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Individual and Community

Introductory note: this is not an outline of the entire funeral oration but an interpretation of some central theme of the work, the way in which individuals serve the common good by pursuing their own ends.

The first part of the speech focuses on the contribution of the democratic constitution of Athens to the good of Athenian citizens
On the Athenian way of thinking, a good political community is one in which citizens live a good (happy, fulfilled) life.
The implied contrast is with Sparta and other such regimes in which a good regime has ends that are
independent of the good life of citizens. Such regimes demand that citizens sacrifice their own good for the success or glory of the political community.
The Athenian polis contributes to the good of individual citizens in a number of ways. Life is free and easy.
In private life, everyone is equal before the laws.
In public life, equality of opportunity is found
This is important in a democracy because political equality is impossible if poor not able to take part in government.
And it contributes to the good of the polis by allowing it to draw upon the talents of abilities of all citizens.
Freedom
Legal restrictions on what citizens may or must do are relatively few.
Citizens are tolerance of each other doing what they like.
Many ways to refresh the mind from the burdens of business: contests (including dramatic contests), religious sacrifices.
Note that this is one of the few mentions of religion in the speech.
Economic benefits of living in the relative wealth of Athens: "elegance of private establishments," produce from all over the world.
Education of Athenians is not a painful discipline (as in Sparta) but encourages freedom and "courageous habits."
Love of beautiful things found in Athens, including philosophy.
In comparison, life in the military regime of Sparta is highly regulated and hard.
Second part of the speech focuses on how democratic institutions serve the common good and, in particular, leads individual citizens to choose to serve the good of Athens.
They do this primarily in two places: political discussion in the assembly and military service
Deliberation and discussion is not a stumbling block but a preliminary to wise action.
Deliberation and discussion is useful because it allows for a wider range of ideas and perspective to be brought to bear on political decisions
In many other cities such discussion and debate would, it seems, be a stumbling block, leading to delay, inaction, hesitation. Why does this not occur in Athens?
Implicit answer: Athens allows for the rule of a simple majority (50% +1), thereby allowing the polis to be decisive, even where there is great division.
The question, then, is how is majority rule compatible with political stability? Why does not majority rule lead to conflict when the minority is quite substantial? The citizens are willing to accept the decisions of the majority because:
Given the democratic constitution of Athens, all citizens believe that they and their views have been listened to and respected, even when they have been outvoted. Thus citizens approve the process of decision making even when they disapprove of the decision. Citizens thus feel an obligation to respect the democratic decision of the majority. (Compare the US during the Vietnam war in which many citizens felt that they had on control over the foreign policy of our country.)
They will have the opportunity to change these decisions later, if they convince a majority that a mistake has been made
Military service
Athenians know the difference between hardship and pleasure (unlike Spartans, who know no better.
But are willing and eager to fight for Athens and, if necessary, to die, a glorious death in the service of the city.
In Athens, individuals are free to pursue their own ends and freely choose to serve the common good. Athens avoids
The Spartan alternative: Individuals are not free to pursue their own ends and must serve the common good.
The American alternative (at least on some interpretations of the state of contemporary American): Individuals are free pursue their own ends and choose to ignore and neglect the common good.
Why are Athenians so willing to contribute to the common good?
Citizens expect each other to do so: those who do not are considered, Pericles tells us, "useless."
But political and social expectations or norms cannot be the whole explanation. Human beings have shown themselves to be quite willing to violate common expectations unless the punishment for violating these expectations is severed or they find some fulfillment in living up to these expectations.
Athenians pride themselves on not punishing citizens for violating this expectation.
So these expectations are, by and large, internalized by Athenian citizens.
They do not think of these political and social norms as external to them, as something they must live up to in order to have receive good things in life, such as friends or money
Rather, Athenian citizens have internalized these norms, they define the ideals these citizens hope to live up to.
Thus we have to understand the source of these desires and beliefs.
The desires and beliefs of Athenian citizens: Why they are motivated to serve the common good.
Pride, honor, esteem, and glory in Athens rests on service to the community.
Human beings can gain pride, honor, esteem, and glory through individual action or collective action.
In the US, we frequently attain pride, honor, esteem, and glory by means of individual achievements in business, sports, the arts, academics, etc.
In Athens, citizens gain pride, honor, esteem, and glory largely by taking part in the collective actions of self-government and self-defense
Individuals compete with one another for public, not private, honors, that is, honor provided by the polis in recognition of service to the common good.
