How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
This week’s book:
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Picking up where I left off with Seneca’s letters to his friend and student, Lucilius Junior, an official in Sicily.
Following is a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of the letter. Seneca’s text appears in bold, my replies are in normal text.
ON MEETING DEATH CHEERFULLY
1. Let us cease to desire that which we have been desiring. I, at least, am doing this: in my old age I have ceased to desire what I desired when a boy. To this single end my days and my nights are passed; this is my task, this the object of my thoughts, – to put an end to my chronic ills. I am endeavoring to live every day as if it were a complete life. I do not indeed snatch it up as if it were my last; I do regard it, however, as if it might even be my last.
I hope this letter isn’t too depressing for some of you, while it seems like a dark subject, being ready for whatever happens to you outside of your control is a central tenet of Stoicism. Is there a bigger reminder of how little we actually control than death?
I have definitely ceased to desire the same things I desired as a child or even as a young man. As a 52 year old, it would be impossible to still drink a six pack of beer on week nights and a twelve pack or more on weekend nights. I do not have any chronic ills so that is not a main focus of my life either. That being said, I do try to make sure I have had a complete life in case it does come to a sudden end.
2. The present letter is written to you with this in mind, – as if death were about to call me away in the very act of writing. I am ready to depart, and I shall enjoy life just because I am not over-anxious as to the future date of my departure. Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly. See to it that you never do anything unwillingly.
While I don’t feel as if I am about to die, it could happen without warning, or I could get a terminal prognosis and have a good estimate of my departure date. Regardless, I don’t dread it and accept it will happen someday.
Kicking and screaming in terror is no way to act when the end comes for me. I honestly think I will deal with my own death better than I will my wife’s. I don’t know that I will die gladly, but I will strive to die well.
3. That which is bound to be a necessity if you rebel, is not a necessity if you desire it. This is what I mean: he who takes his orders gladly, escapes the bitterest part of slavery, – doing what one does not want to do. The man who does something under orders is not unhappy; he is unhappy who does something against his will. Let us therefore so set our minds in order that we may desire whatever is demanded of us by circumstances, and above all that we may reflect upon our end without sadness.
While I do not want to die anytime soon, I know that date is out there waiting for me. If I accept that death is the natural result of living, there is nothing to rebel against. That doesn’t mean I should die easily, but it does acknowledge the inevitability of it.
All of this sounds good in theory, but I will not know my true feelings about death until it is actually happening to me.
4. We must make ready for death before we make ready for life. Life is well enough furnished, but we are too greedy with regard to its furnishings; something always seems to us lacking, and will always seem lacking. To have lived long enough depends neither upon our years nor upon our days, but upon our minds. I have lived, my dear friend Lucilius, long enough. I have had my fill;[1] I await death. Farewell.
I try to live the best I can at my age. I have been doing a good job of running and working out. This is an effort to keep my body going strong for as long as possible and keep weakness and illness at bay.
It is human nature to not be satisfied with your lot in life. Though I am well off, I would love to have more money and a classic muscle car collection. If I was to find out that I am to die soon, I am sure that my initial reaction would be to complain about how short my life is and not to be satisfied that my life was happier than most people’s.
I have told my wife that if I do die young, a short life with her is better than a long life without her. Will I feel this way when I am tested for real? I believe so, and studying Stoicism will help me to meet that challenge.
More Metal Church this week, I don’t have all their albums, the next one I have of theirs is 1989’s Blessing in Disguise.
They got a new singer Mike Howe and this is an excellent album.
I’m trying to be stoic.
I confirmed that a FFL associated with my club was accepting ammo shipments/transfers. By the time he responded, the $0.22/round 9mm was sold out.
I’m sorry to hear that.
What’s the transfer fee?
None.
It’s his personal Fuck You to the most recent bans.
cool
Do not be attached to worldly things like ammo
I’m getting rid of it as fast as I can, OK?
I may be running the “Fastest Bill Drill” event, so I should see some extraordinary burn rates.
Let us cease to desire that which we have been desiring.
I keep thinking I’ve accepted the death of my country. Then a day like yesterday comes along – Trump indicted on ridiculous charges while it’s revealed that the Bidens were taking enormous bribes – and I find myself getting upset. I still desire to live in the country I grew up in and served as a young man. It’s gone forever and no amount of desiring will bring it back.
