A Fleece of Gold; Five Lessons from the Fable of Jason and the Golden FleeceGiven, Charles Stewart
Philosophy
A Fleece of Gold; Five Lessons from the Fable of Jason and the Golden Fleece
Given, Charles Stewart
Conduct of life; Jason -- (Mythological character); Success
A combination of diverse and multi-form contributions assimilated from a
complex human life, your being looks to many sources for its development;
from the lowest phase of experience to the highest. These influences you
must acknowledge as emanating from a social system--influences which you
are totally powerless, alone, to exert upon yourself. For instance, a man
can not be his own educator in all that the term implies--he can not make
his own books, print his own newspapers; if he could he would have to look
outside of himself for the data necessary for his use. In other words, no
man lives to himself alone. He can no more be separated from the social
order of things and retain character value, than any one of a hundred
square inches of canvas in an oil painting, separated from the rest, would
constitute a picture. A single note in a musical composition, however
exquisite the piece may be, has comparatively little value taken by
itself; only when it assumes relationship with other notes and becomes
governed by the law of harmony, does it fulfill its mission and become a
valuable factor.
Then, as units of a social whole, we have obligations other than those
affecting "individual" problems. Society has a rightful claim upon every
one of its members. "You are not your own, you are bought with a price,"
is true in a larger sense than a merely Scriptural one. For what one
becomes is really, as already stated, but the effect of combined
influences brought to bear upon one's life by the forces of human society.
Therefore, society expects us to reciprocate, and is just in its claim;
just as parents are entitled to the high esteem and reciprocation of their
offspring. It demands of each one of us all that we are capable of
producing, exacting the highest order of service as well. The paying of
taxes does not placate the demands which society makes upon you. It
demands yourself--body, mind, and soul--not in a passive sense, but in
active relationship to your environment. And every man is morally bound
to respect the claims thus made upon him.
The highest socialistic conception is not that which contemplates an
equitable distribution of property and labor. But assuming a more rational
ground, it believes in equal rights to all; is based upon a right
proportion of motives rather than upon the equalization of property
considerations. It is both humanitarian and utilitarian. It seeks its own
principally, yet is generous in the ulterior aim. This is the ideal
relation between the individual and the social order. The greatest duty
confronting each one in the world, and the one which all should earnestly
embrace, is the duty of making the most of one's self with the ulterior
view of contributing the largest measure of usefulness to his fellow-men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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