
Stoicism: Indifference is a power - bilifuduo
https://aeon.co/essays/why-stoicism-is-one-of-the-best-mind-hacks-ever-devised
======
zeteo
After reading a fair amount about Stoicism and still being unclear, I've found
a good summary in Adam Smith's almost forgotten classic, "The Theory of Moral
Sentiments" (1759) [1]:

"Human life the Stoics appear to have considered as a game of great skill; in
which, however, there was a mixture of chance [...] In such games the stake is
commonly a trifle, and the whole pleasure of the game arises from playing
well, from playing fairly, and playing skilfully. If notwithstanding all his
skill, however, the good player should, by the influence of chance, happen to
lose, the loss ought to be a matter, rather of merriment, than of serious
sorrow. He has made no false stroke; he has done nothing which he ought to be
ashamed of; he has enjoyed completely the whole pleasure of the game. [...]

Our only anxious concern ought to be, not about the stake, but about the
proper method of playing. If we placed our happiness in winning the stake, we
placed it in what depended upon causes beyond our power, and out of our
direction. We necessarily exposed ourselves to perpetual fear and uneasiness,
and frequently to grievous and mortifying disappointments. If we placed it in
playing well, in playing fairly, in playing wisely and skilfully; in the
propriety of our own conduct in short; we placed it in what, by proper
discipline, education, and attention, might be altogether in our own power,
and under our own direction. Our happiness was perfectly secure, and beyond
the reach of fortune."

[1]
[http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMS7.html](http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMS7.html)

~~~
noam87
I have this great collection from 1901 "World's Best Essays" \-- 9 tomes.
Everything from Seneca to Adam Smith.

It's sad how much knowledge and social/ethical advancement is being forgotten.
Our schools and universities are failing society. We're just going to keep
making the same mistakes.

Edit: 10 volumes.

~~~
peller
This beast?
[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001438712](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001438712)

Any recommendations?

~~~
wdr1
Is there a kindle friendly version?

~~~
ctchocula
Based on the "Full Text", it looks like they used an automatic OCR to obtain
the text from the PDFs, so they are full of many spelling and formatting
mistakes. I prefer to get the B/W pdf and split it into files that are small
enough not to lag on the Kindle hardware (I have the 2nd generation).

------
will_brown
I was only recently introduced to stoicism as a philosophy on a run.

I was asked what my technique is during a run, do I concentrate on pain or
ignore it. Of course there isn't always pain and pain during a run can vary
greatly, so I explained my answer is simply, _yes_. I have tried everything
and nothing works, I explained like everyone some days I dominate and some
days I struggle, but I'm always thankful for my _character building days_ and
hopeful I'll have new thought processes to try.

I don't know if it's stoic or not, but a cool way to be introduced to the
philosophy. Then, I explained a specific thought I sometimes embrace during
very difficult runs, I remember when I did a back to back half/full marathons,
and on day 2 I was feeling great like there was nothing I couldn't do and just
before the race I was introduced to a 67 year old cancer survivor running her
first marathon, to this day the thought brings chills and humbles me.

~~~
bardworx
> I was asked what my technique is during a run, do I concentrate on pain or
> ignore it.

There is a great story that I took a liking to, it centers around the idea
that "this too shall pass"[0]. It resonated with me because regardless of how
(un)happy you are, it shall pass, a new day will begin. The current state is
simply current, it does not resonate over a span of a week, or month, year,
decade, etc. Our current state should be approached in a stateless manner as
to refrain being too high or too low.

In that frame of reference, all success/failure is part of the journey and
doesn't defy ourselves.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass)

------
dominotw
This 'hack' is known to drug addicts for centuries. Cyclic withdrawal from the
drug to increase potency. Stoicism is the same principal used to recalibrate
hedonic treadmill so you don't have to keep running faster and faster.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill)

~~~
hoodwink
The problem is that we are hard wired to always want _more_. It requires
constant reflection to short circuit this tendency.

~~~
joggery
Isn't there a valid distinction between the _joy_ of making genuine progress
in life and mere pleasure such as that derived from drugs or alcohol?

