Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: He who follows others who have started before…
He who follows others who have started before him on the wrong road is surely excusable for having wandered on the highway. A general’s severity may be shown in the case of individual deserters; but where a whole army deserts, it must needs be pardoned.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
When everyone is moving in the wrong direction, individual blame becomes more complicated. Culture teaches us habits long before we choose them: how to spend, what to envy, whom to dismiss, what success is supposed to look like. That does not erase responsibility, but it should make us less eager to condemn. A person who has only seen bad examples may need instruction and a better path more than harsh judgment. Think of a workplace where cutting corners is rewarded, or a family where anger is the only language anyone learned. You can hold people accountable without pretending they invented the whole system. The practical question is: how do we help someone return, rather than merely prove they were wrong? Today, look at one behavior you dislike in another person. Ask what incentives, examples, or fears may be sustaining it. Then choose a response that makes improvement more possible.
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