Season 1 Podcast 1 The Marcus Aurelius Complex
The Marcus Aurelius Complex
Welcome to Episode 1 of our weekly Podcast on liberty. This episode is entitled The Marcus Aurelius Complex
Marcus Aurelius was the Roman Emperor from 161-180 AD, during the rise of Christianity. There was a time in my life when I could not get enough of Antonius Marcus Aurelius. I found him mesmerizing, brilliant, and inspiring. He was a stoic, and though he worshiped many gods, he spoke like the most devout Christian. Even today his words could be quoted from any Christian pulpit. The following is just a sample from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius:
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.” Unquote
The odd thing is that the Emperor saw Christianity as a threat to his empire; therefore, he led the fight to destroy Christianity and sought to exterminate all Christians.
I shall let John Stuart Mill, author of On Liberty, describe what I call the Marcus Aurelius Complex:
Quote: “If ever any one, possessed of power, had grounds for thinking himself the best and most enlightened among his contemporaries, it was the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Absolute monarch of the whole civilized world, he preserved through life not only the most unblemished justice, but what was less to be expected from his Stoical breeding, the tenderest heart. The few failings which are attributed to him, were all on the side of indulgence: while his writings, the highest ethical product of the ancient mind, differ scarcely perceptibly, if they differ at all, from the most characteristic teachings of Christ. This man, a better Christian in all but the dogmatic sense of the word, than almost any of the ostensibly Christian sovereigns who have since reigned, … under a solemn sense of duty, authorized the persecution of Christianity. To my mind this is one of the most tragical facts in all history.” Unquote[1]
It is easy to see the analogy between the attitude of Marcus Aurelius about Christianity and the attitude of our liberal government today about Christianity. Both see Christianity as a threat to the state and want to remove Christianity from the nation.
So, what do I mean by the Marcus Aurelius Complex?
I define the Marcus Aurelius Complex as a person or group of persons in power who fight Christianity but see themselves as saints and saviors of virtue and attempt to suppress anyone who opposes their world view. They justify any act of violence because in their minds, the end justifies the means.
[1] John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chapter II, “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion”
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