One of my favorite philosophers, Mike Austin, posted a blog yesterday about moral emulation and role models. Remember the popular slogan a few years ago among Christians of a certain stripe, who in a difficult situation would ask WWJD? “What would Jesus do?” Well the answer would often be, he’d perform a miracle and then go call some of the religious leaders of his day vipers. And I’m all for that, but of course I could personally aspire to only half that formula on any given day.
Mike made an important point that what Jesus would do in any given situation arose out of what he did normally, or habitually, day to day, like spending time alone, engaging in serious prayer, and hanging out with some of his closest companions. Then, when a tough situation arose, he had the inner resources for handling it well. The lesson for us is that if we try to apply the question “What would Jesus do?” only to tough situations, but not to the daily routines and habits that prepared him for those situations, we’re likely to either get our answer wrong, or fail in trying to take action on that answer.
The Jesus question is a particular use of what the Stoic philosophers and others often referred to as having a mental mentor, a moral exemplar vividly in your mind and imagination, someone you admire greatly and would seek to be like, whose image and history you can draw on in times of pressure, testing, or puzzlement. What would Socrates do? Ok, insult someone and drink too much and get poisoned, so we’ll move on. What would Buddha do? What would Gandhi do? What would Grandma Do? These can be good touchstones of proper emotion, attitude, and action for any of us, but they can be applied well to difficult situations only if we also apply them more broadly to normal habits and routines.
Imagine you’re playing a tough pickup basketball game. You think to ask “What would Lebron do?” Well, he’d steal the ball and dunk over these suckers fast. But unless you’ve been emulating Lebron in your practices and preparations for a very long time, you’re not likely to copy him right now in situational fireworks.
It’s good to have a mental mentor, a wise virtuous example of humanity at its best whom we admire and would like to imitate, emulate, and make proud with our own actions. But to use that mental mentor just in tough situations won’t usually get the job done. We need to keep their ongoing practices in mind and emulate those, else we won’t be prepared when crunch time comes and the game is on the line.
So. Do that. Because I think it’s: What Mike Austin Would Do.
Find the original post at: https://michaelwaustin.substack.com/p/role-models-and-character-growth