For example, best burial spots are saved for heroes in war
Heroes are memorialized after death for contributions, as in this funeral ceremony.
As we see from time to time in the speech, individuals who stand out too far in this competition may be envied. Thus Athenians emphasize the way in which everyone who does his part contributes more or less equally to the good of the polis.
Pericles downplays the importance of his speech as opposed to the actions of the political community in honoring the fallen warriors.
The individual achievements of the warriors are downplayed while their collective achievements are emphasized. collectively: in pride in being a citizen of Athens pride in qualities of city which include freedom which can only be defended politically communal vs. individual pride binds together people who might otherwise quarrel
Athenian citizens gain pride, honor, esteem, and glory of two kinds.
Citizens receive pride and honor as individuals for taking an active part in political life and serving in the Athenian military.
Citizens receive collective pride and honor by taking being a part of a polis with great achievements. They take pride in the freedom, wealth and power of Athens.
Pride in communal achievements has certain advantages over pride in individual achievements. (Recall the example of Scottie Pippen and the Chicago Bulls)
Human beings can achieve certain great things only by acting together with others.
Pride in communal achievements helps unify a polity or organization whereas pride in individual achievements can lead to envy and conflict.
People will sacrifice their own individual honor (or wealth) for the good of all if they see that this is the only way to attain some communal achievement.
Conflicts may arise, however, about the extent to which each person sacrifices for the common good. Still these conflicts—unlike conflicts between people who are seeking individual goods—are to some extent mitigated by the sense of collective pride.
Pleasure and joy in political activity.
People typically enjoy taking part in activities that challenge them.
These activities must test them. They cannot be so easy as to be boring.
Nor should they be so hard as to be impossible.
People can find joy in taking part in political activity (and, for that matter, in war) if they have had long experience and training in it.
Joy in challenging activity is often heightened when that activity is collective in nature. There is an additional challenge and achievement in coordinating the activities of larger numbers of people to attain some goods that can be attained in no other way.
A sense of gratitude to the polis.
Given their knowledge of their political and social life, Athenians recognize the extent to which they have benefited from living in their polis.
A sense of gratitude and obligation naturally flows from a recognition of benefits received.
What features of Athenian political and social life supports these desires and beliefs?
Civic Education
Much of Athenian education takes place in the public square as young people see politics being discussed or see dramas and comedies with political themes or take part in celebrations of the civic religion or funerals for war heroes.
Athenians learn to satisfy some basic human desires in political life precisely because Athenian life few alternatives to political activity as a way of gaining pride and honor or a joy in challenging activity.
This, perhaps, is the fundamental way in which we differ from the Athenians. We have very many ways to satisfy our desires for pride, recognition and honor, and for a joy in activity through non-political activity.
Sometimes we do pursue these ends through collective activities, for example, in sports, business and so forth.
More often, however, we pursue individual activities. Even the collective activities in which we take part—such as work—are structured in ways that encourages us to think of ourselves rather than the common good.
We are more often evaluated at work as individuals rather than as members of a team.
Most of us work in hierachical, oligarchic settings. We have little control over the circumstances in which we work or the direction of the business for which we work. So we are less inclined to think of the good of the company as a whole, as opposed to our own good.
Democracy.
Because Athens is truly democratic (at least for male citizens), even casual participants in public affairs some sense of influence on and control of their political and social life.
This sense of control and influence is necessary if people are to have a great deal of collective pride in or enjoyment of political activity.
Everyone tries, to one degree or another, to control and improve the circumstances under which they live. When people cannot have a important role in collective activities, they try to improve their lives through individual activities.
Small size
Given the small size of the city and thus the importance of individual contributions to the common good, each citizen believes that his own good contributions in political deliberation and military service are important—and, in many cases, necessary—if he and his family are to continue to receive the goods of the city
The relatively small size of Athens makes the direct democracy of Athens possible (although technological developments might make something like direct democracy more attainable in our polity and society.)
Even a representative democracy is likely to encourage a sense of collective pride and joy in collective activity if it is relatively small. People can have personal relationships with elected officials in small polities and societies. (Recall my example of politics and society in Alaska).
External threats, sense of the importance of the political moment.
Athenians thought of their own time as vital to the future of Athens. Despite their confidence in their polis, they recognized that Sparta and her allies were a serious threat.