~~~
hoodwink
This is a question of virtue versus pleasure which is much explored by the
Stoics because a contemporary, competing movement was Epicureanism, which
extolled pleasure.

OP is referring, however, to the "life hack" promoted by the article's author
which suggests keeping our baseline low so that we are constantly surprised to
the upside.

------
seanlinehan
The Serenity Prayer popular in 12-step programs is the tldr; of Stoicism I
keep in mind:

Grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

~~~
blahi
I like a quote from Shogun by James Clavell (it's about mediaval japan getting
discovered by a westerner for the first time, it is incredibly without
exaggeration).

 _“Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very
important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. patience means holding
back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety,
anger, grief, fear. If you don 't give way to the seven, you're patient, then
you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.”_

~~~
digi_owl
I do find myself wondering how accurate that book was regarding feudal
Japan...

~~~
blahi
It is historical fiction. blackthorne did exist, did get samurai status and
estate, did build ships for Toranaga (Tokugawa Ieyasu). The characters are
real and James Clavell spent 4 years in Japan researching and writing the
book. His depiction was rather accurate, though of course exaggerated and
romanticized.

[http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/learning/Learning_from_shogun_...](http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/learning/Learning_from_shogun_txt.pdf)

------
grecy
I couldn't agree more.

In so many situations in life, it really only comes down to how you view the
situation.

If you see it as a pain in the ass and horrible, it is.

If you see it as a challenge and enjoyable and something to learn from, it is.

Your happiness really is your choice.

~~~
msane
This is a perspective which is easier to pull off in the first world.

~~~
jvanderbot
Do you really imagine that everyone not in the first world is constantly
suffering?

 _That_ is a first-world perspective: Claiming that only first-world-ers can
be happy through adversity.

~~~
icebraining
_Claiming that only first-world-ers can be happy through adversity._

I think the claim is that it's easier to find first-world-ers which experience
less adversity.

~~~
wu-ikkyu
>it's easier to find first-world-ers which experience less adversity.

What kind of adversity?

------
aecorredor
Coincidence, or life maybe, is just incredible. I bought "A guide to the good
life" a couple of days ago, and started reading it 2 hours ago. I finished the
first two chapters, and checked hacker news for the first time today, this
post was in the top 10...Good article, even better writing. Cheers.

~~~
adomanico
That book was my first introduction into stoicism. Really enjoyed it.

Highly recommend 'Meditations' next

------
thekevan
Maybe it isn't strictly sticking to the definition of stoicism I've found this
effective, surprisingly, in road rage or what some would call bullying
situations. When someone is getting aggressive, I have just stayed serious,
calm and looked slightly determined. I keep eye contact and try to think about
being bored as well. When bully-types blow up at a stranger, they usually do
it to someone that they think will back down. When they don't, they get
confused.

~~~
digi_owl
Bullys or gorillas, same diff?

~~~
thekevan
A gorilla could back up the initial bluff. I look pretty mild mannered but in
my youth, I fought a lot in high school. In college and just after, I usually
stayed out of it but there were quite a few of my buddies who took a bit
longer to learn and thus quite a few weekends included a bar fight here or
there. Point being that I'd try to avoid it but if a person moved the
situation to a fight, I'm not tough guy but I can handle myself okay. Bullies
don't often target someone they think might be able to handle them.

------
waynecochran
The "Obstacle is The Way" is a very popular book and now sits on my
nightstand. I have drawn a lot of strength from it as I endure difficult
struggles:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Obstacle_Is_the_Way](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Obstacle_Is_the_Way)

------
jsinkwitz
As a stoic I'm getting an emotionally neutral response from this thread.

~~~
welanes
I have no strong feelings one way or the other.

------
tomohawk
This seems like a decidedly un-Stoic statement:

"Stockdale rejected the false optimism proffered by Christianity, because he
knew, from direct observation, that false hope is how you went insane in that
prison."

Perhaps the author is interjecting something.

Stoicism and Christianity share many traits. Consider, as but one example,
this statement by James:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of
many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces
perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and
complete, not lacking anything."

