Alcibiades and Sokrates (Indulgence and Temperance = Moderation)
The altar of politics is not absent from my personal life, even though it may sound ridiculous for me to then say that I actually don't like politics, and I never bring it into my temple because it has no place there. We are a temple for all people and are bound by our spiritual devotion alone. But when it comes to the kind of America I want to live in, I take time to vote, and sometimes talk about controversial issues on my personal social media and in my personal life, like gun control, abortion, taxation, wages, and unnecessary wealth. Largely, I would be considered liberal, but I am a registered Independent. I don't identify with any political movement because I like to think of myself as a free thinker. I prefer to be a Chris Aldridge who does what Chris Aldridge thinks is right, and not what my party decides is right.
I think some people, including myself, start out in Hellenism thinking they know everything or have a certainty about specific things, but the more you learn and grow as a Hellenist, you're not only humbled in your knowledge, wisdom and beliefs, but you understand what it really means to live a life of moderation. On the surface, many presume that moderation just means to not eat too much or sleep with everyone in town, but it's a far larger picture than simply a carnal canvas. To find a healthy balance between the two extremes, is how humans retain their civility, justice, and sensibility toward their fellowman, laws, countries and world. Moderation is not abstinence, it's balance.
Hopefully without being in danger of being called a political Moderate, who is thought to be someone who doesn't actually know what they believe in, I would use my Hellenic education, experience and years on this planet to argue that meeting in the middle, or finding that healthy balance, is the best way to resolve all of the issues facing our societies. When looking at a controversial or hot button topic, I often find myself concluding that both the Democrat and the Republican, or the Liberal and Conservative, are equally wrong, and the cause of their wrongness is the fact that they are going to unhealthy extremes instead of the reason that is found in moderation.
I won't spend numerous paragraphs giving painstaking examples, so let's just take a look at the issue of gun control for a starting example, since it's in recent news. While I am a supporter of the 2nd amendment, I do support common sense gun reform, as we have far too much gun violence in America today. But one side thinks we should have the wild west on steroids, and the other thinks you should barely be allowed to carry a slingshot, and some would even prefer complete disarmament. What do these ideals create? The first creates, or has the potential to create, dangerous chaos, and the second ideal creates oppression, neither of which is good. So what's the moderation? The moderation would be to have a well regulation of firearms so that bad people won't get them, but to also uphold the human right of self-defense for everyone else who wants to own a gun. In the moderation of the issue, both outcomes are good, there is no bad.
Moderation is the realization that both over indulgence and starvation are equally destructive, and that the best answers to the human condition mostly lie in the middle or the healthy balance. Civilization is in so much constant chaos because we have most people taking one extreme or another, causing balance to be thrown off. Ancient Greek ideology can solve every problem in our world today, if we were to ever adopt it again.
In the Goodness of the Gods,
Chris Aldridge
