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| Daniel Ellsberg |
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
- Socrates
A while back, I mentioned a book by Daniel Ellsberg, Truth And Consequence, but I didn't dwell too much on the book itself. While I didn't say so in my past blog posting, I hadn't yet finished the book as I wrote that blog posting, which was mainly focused on "The Ellsberg Paradox."
I have now finished Truth And Consequence, and it brought to mind the saying, attributed to Socrates (and duplicated above), that "the unexamined life is not worth living."
Ellsberg's book is, essentially, a selection of Ellsberg's thoughts - and his "self-examination" - during the period from 1963 to 2021. His editors looked through all his papers, and his voluminous notebooks, in which Ellsberg put down his thoughts, just as he had them. The book demonstrates that Ellsberg's life was a very thoroughly "examined life."
If Socrates is convincing, and we recognize that we should all be seeking to lead an "Examined Life," then we might each start up our own notebook habit, and see what we come up with, as we consider our own challenges, opportunities, victories, failures, and successes. The following few observations, excerpted from the many such observations collected in Ellsberg's book, provide us with a pretty good model of what it means to live that kind of "Examined Life."
I would further like to think that those reading this blog posting, and the very abbreviated selection of Ellsberg's thoughts that I present here, will decide that Ellsberg was right, and that his call for a "moral revolution" is not only appropriate, but actually necessary. Should any reader, in fact, come to that conclusion, the result of their examination of themselves, and the realities we confront, will convince them that they must change their lives - even just a little bit - and that they must work to ensure that this world into which we have been born can and will continue to exist:
- Viewing ourselves as powerless, as "not responsible," is a way to escape feeling guilty about what we are collaborating in." [Page 55, 1971]
- Someone told me recently, "I wish I had your guts." My reply: "What makes you think that you don't!" [Page 57, 1971]
- "They who can treat secretly the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace." [Page 75, 1974]
- "The loss of awareness of evil, of the meaning of what one does, is the evil of our time." [Page 82, 1975]
- "I believe, against most but not all historical experience, that popular sovreignty can be achieved and can avert the worst." [Page 154, 1987]
- The U.S. may have been closer to a right-wing coup more often than is generally realized.... We are in a struggle for the soul of this country." [Pages 166-167, 1988]
- "Fortunately, with the help of other Americans, the resistance to presidential pursuit of the war taught me a new form of courage and patriotism, as well as better ways of serving my country. That is why I am writing a memoir now: to tell future officials, don't wait." [Page 205, 2000]
- "We are all passengers of United Airlines Flight 93. How will we use this precious time?" [Page 209, 2001]
- "This is a time for ordinary people to do extraordinary things. It is time to defend the American Revolution." [Page 239, 2006]
- "My research of the last 62 years deserves attention. My beliefs and predictions (not in my books) and the questions I raise have never been more relevant." [Page 272, 2020]
- "We need a moral revolution of caring about the distant future, even if we can't get there in the end. What can we expect? Prepare to step into the moment when sudden surprise opportunities for change arise.... Knock on doors, many doors, not knowing which may open. Be ready to drive through." [Page 275, 2021].
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