Dead Men Tell a Lot of Tales, Actually.

List the people you admire and look to for advice…

I don’t like most of you.

And when I say “Most of you”, I’m talking about most people out in the world. You’re obnoxious, flawed, hateful, and angry. Based on what I’ve seen and read, it’s always been that way.

But. There are a few people out there that I like. People who have gone to great lengths to help other people, who can hold a standard worth striving for.

There’s just one problem.

Most of you are dead.

The version of a dead man that you get is likely not much like the real thing. These heroes of their time were likely just as flawed as the men who will become heroes of our time. In knowing them, we are capable of analyzing all their flaws in real time.

It’s a neat trick. Makes it almost impossible to genuinely look up to living humans.

On the other hand, dead people get mythologized, idealized, moralized, and slotted into one of two categories: hero or villain.

This makes it easy to look up to dead people, like George Washington, who people have moralized and idealized to the point of burying the bad things he did, or justifying them.

Or, perhaps Marcus Aurelius is your chosen hero. To be clear, he wrote some great philosophical literature. He also persecuted Christians and engaged in nepotism by letting his idiot son become the next emperor, instead of adopting someone who could actually do the job.

But, if you look up Marcus Aurelius on YouTube, Google, or social media, what you’re likely to see is a whole lot of hero worship.

People love looking up to dead guys.

And by people, I most certainly mean me.

Aurelius’ writings inspire me, they strike a chord. I get all the benefits of the best of him, and I get to ignore the “worst”, because the “worst” isn’t going to affect me.

Contrary to modern “leaders” whose “worst” will potentially ruin me financially, harm people I know, destroy the environment, etc.

So yeah, dead men (and women) are pretty neat.

They tell a lot of really good tales, really nice, virtuous, moral tales. You can latch onto and love all their good things they did.

You just gotta ignore all the bad stuff that people don’t like talking about.