Cicero - On Duties

Cicero and Citizenship

In his seminal work , ON DUTIES , the Roman author Cicero stated We are not born for ourselves alone ' This quote relays a tremendous amount about Cicero 's theory towards being a good citizen . Actually , this quote is also an admonishment to the public that the need to be a good citizen is never a self-serving venture . It is a collective venture that derives its success from the populace working in concert . In other words everyone should seek to be a good citizen for the greater good of society . When

all act independently with no love to society as a whole then society will collapse

Some may assume that a tremendous event is required for the collapse of society . This is not accurate . Acts of war or natural disasters are not needed to destroy a society . Many times , indecent actions can erode the infrastructure of a society . For example , if a criminal element starts to develop within segments of society , it can erode the economy , safety and overall infrastructure of society . On a baseline level , what is the cause of criminal activity ? Often , it is the result of self-serving individuals putting their needs above the needs of everyone else . This is in direct opposition of Cicero 's admonition that members of society should not seek to be self serving . However , there are those who do embody these traits and the rest of society must deal with the pestilence that they spread

This ties very close into Cicero 's...