1. Do you ask how the news reached me, and who informed me, that you were entertaining this idea, of which you had said nothing to a single soul? It was that most knowing of persons, – rumor [rumor]. "What," you say, "am I such a great personage that I can stir up rumor?" Now there is no reason why you should measure yourself according to this part of the world; have regard only to the place where you are dwelling. 2. Any point which rises above adjacent points is great, at the spot where it rises. For greatness is not absolute; comparison increases it or lessens it. A ship which looms large in the river seems tiny when on the ocean. A rudder which is large for one vessel, is small for another.
3. So you in your province are really of importance, though you scorn yourself. Men are asking what you do, how you dine, and how you sleep, and they find out, too; hence there is all the more reason for your living circumspectly. Do not, however, deem yourself truly happy until you find that you can live before men's eyes, until your walls protect but do not hide you; although we are apt to believe that these walls surround us, not to enable us to live more safely, but that we may sin more secretly. 4. I shall mention a fact by which you may weigh the worth of a man's character: you will scarcely find anyone who can live with his door wide open. It is our conscience, not our pride, that has put doorkeepers at our doors; we live in such a fashion that being suddenly disclosed to view is equivalent to being caught in the act. What profits it, however, to hide ourselves away, and to avoid the eyes and ears of men? 5. A good conscience welcomes the crowd, but a bad conscience, even in solitude, is disturbed and troubled. If your deeds are honourable, let everybody know them; if base, what matters it that no one knows them, as long as you yourself know them? How wretched you are if you despise such a witness!--Letter 43, Seneca Translated by Richard Mott Gummere [with modest changes]
Letter 43 is a mere 217 words in Latin. Not unlike Socrates, Seneca presents himself interested in rumor surrounding his (would be) pupils. He doesn't use 'fama' here, which he did back in letter 13, but rumor which is etymologically related to shouting/noise even (politically) the voice of (to use a Hobbesianism) the multitude. (Whereas fama, from which our fame is derived, is connected to speaking/talking.)
Because Seneca tends (e.g., Letter 32) to be dismissive in his Letters about that what is esteemed by the crowd (market-place, etc.), often going so far as to advocate (inner) exile or withdrawal from it, it is surprising that here he recommends what we would call, transparency; the crowd can be summoned by a good conscience [Bona conscientia turbam advocat]. More subtly, the desire for (what we would call) privacy is presented as itself a sign of bad conscience.
One way to make sense of Seneca's claim here is that if you are going to attract notice (because locally you stick out), then you should live the kind of live that can withstand mass scrutiny. This is what contemporary friends (e.g., Piketty) of transparency tell us, too.*
But the situation is more tricky for three reasons. First, Seneca is sometimes explicit that the crowd's judgment is corrupted in an imperfect society (e.g., Letter 7). Second, this is subtly recognized in the Letter, because he introduces his measure [inspired by aestimes] in terms of a kind of cost-benefit analysis; if you are the kind of person who will attract notice, and who who wishes to benefit/profit [prodest] from the crowd, then you should live the kind of live that can withstand mass scrutiny. This may be thought sensible (what we may call) second-best advice that is compatible with the thought that you should live the kind of life that will make you entirely invisible to the crowd. Lucilius, by contrast, is pursuing political advancement.**
Now, one need not be Adam Smith to note (recall) that the "disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition...is...the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments."+ The reason I mention it here -- and this is my third reason -- is that it is by no means obvious the crowd will always admire the virtuous (politician, celebrity, etc.).
Perhaps, because the crowd is by definition an inconstant and imperfect judge, Seneca's advice to those that wish to benefit from public attention should be taken as a maxim that makes life better worth living even when the public thinks otherwise.
*One political problem with the general commitment to transparency is that it also can be a way to hide things in plain sight.
**This is not the first time Seneca alerts the reader to the thought that the advice to Lucilius is suited to his audience (recall).
+Seneca, of course, knows a thing about being rich and famous and undoubtedly assumes his reader knows.
Comments