Guard Your Heart
Plato gained legitimacy as a philosopher because he sat at the feet of Socrates. Aristotle gained legitimacy as a philosopher because he sat at the feet of Plato. It was Aristotle who fused philosophy with attempts at deciphering the true nature of everyday life. Philosophy had value not just for organization of society and societal governance but for infusing meaning into everyday life. For Aristotle, philosophy was in essence backdrop of spirituality.
There wasn’t a whole lot of money in philosophy back in the days of Aristotle. There was no guarantee of fame, popularity, wealth. Socrates was executed by Greeks.
In today’s world, philosophizing makes money. Numbers of followers is proxy for wealth and influence potential. Along with monetization of philosophy is the fact that there no longer is any demand for willingness to sit at the feet of a renowned philosopher before you claim to be a philosopher. I am not bemoaning this, merely stating it as what is in today’s world.
An ancient adage states:
Guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life.
Who and what we allow to influence us may seem like a small matter. It never is, however, a small matter. The Jews chose Barabbas (the group known as the Zealots) over Jesus Christ. Within 40 years of co-rulership of the Jews by the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots, Jerusalem and its temple were in utter ruins. Josephus that most famous of Jewish historians had no choice but to lament (I paraphrase):
The zealots (Barabbas’ group) have led us down the slippery path of ruin to destruction.
It must have been with at least such benefit of hindsight that he could declare that Jesus really must have been the Christ. He must have recognized that once they chose Barabbas over Jesus Christ, the path of the nation was set on the road to ruin and destruction. In his heart he must have wondered how much different things could have been if they had chosen Jesus Christ over Barabbas.
There are as many motives as there are writers on the internet. Motives have power. You cannot make a good action pure if the motive for the action is impure. The Jews chose a group of people who had been known for killing fellow Jews merely for disagreeing with them philosophically over Jesus Christ, a preacher of peace, love, and kindness. They thought Jesus weak, Barabbas strong. But Barabbas and the zealots cared only for their cause — antagonization of Rome — not the Jews themselves. If they cared about Jews themselves, revolt against Rome would be predicated on some semblance of possibility of success. The Zealots only wanted to fight or antagonize Rome not free Jews from Rome. Freedom from Rome they knew within themselves was unattainable. While actions seemingly were good, motives were impure. The outcome? Catastrophe and Ruin.
Wisdom has more value than strength because whereas wisdom can decipher how to acquire strength, strength never by itself possesses capacity for acquisition of wisdom. Wisdom is better than strength, is for the same reason better than money, is part of the spigot of life.
Guard your heart (what you choose to love) for out of it are the issues of life.
