Seneca’s stoicism, or Orwell’s truth a grand debate

Being wealthy, or not, is not wrong... it is more often the hand we are dealt, and while most of us would rather have ‘more,’ most of us would rather have our ‘more’ honesty, and respect.
The philosopher Seneca wrote, 'It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor,' but it’s a platitude, not profound, not insightful and gratuitous.
Hollow words from a man who served the debauched Caligula and Nero, who ‘fiddled while Rome burned.’ Seneca, in fact, was born into wealth, and manipulating his influence became indecently wealthy, yet his philosophies are icons of stoicism, the understanding that we can only control our reactions to external events, having no influence over the events themselves.
That implies that we should simply accept everything that ‘happens,’ but given the traumatic nature of that ‘evolution,’ as we cast our eyes towards the American/Iranian, Russian/Ukrainian, ‘conflicts,’ the unsettling Palestinian, Cuban, Ecuadorean, and even Greenland ‘issues,’ the immigration ‘problems’ uncomfortably destabilising Europe, the thoroughly discomfiting, continuing, Jeffrey Epstien revelations, the extent of global corruption, the global environmental response, the effect on societies of illegal substances, and the threat of another pandemic through hantavirus.
Should we be stoical, or should we be seeking answers? George Orwell’s observation that 'During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act,” is probably what most terrifies the denizens of the political depths.
Our greatest issue, as I see it, is that we can ask all the questions we like, but our intellect is continually being insulted by evasion and artifice, by disguise and obfuscation, delivered with such contempt and dismissal as to make us feel unworthy of response.
President Trump mutters, President Putin intimidates, Prime Minister Starmer denies, President Ramaphosa repudiates, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un threatens, Prime Minister Netanyahu gloats... and so it goes on, with only a few treated with any dignity or respect.
Whether you agree with that statement or not, check out online videos of the conduct of participants in US House of Representative House Committee Sessions where the refusal to answer questions, the evasion, the filibustering, and the absence of accountability are simply astounding.
How do these people sleep at night knowing that we now know they are strangers to the truth, with the temerity to dismiss questions and concerns as ‘none of your business.’ Similarly, the UK Parliament has seen plenty of questions and few answers during their volatile week.
So, what can the ordinary citizen do, apart from the denial that stoicism offers, to seek accountability, and with it, change? The answer, I believe, lies in education, but not education as we know it. The world has changed, yet education has not, as we are still teaching, as a hundred years ago, with the most basic of objectives, to read and write... how or what we say, while forgetting the most important of questions, the why?
Memorisation remains the thrust of assessments, and the format of thoughtful response by way of analysis is given greater importance than interpretation. That’s so wrong!
Think about this... millions of exams take place every year, when students are told to put their best academic foot forward, yet they never get their papers back to review or discuss their thoughts, or the motivation behind them. I know... you’re going to say it’s impossible! But the reality is that trusting teachers, in the exact same way that university lecturers are trusted, where assessments are concerned, would be a simple first step.
More work, yes, but more effective, more rewarding work, for teachers and students. The process of education is currently failing, it’s too generic, and it’s not asking the right questions.
In learning to ask and answer questions better, education will enable us to trash stoicism as the dark presence it is, and to seek the truth it conceals.
For now, we don’t have the answers, because nobody answers our questions.
Just check out the conduct of the, let’s call them civil servants, the government employees and elected officials of the United States.

Ray Petersen The writer is a media consultant