Seething about it unhealthy so I’ll be offline most of the weekend (except checking my horoscope of course). Lifting, gardening, church, and enjoying life are all good for me and things our demonic overlords hate.
I have come to think of our country as a concept of hope. We don’t have that, but the “America” that waves its flags and has flyovers at football games, 4th of July parades and fireworks, is a symbol of hope and optimism for the future. I have to remind myself of that every time I read the lynx.
This is why I do Thursday night. Give everyone a break from the madness, come watch a B movie. It helps get over the things you cannot change. Also it gives people a chance to snark again. News is getting harder and harder to snark on. B movies are easy snark.
I feel like this guy way too often.
“But when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
I think the best thing that has happened in my rapid march to the grave is that I no longer care about many of the things that occupied me when I was single and without children. I know some people like to live vicariously through their children, but we were more focused on getting them out the door at 18 with a decent shot at life and a good work ethic.
Also, I did a couple of the bad-ass things I don’t care about anymore: Karate? Did it. Wasn’t good at it, but I did it. Motorcycle? Did it.
Yet I still wish I hadn’t spent so much time trying to find a husband and spent more time saving my money and traveling. I would like to be able to say I backpacked Europe or lived in Venice Beach for a while, but it didn’t even occur to me to do such things. Now, it’s just a vague wistful fog of a what-could-have-been.
My current goal for empty-nestedness is some travel, but that would involve a couple of things I’m not sure we’ll ever have, most notably disposable income.
My grandfather wouldn’t speak of certain things. Death was one of them. As a result, he didn’t prepare and so left my grandmother and intellectually disabled aunt to social security alone. My dad rejected that. He talked about it ALL. THE. TIME. and made sure we understood the importance of life insurance. He also figured he’d have heart disease, so he got a physical and a policy before he found out, and that was when he was 42. He got mortgage insurance. He made sure to stay at his job for 20 years when his pension would kick in. My mother was well taken care of. So then he died at 51. He was barely over 20 years at his job, but my mother was well taken care of.
Now we are making preparations (prepaid funeral business) and making sure our daughter knows what’s what, where to find the papers, whom to contact, how to get through it in case my mother is not here to guide her. I mean, at some point you have to stop putting your mother on your papers and start putting your kid on there. I’m writing a pamphlet for her so she won’t freeze in the moment.
Also, I get my heart checked out yearly.
I don’t have a lot of wants. I want to not be paycheck-to-paycheck, and that’s about it. I like my crafts, but I have budgeted my time to things I think I can do, and don’t try ALL the crafts. All the pretty things on Pinterest that I want take time and energy and money to maintain, and I don’t want that burden. My house pretty much cured me of wanting to own a home ever again, and my husband’s side gig does cost us a bit in taxes if the prize is more than a few hundred dollars.
Am I satisfied? No, but I don’t want much more than what I already have.
Whoa. Wall o’ text.
I don’t think you would have liked Venice Beach on the whole. This amiable guy can show you what it’s like these days. https://www.youtube.com/@germaninvenice
I don’t know, those seem like empty memories to me.
If I hadn’t met my wife at 19, I was planning on going to school to be a motorcycle mechanic after my first tour in the Marines.
That would have been more interesting and I would have made more money, but I wouldn’t have such a long history with her and my kids.
Of course, it could have went terribly and I could be old and bitter about a divorce, then I would regret not doing my first plan.
A letter from Seneca dealing with looking forward to death and how to deal with it — not sure i relate tbh
So many jokes, so little time.
*pattering clap*
Death – how to make it work for you, at home and on the job!
This is what I mean: he who takes his orders gladly, escapes the bitterest part of slavery – meh. I am not sure about that
You could apply that to being a corporate wage slave. Are you a cubicle mushroom? Then do it happily. Do not waste your days hating what you do.
Fuck that Noise.
Being a cubicle mushroom and drinking fine scotch in a nice appartment with AC is not like dying in a mine at all
“ We must make ready for death before we make ready for life.”
This is true. Life was very rough starting in high school through my twenties. I made peace with how this was my life, and that I would probably die in a ditch. So be it. Life did have other plans for me, beyond anything I ever imagined. Should I die today, I would do so satisfied, just as I would have in my twenties.
