The fool’s life

“The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly towards the future,” quotes Roman Stoic Seneca, in a passage he attributes to Epicurus. When he asks himself who that fool is, his conclusion comes quickly: “the fool’s life… [is] our own, for we are plunged by our desires into ventures which will harm us, but certainly never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago; nor do we reflect how pleasant it is to demand nothing, how noble it is to be contented and not dependent upon Fortune.” (From Letter 15, On Brawn and Brains) On a similar theme, he quotes Epicurus in another letter saying, “Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the whole world.” (Letter 9, On Philosophy and Friendship)

Seneca’s words vs. deeds

These words may sound a bit “rich” coming from one of the wealthiest and, for a time, one of the most successful men in ancient Rome. Seneca was known to have a fortune of 300 million sestertii and several villas (the average Roman senator had about 5 million sestertii at the time, to put this into perspective) and wielded political power, too.

As Seneca biographer Emily Wilson points out, Seneca often wrote about consumerism and wealth, and his work showed he was obsessed with how riches affected the wealthy person. He clearly was concerned with the seductive appeal, and possibly anti-virtuous impact, of the finer things in a time when most of the world had no access to them. Wilson quotes Seneca saying that “We would belong to ourselves if those things were not ours,” and on consumerism, “it’s not thirst; it’s disease.”

And yet he kept acquiring more and more stuff, and not in the most squeaky-clean way. He made money especially through his connection to the corrupt emperor Nero, for whom he served as tutor and advisor. This did not go unnoticed by his countrymen and women—he was teased as “super-rich Seneca” in his day, and his antiwealth philosophical writings have been derided for hypocrisy ever since.

I agree, and yet I wonder. Can we picture any billionaires today worrying about the harmful effects of wealth and material possessions on themselves or on their peers? Do they write publicly that they are unsatisfied “fools,” to quote Seneca, constantly seeking more and more but never contented? Do they see themselves as imperfect beings dependent upon Fortune - or instead, complain about the stock market or restrictions imposed by governments that hamper their ability to make even more money? One gets the sense that the ethos of “whoever dies with the most stuff wins” still prevails as the super-wealthy amass even more, and that being “master of the whole world” is in fact the goal.

Modern billionaires and their pledges

There are some very well-off people who do show concerns about their accumulation of funds. Rather than decrying the detrimental impact of wealth on their character, though, they take a tactical approach - putting cash into foundations that carry their own names (at the same time, helping them avoid huge tax bills in the process… so it may not be completely unselfish).

Perhaps the most concerned, and admirable, are those who have signed the “Giving Pledge”, created in 2010—now a group of 236 people with a net worth of $1 billion or more who have promised to give away their wealth to charitable causes. The pledgers range in age from their 30s to their 90s. (The number of billionaires throughout the world today has rapidly grown; to put the pledgers figure in perspective, there are 2,755 billionaires worldwide as of 2021, according to one count.)

Seneca words his best effort to combat the greed that drove him?

In Seneca’s day, there was no large-scale organized philanthropy; there was no giving pledge. Perhaps Seneca’s philosophical contemplation and writing were his best efforts at combatting the greed that drove him to acquire more and more wealth—funds that he surely used, in a very uncertain ancient world, to try to insulate himself from political and social dangers. It didn’t work, of course: Seneca was famously forced to kill himself after being caught plotting against Nero in 65 AD.

Seneca’s words still inspire

Seneca’s writings, however, show that we can self-reflect on the things we see as problematic barriers to philosophy and living well, even if we ourselves can’t fully overcome them in our daily lives. We can put energy into improving ourselves and our impulses, and question our own desires and drives. As someone who would like to be more minimalist and more capable of “turning off ” the consumerist pull that surrounds me in today’s culture (not to mention in my physical and digital inboxes—constantly full of ads and offers), Seneca’s words still inspire me. Perhaps writing and contemplating was Seneca’s therapy, and today, it could serve that role for the rest of us, too.

Meredith Kunz is author of The Stoic Mom Substack and Blog https://thestoicmom.substack. com. Website: www.thestoicmom.com. On Twitter @thestoicwoman

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