In War, In Prison, In Antiquity

The author of the article: “In War, In Prison, In Antiquity” James Bond Stockdale is searching for the answer to a question what true education really is. While looking for the proper explanation, he comes to many thoughts during his journey over the past and present lifetime. In conclusion, he writes: “Always striving for true education is the best insurance against losing your bearing, your perspective, in the face of disaster, in the face of failure”. As the confirmation of what J.B. Stockdale discovered, he quotes the ancient philosopher, Aristotle: “Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.” That alone made him realize he has always been living in truth.
Motivation for finding the right answer about true education was definitely J.B. Stockdale’s time in war prison. He lived under threat of death, in terrible fear and had feeling of guilt. He writes: “Of all the challenges guilt brings in a political prisoner’s life…” His existence was constantly under a trial of survival. Thousands of oppressive moments and even more days in loneliness, which he calls “the impact of this unexpected spiritual power…,” made his mind open for a conversation with himself. The new questions such as: “Does modernity deaden our noblest impulses?” or “…the essence of being human…?” he asked himself everyday. They concerned the existence and men’s goals in the world.
He makes cultural journey into the ancient times where he imagines a warrior, Hector. The duty of Tory’s hero gives him answer of what J.B. Stockdale obligation was. The knowledge of ancient literature and the cultural experience increased through centuries (thanks to such titans as: Shakespeare, Dante, Dostoyevsky, Goethe, Camus and Tolstoy) made him more aware of the prison situation and he gained more self-esteem. He even comes to a conclusion by writing: “I was being shown something good” in the prison period. On the other hand, he could not reach the feeling before because he was: “often ridiculed here in manmade modernity, where changing the world takes precedence over understanding it, understanding man himself”. He was lost and could not find the self-confidence, understand his responsibility or position in the situation he had found himself in.
J. B. Stockdale quotes M.Van Doren: “Being an educated person means that given the necessity [after doom’s day, so to speak], you could re-found your own civilization”. Here comes to me a quote of Z. Herbert: “with an iron ferrule a slow fire a blow on his back fixes his spine between cloud and mud puddle (…) his tongue hesitates between knocked-out teeth and confession.” (The Collected Poems 1956-1998, 2007). Every time they tortured him, he believed that it was his last day but this time it helped him to reveal the truth about himself. He found his own ‘self’. The education he achieved, gave him an answer to questions such us: Who am I now? What am I doing here? What should I do now? He was not aware of it before because his mind was often “powdered, fluffed” by the world in the modernity. But the days in the isolation and fear, gave him new experience and made his mind stronger. He realized many truths of the life and the duty he had to accomplish in order to survive and learn new issue in his life.
Furthermore, he could not only find values and the sense of life but also strength to stay alive because the intellect became his power. Moreover, his answers were hidden in the cultural symbols and when he uncovered them he did not let himself to demean and lose the faith. He comprehended his aim of being and comes to a conclusion: “I am right where I belong; I am right where I was meant to be”. The cultural principles and the true education that he brought into being, made him recognize the circumstances he was in. This definitely helped him to survive the most terrible moments and the long period of being imprisoned.
The literature of the past centuries and the cultural values included in it are represented in one of his great thoughts: “I became what I learned, or maybe I should say I became the distillation of what fascinated me most as I learned it.” He drew the essence of all the values he acquired. They were with him all the time but he needed the moment of contemplation to regain it. The journey over the literature alloy of Mill, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and Camus were his guidance to cope with his questions. All the virtues and doctrines that he finally understood were with him all the time but he needed the solitude to get the true education from the philosophers of the literature and also philosophers of live.
One of my favorite Polish poets, Zbigniew Herbert, is the author of “The Collected Poems” (Copyright by K.Herbert & H. Herbert-Zebrowska, 2004) in which he wrote: “I feel little inner consternation when I imagine of walking through the Athens’ street in Pericles’ times (each of us has its own favorite era) and I encounter who? – of course Socrates – who grasps my elbow and starts conversation in his tricky way: Welcome! It’s good to see you…” Z. Herbert definitely had to go beyond his reality to search in other times for new sphere of other realities in order to comprehend it. Poet’s questions about world existence and human part in it were coming to him very often. Therefore, to discover people’ part in being in a certain time and place, he had to close himself in loneliness and ‘breath with the air’ of those who lived in previous eras.
The experiences that people gain not only in history and literature but also in other spheres of education and what they absorb during the process of life and matters that happen to them, I would find as the true education. The important issue is to have the easiness of getting the lessons of hope and to confront our experiences with experiences of others in order to find something like compassion, responsibility and not get lost in the reality that people are living now. Therefore, each of us need to find sometimes the moment of contemplation, solitude where we can start conversation with the past, listen to voices of others, those who past away. You do not need to necessarily escape from reality and disappointment. If we could just easily make the journey in past culture, into the times of our ancestors who gave the course of history and who made the foundation of our times, then we would definitely enrich our knowledge, mind and personality. Then, it would be easier to step on our own paths and find answers for questions that for the first time the ancient Greeks were asking. However, the challenge is also that each person needs to have this ‘something’. It has to be in a man and as a result, to derive from it. Therefore, we need to refer to the past. In conclusion, the value of true education is not necessary when you learn but the process of learning.