Monday, August 01, 2011
Aristotle and the Unexamined Life
I spent was in a Google Plus "Hangout" for an hour or two last night with 5 people all over age 30, one in Great Britain, one in New Zealand, an editor of a Little Rock, Arkansas newspaper who was raised in Kansas (so no southern accent), and several others. The editor was fairly learned but was keeping it well hidden because he was trying to be sociable with the others.
They were decent, pleasant, average people. They did not seem to know what to talk about. They spent a lot of time asking about each others pets, dogs, cats and what they do for entertainment. I listened for the most part. At one point the woman, 50-ish, in New Zealand asked about the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats in America. No one had anything meaningful to say.
I have read about the Republican/Democrat definitions on and off. I spoke for a few minutes about how Lincoln was the first Republican president and how many of the emancipated slaves joined the Republican party. I said that Republican prefer smaller government with less intervention and represent the interests of corporations, entrepreneurs, land owners while the Democrats represent the working class and lean towards larger government with more intervention. I suppose I sounded like an article in Wikipedia. They acted stunned as if I had suddenly pulled off my human mask and revealed my extra-terrestrial identity complete with third eye and antennae.
Only one man in the group was at my level. He stayed after everyone left and we talked about Jefferson, notions regarding separation of church and state. We felt comfortable conversing. We had something to talk about. Apart from that one person the others seemed alien to me.
I feel rather stupid most of the time but certainly not THAT stupid. It is sad that so many people pass through life with so little depth or substance. Aristotle said the unexamined life is not worth living and psychiatrist David Viscott quipped that the unlived life is not worth examining.
