings, we think of ruthless rulers who will do anything to maintain power. Rulers who rule with an iron fist. The reason they rule with an iron fist is because it was the only way they are taught to rule. Most rulers either came into power via bloodline or conquest. Both of those things often lead to leaders who rule with fear.
But once in a while, you will get rulers who want the common good. A ruler who does not crave power and wants to do good things for his people. This is why Marcus Aurelius is famous. He was a different kind of ruler. Marcus saw his predecessors with power. He saw how they ruled, he saw how they spend the majority of their time in conquesting different lands and leading with an iron fist. This is not something Marcus wanted to do – he wanted to be different.
Marcus came into power (ruled from 161 to 180 AD) after his grandfather Antoninus passed away. The grandfather was appointed by the ruler at that time to be his successor. The grandfather was a big deal in politics. Some would say, he was one of the most influential people in politics. People would have thought Marcus might become a big deal in politics, but they never would have thought that he will be the king.
But why did he wrote Meditations? Why he ruled differently than his predecessors? In order to know this, we have to learn a bit about his childhood. Historians such as Historia Augusta (not sure how reliable) tell us that he was a serious child who loved boxing, wrestling, running, and actually was a very good ballplayer. He also tells us that he had an upper-class education in philosophy, Greek philosophy, legal, politics, and even law.
He would have seen the rulers before him and thought, is this the life I want to live? The life of constant fear, internal turbulence and never finding internal happiness. He would have seen people go from one instant gratification to another never finding “happiness.” I think this is one of the reasons he wrote meditations. Keep in mind, Meditations is not a book for you and me, it was a book for him. It was a book that guided him to live a better life.
When Marcus came into power, Rome was going through an internal civil war. His general named Avidius Cassius declared himself the emperor and threaten Rome’s grain supply. As life seemed chaotic, Marcus sought solace in philosophy. Think about that, coming into power, taking care of other people, being worried about your life all the time, and going into wars. You need Philosophy to guide you through these times.
Because if you are not guided by good philosophy, it is very easy to go back to your defaults. And for most people, defaults mean we go back to our primitive nature – anger & violence.
One thing that made Marcus special was that he was not some stoic philosopher sitting on his porch dwelling out wisdom. He was a ruler, he dealt with daily problems such as war, pandemics, corrupt politicians, and creating laws. He dealt with the same issues you and I deal with today (different versions of them). That is why I think Marcus is very famous. Because he used philosophy like you and I would use philosophy to give us an upper hand in this world. He used philosophy to tame the beast we call human.
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