Let's Agree - An Old Story

One of the many benefits to getting old is the advantage of having seen most everything happen before. 

A person who has been around a while begins to recognize stuff that is reoccurring. He has observed the results obtained from the decisions that were made. At the time they were made people used whatever information that was available to them and maybe with some knowledge of history.

It really doesn't matter if we were to look at decisions made a thousand years ago, or those being made at this very moment. There are two things that one can be reasonably be certain of. 

1. The unchanging nature of human behavior. 

2. The cyclical nature of everything in the Universe. 

An older person, through retrospection, gains insight and can almost anticipate what the probable result will be for a decision being made currently. They've seen it so often.

Wise people in the past, knew the benefit they received from years of experience and the recognizable repetition of human events. The result was, people began relying on their elders to lead them. They were choosing leaders who were older and wiser (sages).

I think it's easier to be a sage if you're older, right? Wisdom, in my opinion, is having lived long enough to have observed, learned and to accept the reality of it all. 

Today we are hearing the unhappy voices of American citizens calling for our politicians to come together and agree to solve the many problems we are facing. Why can't they agree?

Despite their differences, we expect them to understand that we are their responsibility and that they should do the right thing. 

Politicians working together to come to an agreement? Settle their differences? Work together for the common good? Live up to the oath they took? Duh! Now before you go all negative on me, there is an answer to all of this, and it was put forth many centuries ago. 

Sages like Socrates and Plato worked very hard to get the politicians of their day to be good leaders. They knew that among the politicians, there were some who were corrupt, others who were incapable due to their lack of experience and those who still had not developed past their ego state or self-interest motives. 

                

Those old fellows were providing the answers, but nobody listened.  The politicians didn't listen; The world religions didn't listen. Religions have remained at war for centuries. Politicians remain intent on opposing the other's point of view. It’s easy to see why they just can’t, or won't, “settle their differences”. 

Religions have defined different Gods and destinies. 

Politicians have defined themselves within different economic systems. 

Each, in their own way, is seeking agreement.  What drives them to fight for their way of thinking is the basic need to be "right".

Based on all of this, how can we think for a minute that elected politicians are capable of "let's agree" type behavior or for seeking peace? Each faction wants what they want in the way they see it - as in the unending problems we've seen between religions, sects and nations. 

Then why do we still spend our time looking for popular, powerful or wealthy leaders? Yes, those could be important factors, but what we've just discussed indicates that we need leaders who have something that is usually absent in the typical candidates.

If the ancient philosophers have any credibility, then we should be looking for older individuals who have reached a level of maturity and selfless achievement. We are naive to think that there are really that many selfless people in Congress who will put aside their egos, their need for power and their personal opinions. 

Even though we know that it’s practically impossible in any other human conflict, we expect Congress to produce the agreements we need.

We would be wise to select very special people to be our leaders.  They need to be fully-developed, enlightened adults who have actually reached the stage of being objective and duty-bound. That takes a lifetime to accomplish, something that aging helps to bring about. 

Plato advised humanity a long time ago, to pick their leaders carefully. “Only philosophers should be kings”. It is one place where old really counts. It's very difficult to find a young sage. 

The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers become rulers in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.”
― Plato, Plato's Republic