Marcus Cicero was a prominent philosopher who lived at the time the Romans began to lose their domainance as a civilization. He was a statesman, poet, orator and a philosopher all combined into one…I think he had a tendency to hit the nail on the head pretty often, and as a critic he excelled. Here are what he thought were “The six mistakes of Man”:Cicero’s Six Mistakes of Man.
- The delusion that personal gain is made by crushing others.
- The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
- Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
- Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
- Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and studying.
- Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.
Well, I have been reading this interesting book by Wayne Dyer called ‘Wisdom of the Ages’ and I found these six mistakes put up there as well. Dyer then gives a personal take of what these mistakes are, which is interesting to read. I, however, had a couple of things to say on this which I will record on this blog entry…
Personal gain for many means getting better than someone else they know. Of course, this is a delusion and many intelligent people are well aware of that, but for for their own strange (and usually lame) reasons they don’t want to shed the illusion – it perhaps gives us a feeling of insecurity and destroys the very foundation of our thought. Dyer gives a very interesting example – there are two ways of having the largest building in town – destroy everyone else’s or build your own biggest building. Most of us try the former. Is this is a mistake? Just because something is a tendency, it doesnt mean that we are acting correctly….
Garfield said this better (to Odie) – don’t worry about the things you can fix, and don’t worry about the things you can’t fix. Worrying is a losing strategy…
Consistently, in both the organizations I have worked in, I have come across people who have absolutely obstinate mindsets – worse than mules, in a sense. They have not a scrap of imagination beyond what is presented to them at some point earlier, and for most of these people, thinking means rearranging their prejudices. Such people are invariably very very good at not getting something done. When something they don’t want to do is presented to them, it becomes impossible! They don’t solve the problem, niether do they brighten up the days of their colleagues, so lose-lose. Stupidity!
Refusing to set aside trivial preferences is another thing I have often observed with people in life and people in organizations. Often times, I have found myself on this path as well, and try as you may, there are hypocrisies and prejudices which we have gained as a result of our conditioning, which are deterrents to imagiative thought and focussed problem solving in the least. So, in life and on the job, we should try and forget these things occasionally, if they are deterring progress somewhere.
There was an instance in which I had argued with someone on how being better read can matter in some trivial situation – for the sole reason that reading gives us perspectives which we don’t obtain otherwise – reading introduces ideas into the mind and more often than not, intelligent people are interesting because they are well read. There are other intelligent people who are more experience than bookish knowledge but for most of us, there are several experiences which are available sparsely or not at all – in these times, it is needed for us to find perspective, opinion and ideas in the writings and works of others. Novels and movies can introduce an empathy to us which we can otherwise seldom find, unless we are close to someone and follow their life closely. All in all, self improvement through the arts is certainly desirable, I think.
The last of Cicero’s six mistakes is that of some of us compelling others amongst us to live as they do. This is different from delegation of tasks and leadership, because in those capacities, people perform a function which is decided upon by systems. More often than not, we find people in our lives who are bent on getting things done their way, and this is because of one of two causes, in my experience: one kind simply are too lazy or indisposed to pay attention and understand the world around them, when lazy, they cannot be corrected easily and when indisposed or preoccupied, they can be triggered. The other kind simply like power – they simply want everyone to do as they say. Usually they realize this is a crappy tactic sometime later, but more often than not they have hard social lessons.
Do send in your takes, since I would like to hear more about what everyone else thinks of this…
now here is an instance of a problem that could be used to put the so-called social sciences to the test. let’s look at this empirically. take point one, and do a study with abunch of people, randomize within a cultural segment, say MBA’s versus engineers. then define your criteria for success, be it money, perceived happiness, etc. then run the stats. are you getting it yet? this is unprovable, opinion, literature, fiction, feel good nonsense. human behaviour is complex and unmeasurable, and there cannot be social sceince or rules for living that apply across large segments of culture. there is only history, culture and religion, and these mechanisms flawed as they are determine our behaviour through memes, the same way genetics defines biology.
[...] clipped from philramble.wordpress.com [...]
“…for most of these people, thinking means rearranging their prejudices”
I laughed at that excellent turn of phrase.
I can’t really say I agree with Dr. Wayne Dyer’s philosophy, but Cicero’s words are as true now as ever. On point 1, however, my observation of myself and others is that competition is just hardwired and there is a part of each of us that wants to get ahead of the other guy. You may not love it, but you accept it as part of your psychological make-up.
Great Post!
Cicero was definitely ahead of his time. It’s not a surprise that his “Six Mistakes of Man” still pertain to life in the 21st Century.
Toujour le meme chose…what was true of the human condition in the age of Cicero remains true today. It is very sad to think that human nature still leads us to make the same “mistakes”.
What is even more sad is that the despite the centuries of teaching, learning and philosophy Homo “Sapiens”are refusing to learn the lessons, which sometimes makes you doubt the accuracy of the “Sapiens” name part of the species.
Having had a wide experience of working with people across the world and acgoss many culture I can make the observation that these “mistakes” are universal.
Dyers example of the building is apt, I often find people who seek to advance their career by denigrating the efforts of others instead of concentrating on their own performance. I have had workmates who would rather have their teeth pulled out with rusty pliers than give credit to a colleague.
Number two reminds me of the prayer ” dear Lord, give me the strength to change the things I can, the fortitude to bear the things I cannot, but most importantly, the wisdom to tell the difference to tell one from the other”
Number three is encapsulated by all the negative workmates you have ever met. e.g. can’t be done, it’ll never work, I can’t see them agreeing to it, oh you think you can do that do you, etc.etc.
think of the advances in Surgery and engineering that we would not be enjoying if the doom sayers
had their way.
Number four…nitpicking fussy pedants sometimes just drive me mad. Just get on with life cos you don’t get a second chance.
Number five, well my old Grandad once told me that it was a bad day that went by when you did not learn something new. Enough said!
Number six. Now here is the real humdinger, of course some ideas will develop that will enhance the lot of man kind, and if they are good enough and true their time will come, as nothing will stop them. But to press them BY FORCE on to unwilling ears must be a mistake.
What makes our species so interesting is the variety of opinion, likes and dislikes that makes possible the art of conversation and debate. It would be a dull world if we all thought the same.