2days thought...
Cato fought a losing battle. He was trying to preserve a Republic that was old and creaky in a rapidly changing world. He was trying to be honest and good in a political world in which corruption was the norm–clinging to idealism, as Cicero said, and refusing to accept that reality was the ‘dregs of Romulus.’ Cato was going up against the most insatiable of foes, the ambition, the ego of a future tyrant.
Yet throughout it, he was implacable–when they tried to shout him down, when they threatened him, when they tried to kill him. Still, he kept trying.
Was Cato perfect? Far from it. He was an aristocrat. He was impractical. He did not compromise or play well with others. Cato was not totally in the right…but he was more in the right than Julius Caesar, who in the end, marched troops against his own country.
Cato could have folded. He could have fled. He could have tried to play both sides. He did not. Instead, he gave everything to this cause he knew was just, he gave everything to protect the ideals Rome was founded on. He did not succeed, but he did the next best thing: He gave his best.
Which is what we have to do–when we find a cause that is right. We must be like Matthew Arnold’s beautiful poem The Last Word, we must be like Cato.
They out-talk’d thee, hiss’d thee, tore thee.
Better men fared thus before thee;
Fired their ringing shot and pass’d,
Hotly charged—and broke at last.
Charge once more, then, and be dumb!
Let the victors, when they come,
When the forts of folly fall,
Find thy body by the wall.
Yet throughout it, he was implacable–when they tried to shout him down, when they threatened him, when they tried to kill him. Still, he kept trying.
Was Cato perfect? Far from it. He was an aristocrat. He was impractical. He did not compromise or play well with others. Cato was not totally in the right…but he was more in the right than Julius Caesar, who in the end, marched troops against his own country.
Cato could have folded. He could have fled. He could have tried to play both sides. He did not. Instead, he gave everything to this cause he knew was just, he gave everything to protect the ideals Rome was founded on. He did not succeed, but he did the next best thing: He gave his best.
Which is what we have to do–when we find a cause that is right. We must be like Matthew Arnold’s beautiful poem The Last Word, we must be like Cato.
They out-talk’d thee, hiss’d thee, tore thee.
Better men fared thus before thee;
Fired their ringing shot and pass’d,
Hotly charged—and broke at last.
Charge once more, then, and be dumb!
Let the victors, when they come,
When the forts of folly fall,
Find thy body by the wall.
56-60, M