The Ship 18 October, 2007
Hinting on aspects of modern healthcare and individual freedom, this is a stream of thought adapted from Plato’s The Republic and Socrates’ metaphor of the just city and the ship…
Very few sailors make a good captain and
Not every captain is a good sailor
A sailor who wants to be captain
Because of ambition alone
is not, whatsoever a captain
A captain should never beg his sailors to obey him
Nor sailors beg a man to be their captain
Just as a doctor should never approach a patient
To give them surgery
So should the ailing ask for diagnosis and treatment
It is up to, and the duty of the individual to know he is sick
Not the doctor’s to tell him that he is
Why be a sailor when you can captain your own ship?
//Not every good sailor is a captain and
Very few captains are good sailors//
Wellllll …..
Any good captain MUST be a competent sailor … otherwise he cannot give competent orders.
BUT … yes …
few good sailors are good captains …
or, at least, never have the chance to be.
But what should we think of an incompetent sailor who wants to be a captain?
What should we think of Hillary?
i like to think of you that way, “captaining” your own ship.