~~~
draw_down
This reminds me of a part of Taleb's "The Black Swan", which I've been
rereading in light of recent events.

In it, Taleb describes how a process or event can be misperceived as
strengthening those who go through it, when actually it weakens all of them,
killing some.

His example is submitting a cohort of rats to radiation. As they are subjected
to higher and higher levels of radiation, more will die, the ones who are
naturally stronger will survive. Our cohort will appear stronger and stronger
as the radiation increases and the dead drop out of the group. But crucially,
all will have been weaker after the radiation than before it.

But since we observed a stronger group the more we increased the radiation, we
may say that it "hardened" them, in the sense of "that which doesn't kill one
makes one stronger".

------
StavrosK
So _why_ is it? The article didn't really answer the question, for all its
meandering through history.

Does anyone know of a good and concise summary of the main points of Stoicism?

~~~
pilingual
Epictetus's handbook is a quick read.
[http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html](http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html)

~~~
StavrosK
Thank you, that _is_ a quick read. I found a very nice Greek version as well,
I'll read that.

------
wu-ikkyu
>It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can
control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous -- even death is terrible
only if we fear it.

>There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things
which are beyond the power or our will.

-Epictetus

------
mark_l_watson
Nice article. A little off topic, but the book "A Guide to a Good Life.
Writings of Marcus Aurelius" is a fantastic read. He was one of the last
"good" Roman Emporers, and his ideas on Stoicism are excellent.

------
kensai
I always find the poem "If" the epitome of (British) Stoicism.

Enjoy:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWvcwVWCcnY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWvcwVWCcnY)

------
walkingolof
This is a fantastic talk about Stoicism
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seLLJP3H1FU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seLLJP3H1FU)

------
return0
Indifference - bad choice of word. It makes it sound like apathy.

~~~
kwhitefoot
Not at all. Indifference is quite a different thing. Apathy is pretty much the
opposite of Stoicism.

Here is a paragraph from Marcus Aurelius:

XVII. So live as indifferent to the world and all worldly objects, as

one who liveth by himself alone upon some desert hill. For whether here, or
there, if the whole world be but as one town, it matters not much for the
place. Let them behold and see a man, that is a man indeed, living according
to the true nature of man. If they cannot bear with me, let them kill me. For
better were it to die, than so to live as they would have thee.

Remember, Aurelius was a soldier and emperor. These are not the words of
someone given to apathy. It's all about taking control of oneself.

