Old Age and Wealth

Most days I don’t think of myself as particularly old, but it helps not to look in the mirror. Okay, I’ll be honest.  I think about old age more than I should.  And I fear it.

I recently started rereading Plato’s Republic and, low and behold, one the first conversations between Socrates and his friends is about old age, and about the whether or not wealth eases the difficulties of growing old. For a conversation that occurred about 400 years before Jesus conversed with his disciples, this conversation seems remarkably modern.  Here it is, presented as a script for a radio play. For ease of reading, I’ve made a few minor changes to the wording and omitted a few lines that required footnotes to be fully understand.

__________BEGIN SOCRATIC CONVERSATION__________

Old age and wealth: A conversation in which Socrates talks with Cephalus, an elderly friend, about how it feels to grow old.

Clephalus:  Socrates, you don’t come down to see me as often as you should. If it were still easy for me to walk to town, you wouldn’t have to come here; I’d come to you. But, as it is, you ought to come here more often, for you should know that as the physical pleasures wither away, my desire for conversation and its pleasure grows.

Socrates:  Indeed, I enjoy talking with the very old, for we should ask them how the road of old age travels, what kind of road it is and whether it is rough and difficult or smooth and easy. I’d gladly find out from you what you think about this, as you have reached the point in life the poets call “the threshold of old age”. Is it a difficult time? What is your report?

Cephalus: By god, Socrates, I’ll tell you exactly what I think. A number of us, who are more or less the same age, often get together and talk about it. The majority complain about the lost pleasures they remember from their youth, those of sex, drinking parties, feasts, and the other things that go along with them, and my friends get angry as if they had been deprived of important things and as if they had lived well then but are now hardly living at all. Some others moan about the abuse heaped on old people by their relatives, and because of this they repeat over and over that old age is the cause of many evils. But I don’t think they blame the real cause, Socrates, for if old age were really the cause, I should have suffered in the same way and so should everyone else of my age. But as it is, I’ve met some who don’t feel like that in the least.

Indeed, I was once present when someone asked the poet Sophocles: “How are you as far as sex goes? Can you still make love with a woman?”

“Quiet man,” Sophocles replied. “I am very glad to have escaped from all that, like a slave who has escaped from a savage master.”

I thought at the time that Sophocles was right, for old age brings peace and freedom from such things. When the appetites relax and cease to solicit us, everything Sophocles said comes to pass and we escape from many mad masters.  In these matters and in those concerning relatives, the real problem is not old age, but the way people live. If they are moderate and contented, old age, too, is only moderately onerous; if they aren’t moderate and contented, both old age and youth are hard to bear.

Socrates: When you say things like that, Cephalus, I suppose that the majority of people don’t agree. They think you bear old age more easily, not because of the way you live, but because you are wealthy. For the wealthy, they say, have many consolations.

Cephalus: That’s true; they don’t agree. And there is something in what they say, though not as much as they think.  A rich person might find old age hard to bear. But a bad person would not be at peace with himself in old age, even if he were wealthy.

Socrates: Did you inherit most of your wealth, Cephalus, or did you make it for yourself?

Cephalus: What did I make for myself, you asked! As a money-maker I am sort of between my grandfather and my father. My grandfather inherited about the same amount of wealth as I possess, but multiplied it many times. My father diminished that amount to even less than I have now. As for me, I am satisfied to leave my sons not less, but a little more than I inherited.

Socrates: The reason I asked is that you don’t seem to love money too much. And those who haven’t made their own money are usually like you. But those who have made it for themselves are twice as fond of it as those who haven’t. Just as poets love their poems and fathers love their children, those who have made their own money don’t just care about it because it’s useful, but because it’s something they’ve made themselves. This makes them poor company, for they haven’t a good word to say about anything except money.

Cephalus: That’s true.

Socrates: It certainly is.  But tell me something else. What’s the greatest good you’ve received from being wealthy?

Cephalus: What I have to say probably wouldn’t persuade most people.  But you know, Socrates, that when someone thinks his end is near, he becomes frightened and concerned about things he didn’t fear before. It’s then that the stories we’re told about Hades, about how people who’ve been unjust here must pay the penalty there – stories he used to make fun of – twist his soul this way and that for fear they’re true. Whether because of the weakness of old age or because he is now closer to what happens in Hades and has a clearer view of it, he examines himself to see whether he has been unjust to anyone.

If he finds many injustices in his life, he awakes from sleep in terror and lives in anticipation of bad things to come. But someone who knows that he hasn’t been unjust has sweet good hope as his constant companion – a nurse in his old age, as Pindar says.

It is in this connection that wealth is most valuable, I’d say, not for every man but for a decent and orderly one. Wealth can do a lot to save us from having to cheat or deceive someone against our will and from having to depart for that other place in fear because we owe sacrifice to a god or money to a person. Wealth has many other uses, but, benefit for benefit, I’d say that this is how it is most useful.

_________END OF SOCRATIC CONVERSATION___________

So, if I, John Max Jr., am worried about old age, perhaps rather than looking in the mirror or into the state of my bank account, I’d best look into the state of my soul. Now that is a tough one – counting my acts of justice and injustice and worrying about the balance of my words, deeds and decisions.  Will there be enough time left?

Coming later – Socrates on justice.

Here is a link to an on-line copy of Plato’s Republic: http://www.literaturepage.com/read/therepublic.html

The conversation in this blog occurred near the beginning of Book I.