"Be convinced at least of this that unless the soul is cured , which cannot be done without philosophy, there will be no end to our afflictions. Therefore, since we have now begun, let us turn ourselves over to philosophy for treatment; we shall be cured, if we want to be." - Cicero, qouted by Martha Nussbaum, in The Therapy of Desire.
The disordered soul is contagious. A diseased family may pass its diseased family values on for generations. If the family is dynastic, enjoying great wealth and power, it may with the assistance of its Trusted Advisors infect the body politic. What are vanity, greed, and vain-glory but distempers of the soul? Whether the sick want to be cured is one thing, but if they are infecting others, treatment cannot be left to their discretion. We might disquise the medicine of philosophy in sweet tasting candy. Such the method of art. Can art cure those who are convinced they are not sick? Can art cure those who are so sick as to make virtues of their vices? Who hire think tanks and publicists to praise and promote their disease? Yes, even the greatly ill in high places, who resist all diagnosis, can be cured, but the methods are more brutal than modern medicine, closer to the purgatives, emetics, clysters, and leeches of Roman Satire.
"Healer heal thyself," saith the Victim, but the Satirist's back is already bloody.
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