~~~
return0
So, indifference in the sense of non-indulgence, not "not caring".

~~~
throwanem
Connotations matter, too, though. Indifferent as you may be to them, others do
not necessarily share your equanimity.

------
fsiefken
For an introduction on stoicism as applied to our current life: "A Guide to
the Good Life" by William Irvin
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5617966-a-guide-to-
the-g...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5617966-a-guide-to-the-good-
life)

Ecclesiastes (contained in the Tanakh and the Old Testament) has a streak of
stoicism. Written around 25 centuries ago, author unknown. Here is the NJB
translation of a part of 1 and 2:

"I, Qoheleth, have reigned over Israel in Jerusalem. Wisely I have applied
myself to investigation and exploration of everything that happens under
heaven. What a wearisome task God has given humanity to keep us busy! I have
seen everything that is done under the sun: how futile it all is, mere chasing
after the wind! What is twisted cannot be straightened, what is not there
cannot be counted.

I thought to myself: I have acquired a greater stock of wisdom than anyone
before me in Jerusalem. I myself have mastered every kind of wisdom and
science. I have applied myself to understanding philosophy and science,
stupidity and folly, and I now realise that all this too is chasing after the
wind. Much wisdom, much grief; the more knowledge, the more sorrow.

I thought to myself, 'Very well, I will try pleasure and see what enjoyment
has to offer.' And this was futile too. This laughter, I reflected, is a
madness, this pleasure no use at all. I decided to hand my body over to
drinking wine, my mind still guiding me in wisdom; I resolved to embrace
folly, to discover the best way for people to spend their days under the sun.
I worked on a grand scale: built myself palaces, planted vineyards; made
myself gardens and orchards, planting every kind of fruit tree in them; had
pools made for watering the young trees of my plantations. I bought slaves,
male and female, had home-born slaves as well; herds and flocks I had too,
more than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold, the
treasures of kings and provinces; acquired singers, men and women, and every
human luxury, chest upon chest of it. So I grew great, greater than anyone in
Jerusalem before me; nor did my wisdom leave me. I denied my eyes nothing that
they desired, refused my heart no pleasure, for I found all my hard work a
pleasure, such was the return for all my efforts.

I then reflected on all that my hands had achieved and all the effort I had
put into its achieving. What futility it all was, what chasing after the wind!
There is nothing to be gained under the sun. My reflections then turned to
wisdom, stupidity and folly. For instance, what can the successor of a king
do? What has been done already.

More is to be gained from wisdom than from folly, just as one gains more from
light than from darkness; this, of course, I see: The wise have their eyes
open, the fool walks in the dark. No doubt! But I know, too, that one fate
awaits them both. 'Since the fool's fate', I thought to myself, 'will be my
fate too, what is the point of my having been wise?' I realised that this too
is futile. For there is no lasting memory for the wise or the fool, and in the
days to come both will be forgotten; the wise, no less than the fool, must
die.

Life I have come to hate, for what is done under the sun disgusts me, since
all is futility and chasing after the wind. All I have toiled for under the
sun and now bequeath to my successor I have come to hate; who knows whether he
will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all the work into which I
have put my efforts and wisdom under the sun. That is futile too.

I have come to despair of all the efforts I have expended under the sun. For
here is one who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully and must leave
what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This is futile
too, and grossly unjust; for what does he gain for all the toil and strain
that he has undergone under the sun since his days are full of sorrow, his
work is full of stress and even at night he has no peace of mind? This is
futile too.

There is no happiness except in eating and drinking, and in enjoying one's
achievements; and I see that this too comes from God's hand; for who would get
anything to eat or drink, unless all this came from him? Wisdom, knowledge and
joy, God gives to those who please him, but on the sinner he lays the task of
gathering and storing up for someone else who is pleasing to him. This too is
futility and chasing after the wind."

==

For a contemporary take on Ecclesiastes see "American Beauty" or read "Beyond
Futility, American Beauty and the Book of Ecclesiastes' by Robert Johnston in
"The Gift of Story: Narrating Hope in a Postmodern World"
[https://books.google.nl/books?id=2WP_KMBmf7UC&pg=PA85](https://books.google.nl/books?id=2WP_KMBmf7UC&pg=PA85)

~~~
sireat
Doesn't it sound more like some sort of fatalistic nihilistic hedonism?

Nothing matters so just do the short term things that bring pleasure, or do
long term things, nothing really matters (including the fact that nothing
matters).

Eric S. Christianson-Ecclesiastes (Blackwell Bible Commentaries)-Blackwell
(2005) academically show how various commentators perceived Ecclesiastes over
the last few millenia.

Understandably up to mid 17-18th century most writers/commentators tried to
show that Ecclesiastes was being critical of this nihilism / proto
existentialism.

However, once you realize that Epilogue (12:9–14) is a tacked on commentary
itself, then you are back to nihilism.

How do you progress beyond futily?

------
evo_9
I read A Guide to the Good Life roughly once a year and found this summary a
nice way to stay on it between readings:

[http://becomingeden.com/summary-of-a-guide-to-the-good-
life/](http://becomingeden.com/summary-of-a-guide-to-the-good-life/)

------
criddell
I wonder if taking a stoic approach to life could help with depression?

~~~
manmal
If stoicism is a kind of proto-Cognitive-Behavioral-Therapy, and CBT improves
depression, it really should. Gratitude is IMO very important to improve
depression, and stoicism could help with that. Personally I must say that the
negative visualization that Irvine proposes causes me problems rather than
solve them, because it adds anxiety. Also, imagining things worse than what
you have does not automatically make all things right - you can still long for
a better version of your world while imagining a horror scenario.

Accepting reality as the only possible (and thus, best) reality works a lot
better for me.

Identifying misalignments in my views of other people (or the world), which
lead to negative knee-jerk emotions or general low-tune malaise, is another
"mind hack" that works for me, but I would not necessarily call this stoic -
but a CBT therapist might suggest that.

