MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
(106 B.C.–43 B.C.)
Roman statesman and man of letters, Cicero was Rome’s greatest orator and its most articulate philosopher. The last years of republican Rome are often referred to as the Age of Cicero.
It absolutely amazes me when I consider that over two thousand years ago our brilliant and persuasive ancestors were walking on the same soil we walk on, breathing the air we breathe, watching the same stars we view at night, and being awed by the same sun we see every day, and speaking and writing of the identical concerns we all share today. There is a profoundly wondrous connection to those people that thrills and mystifies me as I read what they were trying to tell their fellow citizens, and me as well, a citizen who just happens to have appeared on the same planet a couple of thousand years later.
Cicero was once called the father of his country. He was a brilliant orator, lawyer, statesman, writer, poet, critic, and philosopher who lived in the century before the birth of Christ and was momentously involved in all the conflicts between Pompey, Caesar, Brutus, and many of the other historical characters and events that make up ancient Roman history. He had a brilliant and long political career and was an established writer whose work was considered the most influential of its time. In those days, however, dissidents were not treated kindly. He was executed in 43 B.C., his head and hands displayed on the speaker’s platform at the Forum in Rome.
In one of his most memorable treatises, Cicero outlined the six mistakes of man as he saw them evidenced in ancient Rome. Twenty centuries later I repeat them here, with a brief commentary. We still can learn from our ancestors of antiquity, and I trust my corroboration of Cicero’s six mistakes will not lead to my head and hands being displayed at our national speakers forum!
Mistake #1: The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others. This is a problem that unfortunately is still with us today. Many people feel they are able to elevate themselves in importance by finding fault with others. I recently watched an internationally successful motivational speaker being interviewed on television. His approach was, “I am better than everyone else, no one else can provide the tools for living that I can. Don’t listen to those who are only providing a pep talk, they are all inferior.” I couldn’t help but think of Cicero’s number one mistake.
There are two ways to have the tallest building in town. One way is to go around crushing everyone else’s buildings, but this method seldom works for long because those having their buildings razed will eventually come back to haunt the crusher. The second way is to work on your own building and watch it grow. And so it is in politics, business, and our own individual lives.
Mistake #2: The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected. Apparently people in the ancient world spent their energies worrying about things they had no control over, and little has changed since. One of my teachers put it to me quite succinctly. He said, “First it makes no sense to worry about the things you have no control over, because if you have no control over them, it makes no sense to worry about them. Second, it makes no sense to worry about the things you do have control over, because if you have control, it makes no sense to worry.” And there goes everything that it is possible to worry about. Either you have control or you don’t, and either way, worry is a huge mistake.
Mistake #3: Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it. Many of us are still afflicted with this penchant for pessimism. Too often we jump to the conclusion that something is impossible simply because we cannot see the solution. I have heard many people tell me that angels, reincarnation, soul travel, communication with the deceased, travel to distant galaxies, genetic surgery, time machines, travel at the speed of light, miraculous spontaneous healings, and so on are all impossibilities, simply because they cannot conceive of such ideas.
I wonder how many of Cicero’s contemporaries could foresee telephones, fax machines, computers, automobiles, airplanes, missiles, electricity, running water, remote controls, walking on the moon, and so many of the things we take for granted today. A good motto is, “No one knows enough to be a pessimist!” What we can’t fathom today will be the accepted reality of those who reside here two thousand years into the future.
Mistake #4: Refusing to set aside trivial preferences. So many of us major in minor subjects as our way of life. We allow our precious life energies to be spent on worry about what others think of us, petty concerns about appearance, or what labels we are wearing. We consume our lives in anguish over squabbles with family or coworkers and fill our conversation with drapery talk. Ego becomes the driving force of our lives with our self-importance persistently taking center stage.
We see hunger and starvation on our planet, but become impatient when we must wait five extra minutes for a table in a restaurant, where half the food will be discarded as garbage. We hear about children maimed and killed by guns and gunmen by the thousands, yet we accept it as a condition that we can do nothing about. In our own personal lives, too many of us believe that we are unable to make a difference on the larger issues, so we immerse ourselves in our game of ego-sponsored trivial pursuit.
Mistake #5: Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and study. It seems that when we finish our formal schooling, we have completed our development of the mind. We have adopted the credo of reading and studying for the purpose of taking the examination and earning our merit badge in the form of a diploma or an advanced degree. Once the certificate is in hand, the need to study and refine the mind is terminated. Cicero must have noticed this same tendency among his fellow Roman citizens and warned them that it could be a prelude to the downfall of their empire. And so it came to pass.
Our lives are greatly enriched when we immerse ourselves in literature and spiritual writing, not because we are going to be tested, but purely for the sake of personal enrichment. You will find that daily reading and study provide you with a deeper and richer experience of life in all ways. This is particularly gratifying when you know that you are doing it out of choice rather than as an assignment.
Mistake #6: Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do. Obviously we are still guilty of this sixth mistake. Too often we feel victimized by those who are imposing on us their views of what we should be doing and how we should be living. The result is a high state of tension and resentment. No one wants to be told how to live or what to do. One of the specific traits of highly functioning people is that they have no desire or investment in controlling other people. We need to remind ourselves of this truth, and take the advice of Voltaire in his last line of Candide, “Learn to cultivate your own garden.”
If others want to grow cabbage and you choose to grow corn, then so be it. Yet there is this propensity to peer into the lives of others and insist that they believe and care in the same way as we do. It is a common mistake of families to impose their will on everyone else in the unit. It is also a common mistake of government officials who are determining what is best for everyone. If Cicero’s six mistakes are an unwelcome part of your life, consider the following six suggestions:
Put your attention on your own life and how to improve it. Catch yourself when you are engaged in the habit of verbally crushing others, and stop instantly. The more you become aware of tearing down the buildings of others, the sooner