Joker beat Alcarez like a drum.
That’s all I got.
The difference between friars, monks, and Jedi
They live in a Friary, a Monastary, and fiction respectively.
Ive watched those guys…not bad for men of the cloth.
We must make ready for death before we make ready for life.
Isn’t this the idea behind preparing your soul?
I don’t think about death too much, but I’m certain I have more work to do. The idea of living each day like it may be your last sounds cool, but man is it difficult.
Thanks, Ron!
I think living each day like it’s your last is a terrible idea, myself. I mean, sure, if you’re already a boddhisatva who can deeply appreciate every moment, blah blah. But that ain’t how most people would act. Why do anything that won’t bear fruit in the next couple of hours? Why decline to do something that will have a bad outcome that won’t splash on you because you’ll be dead? A great many of our problems are a result of short term thinking, for which “Fuckit, I’ll be dead tomorrow anyway” seems to the apogee.
Wait, I shouldn’t max out all my credit cards?
I don’t think that’s what it means at all. Again, it’s being able to go anytime knowing you’ve done the right things, not wasted time or relationships. The idea that you could go anytime is the motivator for doing the correct but difficult things.
Exactly the opposite of nihilistic short term thinking.
I suspect that’s the intention, but not at all the way 98% of the population would apply it.
Take the YOLO thing from the Before Times. Rather than “hey, this is crazy dangerous. Is this really how and when I want my one and only life to end”, it was applied in the exact opposite way “Let’s do stupid dangerous shit because there’s no reset button or respawning” or somesuch.
Speaking of making reading for death…
Video of Ukrainian Leopards and Bradleys trying a daylight assault over open-ground – and getting slaughtered. This stupid waste of lives only continues because our leadership demands it.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/offensive-confirmed-afu-strikes-hard
https://twitter.com/HarveyWall8angR/status/1667202813166845954
Memento mori. Thanks, Ron.
Interesting stuff, as usual.
I spend a lot of time thinking about death, but that goes with the funeral service industry and pursuing a mortuary science degree. There’s really no way around it.
My personal experience so far is that decedents are more ready than their family and friends, but I’ve only picked up a handful of people I knew before they passed so my data is limited.
I also quite like the third passage, with an emphasis on this phrase: he is unhappy who does something against his will. Let us therefore so set our minds in order that we may desire whatever is demanded of us by circumstances, and above all that we may reflect upon our end without sadness.
I used to be frustrated by all of the things I felt I “had to do” until I reframed it in my mind. Really, there’s only one thing I have to do–there’s only one thing anyone has to do–die. Everything else is truly optional in the most technical sense. Sure, there are consequences for not doing your job or not taking care of yourself, but you don’t have to do those things, not really.
Sort of macabre, but it does help me when I’m staring down a task I don’t love.
I can easily believe that. Unless the dying person has genuine fear for the well-being of their survivors after they’re gone – or fears eternal torment – they are probably more ready to accept death than their loved ones are to face life without them.
It really do be like that, honestly.
It does break my heart to see how some families talk to their near-death kin. Time is a finite resource; we only get so much of it. You can’t make it all up at the end, you know?
I was very close to my grandfather and was there when he died. As a matter of fact, I got a call from my mom at the hospice telling me I should come over. They were telling gramps that I was on my way. No kidding, he died about 5 minutes after I got there. I was fortunate to have spent a ton of time with him before he got sick, so my memories were all good ones and I felt no guilt when he died. OTOH, I have drifted quite a ways from my parents, even before I moved out here and that’s been weighing on me lately.
Thanks for the reminder.
I’m here to help; sorry for the grim reminder, though.
One of the benefits of being an asocial misanthrope is rarely having to endure the death of someone close to you. Three of my grandparents died by the time I was 13. Over the subsequent 33 years, I lost my grandfather and an uncle. That’s it. No one else who I grieved as much as I did for my dogs.
The flip side to that is that, when it does happen, I don’t handle it well. A blessing and a curse, I suppose. I was a mess when my grandfather died even though he was 96 and we knew his remaining time was quite limited. I dislike that I have a somewhat childish fear of death, both my own and others, but I don’t quite know what to do about it.