~~~
bnjms
I wish to strongly second your observation that focusing on the worst case
results in one steering towards the worst case and leads to rumination which
results or at least worsens depression. And acceptance of reality as it is
seems to he roughly the antidote. The below is dangerous for some minds.

"By keeping the very worst that can happen in our heads constantly, the Stoics
tell us, we immunise ourselves from the dangers of too much so-called
‘positive thinking’"

------
given
> Marcus Aurelius started each day telling himself: ‘I shall meet with
> meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable people’

In other words: every day I will meet with sinners - but additionally "just as
I myself am a sinner"

Christianity understands this much better than the stoics. The problem of the
world is sin and what is the remedy?

Jesus Christ

> he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the
> sins of the whole world.

or

> For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it
> pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of the world

------
stewbrew
So where is the International Stoicist Front fighting today against the evil
in the world and the suppression of the poor? Oh, they aren't. They are
working for international cooperations in a middle management position.

Why is meditation and Stoicism so hyped these days?

------
pasbesoin
Stoicism is life's consolation prize.

(I should know...)

------
fatdog
Stoicism is fundamentally subversive to the Hobbesian leviathan that has been
constructed from within the post-enlightenment university system. It is the
foundation of western morality and ethics, (the Bible borrows heavily from
it).

Stoicism is not taught in public schools because it would make citizens
ungovernable. Most education today is about training dependents, where
stoicism teaches a kind of spiritual freedom. No grand conspiracy or anything.
When education was elite, students learned elite ideas. Now that it is common,
for cohesion they must learn common ones instead. Universities wouldn't have
survived centuries if they produced graduates who would overthrow their
governments, or obviate them entirely.

To cosmopolitanism, great and principled men are dangerous and anathema. Irony
is that its most prominent works were by the rulers and elites of city states.
Some people on the alt-right spectrum have taken that strain and created a
kind of genre-philosophy out of it, like what John Williams is to classical
music, some alt right thinkers are to classical philosophy.

~~~
erikb
I'm not sure I agree. If I understand Stoicism correctly a Stoic wouldn't work
on changing the system or getting into a better position himself. A real Stoic
at heart would therefore be just as good as a believer in your system.

The reason why it's not widely taught may come from that Stoicism hasn't
growth wired into it, like Christianity or Islam has. If a Stoic is content
with a world outside of his power, then he has no need to convert others to
Stoicism.

~~~
wu-ikkyu
I tend to agree with both you and OP in different ways. Perhaps this Epictetus
quote will contribute to the discussion:

>I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then
also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with
smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?

------
thro32
> _No wonder the Stoic sage, in Western culture, has never obtained the
> popularity of the Zen master._

Perhaps author should check history of Roman Empire and relation between
stoicism and Christianity.

------
sean_patel
> stoic

> Someone who does not give a shit about the stupid things in this world that
> most people care so much about. Stoics do have emotions, but only for the
> things in this world that really matter.

Best definition I've seen of 'stoic' yet :)

~~~
copperx
Do stoics worry about Trump?

~~~
sean_patel
> Do stoics worry about Trump?

I don't think he cares, so in that sense Trump is stoic w.r.t. stoics.

Seriously tho, I couldn't sleep on Election at the thought of all the hateful,
racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric that put him in office. The next day, I felt
physically ill and that's when my Dad told me "Beta (son), stop worrying about
sh_t that you have no control over. Just ride out the next 8 years* _, stop
watching news and stop reacting and arguing about it, because all said and
done, he was DEMOCRATICALLY Elected into Office by a Majority of Voters who
got off their butts and cast their vote. "

_* 8 years = My dad believes that Trump, like Dubya, will get re-elected no
matter how bad his Presidency is, because in his own words "When a White
Republican President sh*ts, People call it Honey"

~~~
adrianratnapala
Well he was democratically elected according to the rules. If the rules had
been different, he might have also have got the majority of voters. We will
never know.

------
ue_
Anyone interested in Stoicism should have a read about Buddhism, especially
the Theravada branch. There are quite interesting parallels to be drawn.

