Individual Citizenship
Weekly Meditation:
In 1910 Theodore Roosevelt, then the former President of America, traveled to France to address the Sorbonne. His speech came in the months leading up to the First World War — it was titled Citizenship in a Republic.
Towards the beginning of his speech he stated that “it is a mistake for any nation to merely copy another; but it is even a greater mistake, it is a proof of weakness in any nation, not to be anxious to learn from one another and willing and able to adapt that learning to the new national conditions…” During a time of increasing nationalism Roosevelt was urging his colleagues from across Europe to look to one another with a spirit of collaboration and innovation. He was trying to counter the prevailing thoughts of the time by providing the carrot of material gain and prosperity.
Teddy argued that in a Republic every citizen needs to be good for the social contract to be upheld. But he argued that the average of society “cannot be kept high unless the standards of the leaders is very much higher.” It is the responsibility of a leader to raise the average. This is as true for politics as it is for work or family.
Roosevelt bashed critics who spoke ill of leaders without having the courage to stand up and lead themselves. This speech is famously known as the Man in the Arena because of the following paragraph:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
As you go through the week think about how you act as an individual citizen — in your family, office, community, and nation. Are you setting the bar higher for your peers? Are you critiquing others without stepping up yourself?
Articles From Around The Web:
I hope you take these thoughts and apply them this week.
p.s. if you enjoyed this article you can download my free ebook The Art of Stoic Perception.
