5 Takeaways From My Discussion With James Romm

In October 2022 I had a discussion with James Romm, Professor of Classics at Bard College, about death, dying, and Seneca. The discussion can be heard here, and my primary takeaways are below.

5 Takeaways from James Romm

1. Seneca was a complicated individual.

With what texts we have, there appear to be two versions of Seneca.

The first is one that reflects how most non-academic people would think of him: an upright Roman philosopher, focused on ethics and morality, who never compromised his philosophic principles and died on his own terms. 

The second is less gracious, and is one mostly only well-read individuals or academics would be aware of. This understanding paints Seneca as a machiavellian character, a man who was, yes, a Senator and a philosopher concerned with morality and ethics, but only on the surface and only as it fit his needs. This Seneca was a manipulator, a conspirator, and hungry for power. In the end, he struggled to die as he preached because he was not really who he said he was.

Most of us want to believe that the former is the true and unassailable truth of who Seneca was, but there are writers from antiquity who seem intent on not allowing us to. That said, those writers had agendas, and we can't know if they're telling the truth, a half truth, or a complete fabrication of the truth. 

What is most safe to believe seems to be a balance of the two versions of Seneca.  This composite version paints Seneca as a man who cared about becoming a good and upright man, who idolized Socrates, and who tried his best to be everything he said he was. However, this version of Seneca does have an interest power, he thinks, perhaps, that his influence could create a better Rome, and he likely manipulated more than a few conversations to wind up in the positions of influence he wound up in. He probably lied, he probably mislead, and he probably did have at least something to do with the plot against Emperor Nero's life -- but does this make him a bad person?

I don't think so. If he did help to plot the assassination of a tyrant like Nero, I can't see how that would be a bad thing.

I walked away from my conversation with James thinking of Seneca as a flawed man with a mind and a heart to do good; and a man who was about 90% of what he really wanted to be--and that's better than most of us ever do.

2. We shouldn't monstrify death and the human corpse. During our conversation James spoke about his wife's desire to get into bed with the dead body of her mother in the moments after she passed. I, like most people would, recoiled at such an idea. Getting into a bed with a dead body? How strange! 

But after thinking about it for a few seconds, it's not strange at all. If our beloved pet died, let's imagine it's our dog or cat, would we not pick it up and hold it close? And mourn the loss of it? I know that I would. 

James talked about how we monstrify the human body at its final rest, that is to say, as a corpse. It's a zombie, an undead thing, or a thing we're afraid to become ourselves, so it is difficult to imagine embracing it. But, in the end, if we do not learn to be comfortable with death, then we cannot ever overcome our fear of it, or leverage it as motivation for being more efficacious in our living lives.

3. We can become useful after we die. Some years ago I came across Bios Urn. The idea is that when you die your body is cremated and mixed into a mixture of soil, seed, and nutrients. That mixture, contained in a biodegradable urn, is then planted and you, over time, become the material that nurtures and grows a great tree.

If we look at death as a rite of passage, as a state within which we can still be useful and beneficial to the world, that can help reduce some of the anxieties we have around death.

4. A skull on your desk is a good reminder. After the episode I ordered this skull on Amazon to set on my desk while I work. The idea being that a constant reminder of our mortality achieves two things, the first is a sort of acceptance and thus a decrease in fear of death and the second is a means by which to motivate our current focuses (if we're going to die, we had better get to work!).

5. You cannot be truly brave if you are afraid of death. James talked about how our modern political leaders lack any true bravery, and while that might have more to do with a loss of money or power than it does a fear of death, he suggested that if we are afraid of death, then when it comes time for us to be truly brave--especially in a situation where physical harm is at play--we won't be up to the task. 

Of course being brave doesn't mean not being scared, you have to be scared (or at least aware you should be) in order to be brave otherwise you're just performing a mundane action, but your bravery will fail you and you will become a coward in the moment if you are afraid to die. 

If the dictator of a country threatens to kill you if you tell the truth, you will not tell the truth if you are afraid of death. If you are not afraid of death, then you will act bravely and that dictator will lose their power over you. 

Being comfortable with the inevitability of your own death is, in short, a sort of invulnerability.

What did you learn from James Romm?

I've received a number of emails since the James Romm episode released, each sharing ideas and responses to the discussion. I'm sure you have thoughts as well. If you do, I invite you to drop them into the contact form here. 

How do you feel about your own death? About the things we spoke about? About death in general? Is it possible to be truly unafraid of death? Let me know your thoughts on these questions and anything else that may have come to you while listening.