~~~
douche
Have any concrete connections between the two been drawn? The timeline
generally works out that Greeks from Alexander's armies _could_ have been
exposed to Buddhists in some of his eastern campaigns.

~~~
adrianratnapala
The idea that your own happiness or suffering is created by your reaction to
events rather than the events themselves is utterly Buddhist.

But I wouldn't say that Buddhism was some Indian equivalent of Stocism. I also
read about Epicurianism or even Cynisym and say "hey, that idea is totally the
Buddhist, POV". I suspect the same can be done for other Indian schools.

Sages of the axial age from around the old world discovered many similar good
ideas, and people later built philosophical schools around them combining
things in different ways.

This is why I don't think there was much idea transfer between India and the
West. They simply had the same good ideas. (But I am sure the Greek Buddhists
of Ghandhara had a field day with the parallels. I wish we had written records
of their ideas, to go with their art.)

------
edblarney
I really do agree with the advantages of Stoicisms ... and agree that they 'do
it better in the East' ...

but to say: "No wonder the Stoic sage, in Western culture, has never obtained
the popularity of the Zen master."

I think is pushing it a little far.

There are a lot of Christian Monks - now and throughought the ages who would
be borderline stoics. And many big thinkers as well.

We (Westerners) just didn't define it very well :)

~~~
kwhitefoot
You don't have to live on bread and water to be a Stoic. You don't have to be
a big thinker either. It's a practical philosophy not a theoretical one. Also
it seems to me that you could be surrounded by adherents of this philosophy
and not know it because they are hardly likely to make a great fuss about it.
You might infer it from their behaviour.

~~~
douche
Indeed. One of the more prominent Stoics was a Roman emperor, who had access
to every luxury that the world of that time possessed.

~~~
kwhitefoot
Perhaps you should elaborate a little.

~~~
douche
Too late to edit, but I was mostly replying to this part:

> You don't have to live on bread and water to be a Stoic.

------
Pica_soO
I came upon stoicism in the Andreas Eschbachs - "the Last of his kind" (great
book by the way). Its really quite a fascinating worldview- not at all the
"depressed punching bag" of the universe as it looks from the outside.

------
cb18
What is the relevance of the image at the top here of a sub-Saharan African to
an article about an ancient European philosophy.

An ancient European philosophy we know of today thanks to written language and
a European civilization that developed, preserved and cultivated countless
worldchanging ideas.(like the controlled conveyance of photons into your eyes
relaying this information)

Written language was never even devised in sub-Saharan Africa!

These agenda driven, Magical Negro juxtapositions are becoming obscene.

------
nickthemagicman
So people in concentration camps who werent enjoying it just had a bad
attitude?

~~~
Cpoll
Ah, the reductio-ad-concentration-camp: If advice isn't applicable to
Auschwitz, it's not valid in any form.

~~~
nickthemagicman
Sorry for the bluntness. I responded with better phrasing.

------
dschiptsov
Hindus and Theravada Buddhists would laugh at this.)

~~~
Majestic121
Why would they?

~~~
contingencies
For exploring the (Theravada, but really 'fundamental/historical') Buddhist
perspective, the best resource I have personally found online is _Access to
Insight_ at [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/)

------
kevinSuttle
I couldn't make it through the first sentence of fluff.

------
rokosbasilisk
Stoicism resurgence seems very unusually connected to the rise of the alt-
right.

~~~
Apocryphon
Not so much as stoicism itself, but a cargo cult version of it:
[https://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/2016/11/how-the-
alt-...](https://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/2016/11/how-the-alt-right-
emerged-from-mens-self-help/)

~~~
rkallos
Key quote: "All the classical philosophers that some alt-righters claim to
revere put virtue before brute power. The Stoics, in particular, were
cosmopolitans – they believed in a universal moral code that transcends race,
gender or nationality."

In other words, some people wind up cherry-picking pieces of Stoicism, like
equanimity in the face of misfortune, and ignoring others, like
cosmopolitanism and considering virtue as the highest/sole good.