I’m glad to hear your life has been relatively untouched by death, but I’m sorry to hear that the losses you’ve suffered through have been much harder to deal with as a result.
If I had any advice for you on making peace with the concepts of death or dying, I’d give it to you, but I think it’s a deeply personal thing each individual must undertake (lol, sorry) for themselves.
I have lost my stoicism. I’m ready to burn a company to the ground after dealing with four days of garbage training instead of potentially getting the ability to start actually working.
Make sure it is during an all hands meeting to make sure you get all of them
Neph caught on camera
Nephmiltium
Well, the process that we were working to learn the process so that we can troubleshoot any process is what we’re learning. Remember, we want to deal in facts, but can include assumptions as well. It’s really exciting and brain changing, and our brains experience change as pain. So that’s why this is a painful process. But remember not to put thing in paragraphs, because that will make people read, and they’ll read between the lines.
I think the bastards broke Neph.
Oh Kahmala skinsuited him.
These are all quotes (slightly paraphrased) from the training class.
“English motherfucker, do you speak it?”
JI:
I consider it a personal win that I did not quote Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (language NSFW) through the discussions about assumptions.
If this job doesn’t work out, I can see a wonderful future for you as Kamala’s speech writer.
You work for Initech?
OB beat you to that by a country mile
Went to lunch with an “old” law school pal who offered me a job yesterday. We get along great and I’d love to work with her to be honest. But wary to go back into “solo” practice again. The offer isn’t firm yet – she is waiting for the partner to retire, but it would be mine once that happens.
My kid stays on at FedEx part-time instead of going to any other warehouse in town because she loves her coworkers and her boss, and she doesn’t want to risk that for more money. It’s not a choice I would make, but maybe she’s being wise. I don’t know.
Who blew up the Uke dam? Cui bono?
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 7, 2023.
Doesn’t this also fuck Crimea? I could see the Russians doing that if they really thought they were going to lose Crimea, but I could also see a tactical nuclear strike in that case.
I still haven’t heard how the Ukes managed to blow up a dam that was in Russian controlled territory. That takes a lot of explosives. A whole lot.
I am also far from clear how this benefits the Ukes tactically. Maybe it does, but I don’t have a clear enough picture of where the Ukes are trying to cross the river. I could see blowing the dam to lower water levels upstream (and the Russians had been keeping those as high as possible), but if they are planning to cross downstream it seems like it will make the river harder to cross there. Maybe the damage to Russian defenses makes it worthwhile. I have no clue. There’s enough lying and idiocy all around that I find it very hard to make heads or tails of anything.
Michael Bay presents Explosions!
A new paradigm
There’s a coherent, unified energy strategy at work here. Biden has been helping households manage short-term fossil-fuel costs while attempting to lower long-term fossil-fuel demand by expanding the supply of electric vehicles and green energy. Consumers aren’t being punished with high prices today, and they will be offered lower prices on cleaner vehicles in the future. You can call this climate policy, foreign policy, or industrial policy—regardless, as a deliberate demotion of the market in favor of public economic management, it has a Weberian aura. Biden and Congress have decided not to let individual self-interest, consumer choice, or market competition determine the course of energy and manufacturing policy. They are quite straightforwardly attempting to reshape an industrial sector for the sake of other democratic goals.
Call it what you will. It smells like fascism to me.
It may look exactly like Fascism, but they are doing it “for the sake of other democratic goals” so it must be Democracy!
IT’S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD
“Biden has been helping households manage short-term fossil-fuel costs…”
He has? How so? I sure haven’t seen it.
Raiding the petroleum reserve?
Who says high fossil fuel costs are short-term, anyway? Talk about a stolen base. The administration has been quite clear they intend to choke down the supply (which means higher prices) and reduce consumption (by raising prices). That’s not short-term at all.
(RCD, to answer your Q from the other day, in Britain a Karen of either sex would probably be called a “nosy parker”.)
Maybe they could use it to fix the unbelievably shitty search and sorting features on their own goddam website
Some big technology companies racked up scores of artificial-intelligence mentions on their latest earnings calls, so by contrast, Amazon.com Inc. has been quieter about its efforts.
