Marcus Aurelius: "You can also commit injustice by doing nothing"

"You can also commit injustice by doing nothing" - Marcus Aurelius.

"You can also commit injustice by doing nothing" - Marcus Aurelius.

An interesting chap. Few people may realize that he was an emperor of the Roman Empire. It came as a bit of a surprise to me not too long ago. I had always thought of him as just a philosopher.

I can almost hear him protest, "You call me a chap?" - but he was a good one. One of the few good emperors of that empire.

I stand to be corrected, but what we read today as his “works” were entries in his private journal, his personal diaries. They were never written for publication. (I read somewhere).

In a very real sense, therefore, he governed himself.

How do I say this without sounding dull? I will simply quote the Bible:

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,

and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”

That’s it.

He ruled his spirit.

Even as he ruled what was perhaps the mightiest empire on earth, he also ruled his own spirit.....

.....A kind of King David, if you will, certainly on a higher pedestal than Solomon. But I digress.

Indeed, you and I can also commit injustice by doing nothing.

We can commit injustice by saying nothing.

And in this age of instant publication (IP), we can also commit injustice by:

Writing nothing,

Recording nothing,

Posting nothing.

Where was I?

Ah yes.

I recall writing a week or two ago something to this effect:

There is no strong man coming

to pull a long, daisy-chained caravan of citizens

from where they are stuck

to where they want to go.

There is no tow rope

strong enough

to do that.

But if we all come

with our own ropes,

tether them to our little caravan,

and pull,

then the strong man’s rope,

pulling from the front,

may finally be enough.

So?

So, Stop committing injustice.

Get your hands dirty.

All hands must be on deck.

Otherwise, we merely perambulate.

Going round and round.

In circles.

I rest

Don Kenobi

#BigAgendaAfrica

#MarcusAurelius

#KingSolomon

Ps

Checked (just curious)

1.2 million posts hashtag #MarcusAurelius.

#KingSolomon, 63,000.

🤔