While I was reading the Aristotle text, a section that really stood out to me was his theology regarding pleasantness of activities. Aristotle said, “there are many things that are not pleasant by nature that people do with pleasure because they are so accustomed to them” (170). True to sophist style, he truly noted the dualism of experiences. I was especially intrigued when he noted how bad events could have good memories thus making the experience pleasant because it is no longer being endured. “It is truly pleasant to remember troubles after one is saved from them” (172).
This was extremely prevalent in The Funeral Oration of Pericles. The timing of this speech is evidence of the accuracy of Aristotle’s words aforementioned. The speech was given several days after the conclusion of the first battles of the Peloponnesian War. In a sense, the peoples’ “troubles” were momentarily over; thus, making it easy for Pericles to be so optimistic in his manner of presentation. In hindsight, it was easy to say that those who had fallen fell because they had a true understanding of patriotism and wanted to die for their country. However, I personally don’t believe this. I think it is much more likely that those fallen soldiers were not entirely sure what is was they were dying for. They didn’t know their last battles would actually be the first of many in a war. Maybe they showed up because of their understanding of gender roles, maybe all those in their immediate circle supported the war efforts, or maybe in fact they had an understanding of glory and honor if they died and they excitedly sought such an end. Whatever the true intentions were, Pericles at the conclusion of those troubles was able to paint a picture of good, pleasant, and noble causes which motivated them to die.
We are guilty of this today. We do it when we write in journals, retell stories, and give talks in church. Even if our initial motives are not noble at all, we often seek to connect and claim righteous motives and outlooks so that even bad events have an empowering spiritual context. Contemplation of events and time to ponder them lead to such conclusions.
