Saturday, June 21, 2014

Non Nobis Solum-Not for Ourselves Alone

What a worthy slogan and sentiment! What if almost
everyone took this as their watchword? What a world
we would be...a far better one. This expression comes
from Cicero in his Duties; few have ever had the vision
and cogency of historian and philosopher Cicero--oh
Cicero and Solon, where are you two when we need
your wisdom, now more than ever before? Before these
polymaths of Ancient Rome and Athens there was a
use of Non Nobis in Psalms 115.1, The Bible, where
"not to ourselves" as a phrase is stated twice.

Chaos is spreading, clearly; the best of the West's talking
head experts are chewing their fingernails while sweating--
things look very dicey to them too. The USA may not,
perhaps cannot, gear up to mount a WWII-style effort
to quell the apparently approaching madness: As
"Policeman of the World", we freely now admit, we are
seriously understaffed, underfunded and (mostly)
uninclined.

The only solution is for almost everyone around the
Earth to care what happens to everyone else along
with themselves...

Non Nobis Solum: by caring for others we will best
serve ourselves as well.

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