On Augustine and Plato

Our short item in our column yesterday about St. Augustine got quite a reaction.

My friend Neil texted me an Augustine quote: "Audi partem alteram". It means "Hear the other side". Only few do that these days, he said. Another reader who asked not to be identified, sent me two stanzas of Longfellow's "The Ladder of St. Augustine".

"Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,/ That of our vices we can frame/ A ladder, if we will but tread/ Beneath our feet each deed a shame". The other one, "The height by great men reached and kept/ Were not attained by sudden flight,/ But they, while their companions slept,/ Were toiling upward in the night".

Longfellow did not identify which Augustine. There were two saints named Augustine. One was the Bishop of Hippo in Africa (354 to 430). The other was the first Archbishop of Canterbury who came some 200 years later, sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert England.

The first is more known as the intellectual Augustine who wrote hundreds of books and whose thinking, as I wrote, exerted a great influence on Western Christianity.

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Augustine was a sinner. He had a son "Deodatus" or God-given and can be called a Mama's boy, like many other successful men. He was always under the influence of his mother, Monica, who later also became a saint. His oft-quoted statement is "God, give me chastity and continency, but not yet".

And on my writing that his book, "Confession", which was named the No. 2 book to Plato's "Republic" as the books that changed the thinking in the world, our Star Life Editor Allen del Carmen texted me that is not the No. 1 is the Bible and not Plato's?

I checked and found, that is the decision of the editors of the book, "Family Encyclopedia of World History". It listed 10 but without the Bible. I agree with Allen but, I think, the authors of the Encyclopedia listed, not just the books but the authors. The Bible has very many authors and falls under a different category.

The editors of the Encyclopedia wrote "Confession became the central and inspiring text for Western Christianity" by "combining dramatic immediacy with authoritative theology".

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I hope there will be discussions on Plato's "Republic" that advocates a state must neither be aristocratic nor democratic. He called for an enlightened strong leader, he called philosopher king.

All these years what I heard is when people lament about defective governance, they always called for a benign dictator, the same as what Plato advocated, a philosopher king.

The argument is the individual must have justice which can only be had from an enlightened leader who is also strong in deciding what is good for the many.

An aristocratic leader will only be good for the aristocracy and the democratic leader will only follow what the noisy group which may not be the majority. In Plato's "Republic" the important thing is the state.

I hope we can keep this discussion until the election of 2010 when we choose the leader who can approximate what Plato called the philosopher king.

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We met lawyer Joey de la Paz yesterday and we talked about the Retain the Bacolod Airport Movement which many have now called RBAM. Joey said, he did not know of anyone who is opposed.

What is there to oppose? he asked. None, I said, but our articulate and highly committed convenor, Babes Alvarez, wants is to have public awareness.

It's not enough that people know. They must be convinced. Many were impressed by the commitment of Mrs. Lucy Ponce also.

Last night the City Council approved a resolution authored by Councilor Alex Paglomutan to ask President Arroyo to give the 17 hectares of government property to Bacolod. It was co-authored by Councilor Bobby Rojas and Councilor Jun Gamboa.

This has a precedent. Lahug airport, when it was transferred to Mactan, was donated by President Corazon Aquino to the Cebu provincial government. President Arroyo can give that to Bacolod too.

If given to the city, Mayor Leonardia already has a blueprint for the projects he plans to have and make it an economic zone.

We want to thank a donor who gave 30 reams of long-sized bondpaper to RBAM for the signature campaign. The donor does not want to be identified.

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So, Communist Party founder Jose Maria Sison was arrested and jailed in the Netherlands. The charge was he ordered the killing of his comrades Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara.

Now, it's becoming very obvious, President Arroyo is really bent on winning the peace by stopping rebellion and insurgency. She can do what other Presidents before her should have done.

If she does, she can be our greatest president. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were the most maligned during their time.

It was their decisiveness that made them heroes. Washington won the Revolution against the British. Lincoln won the Revolution, also called the U.S. Civil War.*

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