Juvenal, that famous Roman satirist, talked about a variety of social ills the Rome was falling victim to. We face problems of our own in these United States. Let's take a look at five modern problems, and see what someone so Juvenal might say about them.
First off, there is the issue of sexual immorality. This unchastity before marriage and unfaithfulness during marriage is a problem for many reasons. Beyond the dangers of ruining family relationships, sexual diseases, scandal, and the double-edged results of fatherless children or abortion, at the core sexual immorality is a lie where two people claim through their actions to love each other to the greatest degree possible, yet through their very actions are showing their utter disrespect for each other. It is an imitation of true love, robbed of the commitment to make it real. It makes sense that this ill is often accompanied by lies, lack of self-control, and selfishness, since they are its originators and enablers. Juvenal shares a nearly endless list of sexual crimes common throughout Rome. In one example, after explaining just how disgusted he is with the Roman desire to imitate Greeks, he says "there is nothing sacred to (a Greek's) lusts: not the matron of the family, nor the maiden daughter, not the as yet unbearded son-in-law to be, not even the as yet unpolluted son; if none of these be there, he will debauch his friend's grandmother (Juvenal, Satire 3)." Throughout the Satires you can find all too many examples of the Romans imitating the Greeks all too well. Juvenal seems to think that, other than the perverseness of the issue itself, some of the main reasons that immorality is a problem is that it destroys love and makes everyone untrustworthy. Sounds good, er, bad enough for me.
Another issue is corruption, where lying and theft become the norm. Again this destroys trust and makes it hard for society to function. Secondarily, this destroys the rule of law, selflessness, and any sense of the common good. Thirdly, it turns the honest people into victims who have much more difficulty in succeeding, if they can at all. Juvenal in his day complained "there is no room...for honest callings in this city, no reward for labour (Juvenal, Satire 3)," clearly in agreement with this last issue caused by corruption. Later he says, "No man will get my help in robbery, and therefore no governor will take me on his staff: I am treated as a maimed and useless trunk that has lost the power of its hands. What man wins favour nowadays unless he be an accomplice-one whose soul seethes and burns with secrets that must never be disclosed? No one who has imparted to you an innocent secret thinks he owes you anything, or will ever bestow on you a favour; the man whom Verres loves is the man who can impeach Verres at any moment that he chooses. Ah! Let not all the sands of the shaded Tagus, and the gold which it rolls into the sea, be so precious in your eyes that you should lose your sleep, and accept gifts, to your sorrow, which you must one day lay down, and be for ever a terror to your mighty friend (Juvenal, Satire 3)!" Not only does Juvenal continue his comment about how difficult it is for honest people, but he points out the constant fear and distrust these conspirators share, which is why they try to eternally buy each other off with gifts and favors. As another story Juvenal shares about a man who sold out his conspirators shows, corruption allows for only tenuous relationships. Trust lasts no longer than the money, and often not even that long.
Entitlement is another issue we face today, where people think they deserve to have whatever they want, regardless of whether they've worked for it. This breeds laziness and greed, and ultimately financial ruin. Juvenal talks a lot about laziness and indulgence and greed, yet the closest I could find to him discussing entitlement was when he described "someone who’s lavished his wealth on the horses, blown the family fortune, thinks he’s the right to expect a command, just for racing his speeding chariot down the Flaminian Way, like some puny Automedon? (Juvenal, Satire 1).” This is clearly the case of some numbskull wasting his money and yet expecting to be rewarded for it, as though his birth somehow made him entitled to military rank and power. From this example, we can see how entitlement can easily lead to completely unqualified people being given positions of responsibility (an easy path to ruin), and to people believing that wasting money has no consequences (an even easier path to ruin).
Drugs and addiction are problems we face today that not only temporarily rob us of judgement, but which can hamstring our ability to make wise choices in the future. Addiction takes our focus from important matters and demands that we think only on how to satisfy the endless itch. Again, Juvenal is somewhat less clear on this topic. He does say "all vice pours into Rome (Juvenal, Satire 6),” and references the lack of judgement of people while drunk saying "Does Venus care about anything when she’s drunk? (Juvenal, Satire 6)," yet he also complains that when invited to dinner the guests do not get wine as fine as that enjoyed by the host, suggesting that he doesn't have a problem with drinking in general. Perhaps the lack of tobacco or chemically derived drugs made this less of an issue, but considering the fact that opioids were found as far back as Homer's Odyssey, and the Romans clearly had enough alcohol to get alcoholics, this seems unlikely. My guess is that Juvenal just lumped in drugs and addictions with the other excesses and vices he bemoaned as ruining his society, not recognizing them as a separate problem.
If you think Juvenal was clear about drugs, he's even less so on the idea of relativism. Relativism is a philosophy that there is no absolute truth or morals, that everything changes based on perspective and situation. It's a very handy way of justifying all sorts of behavior, and once you have a decent justification, everything is set for morals and society to spiral downhill even faster than before. Juvenal mentions once that "what’s normal in a Crispinus is criminal in another (Juvenal, Satire 4)” suggesting that certain people could get away with murder without being charged simply because of their status. This and other charges of hypocrisy don't quite match the idea of relativism, however, because nobody is actually trying to make the case that what "Crispinus" is doing is actually moral; they merely seem to believe that he can get away with doing immoral actions. Again, this could have been an issue that Juvenal considered too minor to discuss specifically, or that he lumped in with other social ills. It's also possible that this level of self-delusion had not yet been reached by philosophers, and thus Juvenal did not have to deal with it. After all, Juvenal clearly sees it as a problem that Greeks don't live up to the moral standards he feels that Romans should live up to.
Problems, problems, everywhere. So juvenile, don't you think?
