P6
DIOGENES' METAPHOR
Diogenes (ca. 320 B. C. ) became one of the most famous Greek philosopher. He is popularly depicted as a a scrawny old man busily running around with a lighted lantern in the hand, in daylight, ceaselessly searching for the honest and/or wise man.
Considering that he is known as a prominent
member of the "cynical" philosophical school, (from the Greek "kynikos" = "like
a dog"), that image with the lantern is incongruous.
In fact, the lantern scenario is an expurgated version of him ostentatiously
exposing himself, in the act of self-masturbating in front of the crowded public
in Athens's main "agora" (= public square).
Such a picture is not too shocking in its cultural environment, for the ancient
Greek mythology is probably the most pornographic known to us.
Yet it could be a well chosen metaphor even for our mores.
The lantern scenario is the expurgated
version (for children and minors) of the obscene original in the agora. However,
the two versions are more significantly like the 2 aspects of the same "cynical"
("like a dog") personality:
(1) innocently genuine behavior in sincerity and innocence like a dog, without
malice and deleterious effects on anyone,
(2) hypocritical and deliberately indifferent to the damages or misery caused to
others, as well as overt indifference toward the expressed contempt and hatred
caused in their victims.
Main culprits: shysters and quacks. On the other hand, I do not include with them the large numbers of honest and generous attorneys and physicians.
As prosperity develops, the trend to organize defensively is irresistible, just as it is with the workers unions, but a presumably higher, professional level. They are independent individuals or offices.
Whereas the unionized workers can use the strike as a weapon to obtain their goals, the organized professional associations use manipulative influences. Their power grows with the number of paying members... The more numerous the members and their contributions, the lower the ethical and "practical" the level of the voting majority.
There goes the neighborhood.
The pompous lawyer's oracle: "You must play by the rules", is
used in law as in a poker game.
A doctor always praises another doctor to the inquiring patient, even to a
life-threatening detriment for the hapless patient: "esprit de corps"...
After all, doctors and
lawyers
[under construction]
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