Rome is Burning - sooooooo Read a Book

Eric Wilson - 2013

In our modern arrogance, we like to believe that the happenings in our lives and world today are unique.  In truth, it feels the same to be alive today as it did a thousand years ago.  All of humanity’s big questions have been previously considered, weighed, and discussed by brilliant scholars who devoted their lives to thinking it all out – thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and numerous others.  The lessons of classical literature carry as much weight today – if not more – than ever.  They contain information that is directly applicable to your life.  They contain insights into what is happening in the world and why.  They contain the “secret decoder ring” to reveal many of the mysteries of what may be yet to come.  Reading the classics develops an understanding of the human condition and a deeper appreciation of modern problems.  Don’t believe me?  Try reading Ben Franklin’s Autobiography or Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws without learning something.

 I am not limiting this to historical texts commonly connected to the founding of America, though.  While this may seem patriotic or historic, if you truly wish to walk in the footsteps of our founding fathers you need to read the classics from different eras, regions, and genres.  The best thinkers of past centuries – people like Bacon, Plato, or Aristotle – are an excellent way to achieve new insights and gain deeper understanding of the human species and the world we live in.  Try reading Descartes Meditations without asking yourself questions about who you are.

 Likewise, it is equally if not more important to lose yourself and read Dickens, Shakespeare, or Beowulf as well.  It is in many of these fictional classics that you find true historical perspective.  It is here you find human nature and see intent clearer.  It is in these books you see today through the eyes and pages of hundreds or even a thousand years prior.  Don’t believe me?  Try reading Atlas Shrugged without seeing a little or a lot of today in every page.

 We have all lived through examples of a “Catch-22,” and have been told that we must show “grace under pressure.”  We have been warned “neither a borrower nor a lender be,” yet as teams we should be “all for one and one for all.”  Do we know “for whom the bells tolls?”  Certainly, it’s “elementary, my dear Watson” (while Holmes never stated this exact phrase, he is oft misquoted this way).

 Classic literature opens a lifetime of thinking and feeling and experiencing life in terms larger than ourselves, and yet strikes at the essence of who we are as individuals.  Its benefits are watching our humanity in others in the past as we share in it in our daily lives.  It makes more relevant the things around us and polishes us in an unfinished world.  It makes us more enlightened than the majority of nearsighted sheep of today.

 “Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best the books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely nearsighted person who scorns eyeglasses.  He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else.  And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.

 There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind.

 Nothing is more needed than to overcome the modernist’s snobbishness.” – Albert Einstein

 Reading the classics focuses more on broad knowledge, critical thinking, history and its repercussions and the great ideas and questions that have driven Western Civilization for two millennia.  When studying the classics, they inspire deep thinking, intelligent questions and spirited debate.  They require study, analysis and the ability to clearly communicate – all skills that have been (until recently) lost or pushed aside in favor of specialization.

 Although it is unfortunate that the intellectual heritage of humanity is being forgotten, you can use this to your benefit.  We are in a crisis today, and there are dire consequences to the decisions that are being made daily.  Rome is burning and life as we know it is changing.  The answers are available and history is repeating itself.  You have the tools and you have the opportunity to discover the answers.  Try reading more of the classics without improving your mind and giving yourself an advantage over the status quo of society today.