EUDAIMONIA

The attaining of eudaimonia...personal fluorishing... was a key element of the Stoic philosophy of thousands of years ago.  The Stoics believed that personal fulfillment and happiness do not require concretes, beauty, health or wealth, but were obtainable by living a virtuous life in harmony with nature.  Stoic virtues included reason, self-control, wisdom, courage, justice and compassion.  Stoics found no place for anger, envy or jealousy in personal relationships.  They recognized slaves as equals of all men. Stoic schools were closed in Greece by Emperor Justinian 1 in 529 AD because their pagan views were considered to be at odds with Christian faith.

Marcus Aurelius, a leading Stoic, wrote the following:

"If you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping your divine part pure, as if you were bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to this, expecting nothing, but satisfied to live now according to nature, speaking heroic truth in every word that you utter, you will live happy. And there is no man able to prevent this."

One's political views are rooted in one's ethical philosophy.  We desire to live with a political system that allows us to live our perception of a virtuous life.  And perhaps that is the root source of why America's political system is running amok these days...and where we can find the way out of the chaos.  We need to bring candidates out of the murky shadows cast by political parties, and focus our dialogue on the field of ethics, requiring all candidates for public office to reveal, specifically and in detail, their list of virtues...their vision of how to attain eudaimonia.  If I disagree with their vision, or if they are incapable of clearly stating it, they do not get my vote.

And we ought consider reopening those Stoic schools.