Thus, while he praises Athenians in the remote past, Pericles has higher praise for his father’s generation and for his own.
In the US:
We tend to think that the fundamental nature of American life was set with the founding fathers.
Although even our constitution has changed dramatically throughout our history.
And we don’t necessarily see our own time as decisive the future of our country.
Although we should have during the Cold War. Still after the mid-sixties, the threat from the Soviet Union came to seem fairly distant. And our own mistaken policies—such as the Vietnam War—seemed to be as much a threat to our country as external enemies.
Athenians also recognized how much they received from their polis. They saw that their way of life was intimately tied to the nature of their political community.
In the US, however, we do not see ourselves as in control of the government but as consumers of government services.
And, in large part because we have little knowledge of politics and public policy, we vastly underestimate what we receive from the community.
For example, students at Temple do not recognize how much of their education is subsidized by federal and state governments.
Lack of diversity
Families and tribes were important in Athens, and sometimes were a source of tension.
Still there was little or no ethnic tension within Athens. All Athenians (and all other Greeks) were thought to be members of a single group of
people
Ethnic divisions, and the distrust the tends to arise between members of different groups, tends to undermine communal activities.
How free are Athenians? How free are they compared to us? To evaluate this question, we must recognize that freedom (and limitations on freedom) can be understood in a number of ways.
Freedom can be limited by legal regulations that prohibit people from engaging in certain activities and require them to engage in others.
In this respect the Athenians were not so different from us.
Although their freedom was limited to male citizens. Women and slaves were not free.
Freedom can, on some views, be limited by social norms that require people to act in one way or another. The punishment for violating these norms is generally not legally enforced. Instead it is enforced by public esteem and condemnation.
The Athenians were limited in this way. Athenian citizens were, Pericles tells us, considered "useless" if they did not contribute to the common good.
How great a limitation this is depends upon why citizens of Athens followed social norms.
If they did so for internal reasons, that is, because they had internalized, or come to accept the Athenian ideal of an engaged citizen, then it is less plausible to say that Athenians were not free. After all, they were doing what they, in their heart of hearts, wanted to do.
After all, most of us follow social norms in much that we do. (That is why, for example, most of us dress alike.)
If they did so for external reasons, not because they were committed to the common good but, rather, because they feared public condemnation and all that goes with it (including, economic distress), it might be plausible to say that the Athenians lacked freedom.
This is unlikely to be the case for most citizens of Athens, however.
Social norms tend to breakdown under pressure when they are not internalized.
For all the reasons we saw above, the nature of political and social in Athens encouraged citizens to adopt the social norms of their polis.
Still, those citizens who rejected the common path in life might well have felt external pressures to conform.
One of the great advantages of life in a more diverse and individualistic political community like our own is that people who reject the norms of one group of people can often find another group to join.
Can a political community refrain from trying to influence the desires and beliefs of its citizens even when doing so places external demands on some or many citizens. (Examples of racism and child care in America.)
Freedom, on some views, requires that people not just blindly follow a certain way of life but actively or autonomously choose it.
Thus, even people who follow social norms for internal reasons might be said to lack freedom.
Individuals are most likely to be autonomous, in this sense, when they live in a diverse political community with a wide range of ways of life. Such a political community can force people to think through and choose their own ideals and commitments.
Athens clearly was not such a political community.
The US is closer to one.
Although one might still ask just how many people really do choose their own way of life as oppose to accepting the ideas of their parents and / or peers. That is, is autonomy really an ideal that the vast majority of people can aspire to?
Freedom on some views is only possible if people can shape the circumstances under which they live.
On this view, freedom requires democratic control over our lives
To shape our own life.
To enable us to enjoy collective pride and a sense of communal accomplishment.
In this respect, we seem to be much less free than the Athenians.
Our government is a representative rather than direct democracy. Moreover it is much more responsive to the rich than he poor.
We work in oligarchies not democracies.
The importance of action and speech in the funeral oration.
Pericles denigrates the importance of his speech at two points. He does this
To emphasize collective over individual action since speech in general is more likely to be the product of individuals.
To ward off envy at his prominence.
Yet, at the same time, he points to the importance of speech.
He turns his speech from a description of the immediate actions of those who died to a consideration of the abstract principles under which Athens lives.
It takes speech, however, for human beings to discuss and attempt to instantiate these principles and ideals.
The great war heroes of Athens continue to honored today only because of the work of great writers, such as
Thucydides.