I’m putting this here to remind my future self:
i. Anywhere you can lead your life, you can lead a good one.
Lives are led at court.… Then good ones can be.
Meditations 5:16.
I can live a good life even in this place: a city and state festooned with politicians hell-bent on short-sighted, self-enriching adventures.
Will I vote with my feet? Perhaps. We have already made scouting trips for that purpose.
All of that is fine. Move to a different place to seek something finer. But do not leave this place and live elsewhere in the vain belief that you can escape self-aggrandizing buffoons and corruption amongst the politicians. These characteristics are some of the defining elements of what causes a person to seek political office.
Not all, but enough of them. And the higher the office, it seems, the more likely you are to find a bullshit person. There is a reason why we praise a Ghandi, a Mandela, a Lincoln. They are exceedingly rare. And flawed, as are we all. Even Marcus Aurelius.
Clearly there is some problem in my soul that needs to be worked out. So much bile! This is why I write: to reveal self to self. Something to work on.
And one more thing. When you move to a different town, a different state? You take yourself with you.