To Friend or not to Friend, that is the question.
11 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in CULTURE
By now most of us are familiar with the story behind the creation of the mega social media platform, Facebook; or at the very least you may be a member of Facebook . Who can say where one finds such brilliance to launch such a tremendously successful, technologically engaging endeavor? Do the stars and planets align at just the right time, or is it just plain luck as offered by Seneca, who wrote (just before not very efficiently killing himself), that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Well?
This got me thinking. My intention today is to blog my thoughts about Facebook, but then I stumble on this quote and my investigative nature wants to know more about Seneca; Lucius Annaeus Seneca. I wanted to write about the personal impact that Facebook has on people like me and the global connectivity that this networking service provides, but what I found is that Wikipedia does a far better job at providing all the intricate details on Facebook. From its inception to the statistics that confirm its historical impact on the world; if you want the facts… just hit this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook and you’ll be there.
So, as usual, I find myself going down another search engine bunny trail but one that provides much more interest to me.
Wikipedia provides the following:
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (ca. 4 BCE – 65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one workhumorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. He was later forced to commit suicide for complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate this last of the Julio-Claudian emperors; however, he may have been innocent.[1][2] His father was Seneca the Elder and his older brother was Gallio.
That part about being forced to commit suicide really grabbed my attention!
I find it unimaginable that one can order another person to commit suicide; that punishment for a crime involving an alleged conspiracy would result in a sentence that you kill yourself? Nero must have had mucho power! Ironically, Seneca had once been one of Nero’s trusted advisers.
Where was I when ancient history and the Roman Empire was being taught or lectured in school? Why didn’t I find this fascinating then? One word, boys.
Back to Seneca…
Seneca was a popular philosopher and a renowned essayist who wrote a lot about tragedy, moral issues and satire. His influence was evident in the writings of other medieval authors of his time who often included him as a character in their own works. A self-professed stoic who had a weakness to engage in affairs with married women, stretching the boundaries of his teachings on restraint and self-discipline. Later, in the early Christian church, he was characterized as a “humanist saint”. This information presents me with an image of a man who would rather have you do as he wrote, but not as he lived. I’m conflicted with the persona he created versus the true nature of his character; a credible, fascinating philosopher, statesmen and writer, victim to the debauchery and excess of Roman society?
Much like the writings of the prophet, King Solomon, who in the book of Proverbs desires to provide instruction, wisdom and insight regarding prudent behavior, Seneca also has MANY pearls of philosophical quotes attributed to his name; such as: “A man’s as miserable as he thinks”, “As long as you live, keep learning how to live”, “Life, if lived well, is long enough”, and my favorite, “There is no delight in owning anything unshared”.
How true Seneca, how true! If only the two could have met, perhaps Solomon could have advised our Seneca on the virtues and rewards of living a moral life.
And now the bunny trail ends, or is it just beginning? A new quest for knowledge and enrichment for the soul. I wish I could “friend” Seneca, Plato, Aristotle and Solomon. I wonder if they’d “friend” me back?
