Do We Still Adhere to the Norms of Ancient Egypt?
A Comparison of Ptahhotep’s Communication Ethics with Current Regulatory Principles
It's not often I get a chance to review something like The Teachings of Ptahhotep, written between 3,850 and 4,360 years ago.
Here's one of Ptahhotep's principles which leaps off the page:
The journalist shall report only in accordance with facts of which he/she knows the origin.
Much of contemporary journalism stems from insider leaks and "intelligence" agencies. Hence, we are told of the "slam dunk" for the evidence against Saddam Hussein leading to the 2003 Iraq War. Today, suspect intelligence agencies tell us who is the enemy (Russia, Venezuela) and provide facts without evidence in support of the military-industrial establishment along with friends of Netanyahu. Ptahhotep would not be pleased.
Fortunately, President Donald Trump is exposing the fake news industry!
‘no one is born wise...’ the sage cautions already at the end of the Prologue. He continues: ‘Don’t be arrogant about your knowledge. Consult the ignorant and the wise alike’.
The limits of art are not reached
No artist’s skills are perfect
A perfect word is hidden more deeply than precious stones.
It is to be found near the maid-servants working at the mill-stone...
Report a thing observed, not heard.
If it is negligible, don’t say anything.’
If you are a man who leads,
Listen calmly to the speech of one who pleads;
Nice that the last couplet rhymes in modern English as it presumably did in Ancient Egyptian. Our scholars don't write so poetically these days.
Do not boast…
One has great respect for the silent man
Many of our men's group's members pass this test with regard to email discussion.
Concentrate on excellence,
Your silence is better than chatter.
Speak when you know you have a solution,
It is the skilled who should speak in council;
Speaking is harder than all other work,
He who understands it makes it serve.
No comment.
Do not attack him because he is weak,
Let him alone, he will confute himself.
Do not answer him to relieve your heart,
Do not vent yourself against your opponent,
Wretched is he who injures a poor man
Great is justice, lasting in effect...
Baseness may seize riches.
Yet crime never lands its wares
In the end it is justice that lasts
Michael Cohen agrees with this latter paragraph. He learned the hard way.
Greed, according to Ptahhotep, Giddens and Hutton, must be contained, prevented and counteracted, like an infectious disease for which there is no known cure
Seriously, it seems capitalistic greed is our main journalistic problem. Freedom of speech is our main strength.
The following is inspiring:
Ptahhotep may deserve to again become a symbol for continuity of civilization, as a phenomenon opposed to the now commonly perceived (and invoked) discontinuity or clash of civilizations. Whether the principles actually originated with him and his culture is of secondary importance today. They manifest numerous similarities with ideas found in the Abrahamic and Indian religions, which were both apparently first written down at least a millennium after him, and with many other (as far as is known) subsequent systems of ethical thought, such as Ubuntu, Confucian, Taoist, Stoic, Kantian and Habermasian philosophy, representing humanist universalism, freedom and responsibility and the normative macro-currents of virtue ethics and duty ethics. In particular, the ethics and ideals of Ptahhotep largely correspond with those of present-day conscientious information-gatherers and disseminators, including journalists, public relations professionals, civil servants, legislators, law enforcers, lawyers, scientists and teachers.
Ptahhotep provides the first detailed representation of what it means to be civilized.
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