There were only 12 mentions of AI on Amazon’s AMZN, +0.12% last earnings call, compared with 65 for Google-parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG, +0.87% GOOGL, +0.87% and 53 for Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.91%. But that doesn’t mean Amazon won’t benefit from the AI rush, and, in fact, it could prove a sleepy play, according to one analyst.
——-
He called Amazon, “[l]ate to the game but not left behind” when it comes to artificial intelligence, adding that he’s now “more sanguine” on the prospects for AWS to benefit from generative AI, or the type of AI that ChatGPT helped burst into the public consciousness.
Jump on the bandwagon.
They don’t want you to find what you want, they want to you find what they want to sell you.
This is especially true with their media offerings.
I don’t buy books from modern political figures, but they keep shoving those to the fore. The closest I’ve come was buying Hoover’s translation of De Re Metallica.
They have my purchase history and wishlist, but “The Message” matters more to them than making money.
The big deal is the Chinese algorithms and review farms that push that cheap, stolen crap to the top of the page on almost every “non-media” search I do. Not sure of any plug-ins that will actually delete those results, but that would almost be worth paying for (or at least a feature for a Prime member).
Are you kidding? That’s how Amazon makes their money. It’s not a search function any more. It’s a targeted advertising function, and sellers pay for that.
Trump Charged With Willful Retention of Classified Information, Obstruction
“willful retention of classified information”
So, if he passively retained classified info, that would be OK?
You mean like on a server in his bathroom? Apparently, yes, that is OK.
But those documents won’t be in evidence because they’re classified, so just take our word for it.
Biden’s retention of documents wasn’t willful, it was accidental and because of senility.
So I guess the left is all in on this nonsense.
A 37-count criminal indictment against Donald Trump over his handling of classified government records was unsealed Friday.
The charging document was made public a day after the former president was indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Miami.
Among other allegations, the indictment says that Trump showed classified documents to other people in the summer of 2021, after leaving office.
One of those documents was a “plan of attack” that he said was prepared by the Pentagon, while the other was a classified map related to a military operation, the indictment alleges.
Drumpf took war plans, because that makes sense.
Any detailed attack plans would be obsolete within a month.
Goddammit!
This attack on the energy sector is the most dangerous thing these monsters are doing. Yes, even more than the warmongering.
I want a way to bitchslap the legislature for the shit they’ve done over the past decade, burn their new laws and regs, and take away their ability to write laws.
The legislature doesn’t read or write laws anymore. That’s what think tanks are for. Legislature is purely for theatrical purposes.
Missed this last week – but don’t think I saw anyone else post it this week: New Justified series coming out: https://youtu.be/N6KEgWSFfaE
Of course…here’s hoping they actually put it out on BR like their previous stuff. Still irritated that there haven’t been any BR releases of Archer since season 6. Not sure how it makes sense to put all your eggs in the streaming basket…
How is his daughter that old??
At least they are sticking with Elmore Leonard stories. Even though City Primeval isn’t a Ragland GIvens story, I think he can slip into the protagonist’s role pretty easily.
Since I’ve got my Plex server set up (planning on putting together an article about setting it up at some point), I’ve been prioritizing picking up physical media of shows that aren’t available for streaming anywhere. The most recent additions were the War of the Worlds (1988) series, and Friday the 13th: The Series.
Biden vs. the teleprompter
Among other allegations, the indictment says that Trump showed classified documents to other people in the summer of 2021, after leaving office.
One of those documents was a “plan of attack” that he said was prepared by the Pentagon, while the other was a classified map related to a military operation, the indictment alleges.
I can easily believe that was done, for the purpose of mockery and derision.
I can also believe Trump showed documents to others just to satiate his ego.
OTOH, I’d really like to know who saw the Biden classified documents. ‘Cause that is much more likely to have nefarious reasons.
Yeah. I can easily believe he did everything they say he did.
Now I want to hear about the Corvette Papers. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting.
The ones at his Chinese-funded Penn offices dating back to 1974? Nah, nothing to see here.
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1666558834557476864?cxt=HHwWgICzscSb56AuAAAA
If he as pres defacto declassified the documents are they in fact classified? I thought the Pres had an essentially unlimited ability to declassify at will and that declassification can be accomplished by simply treating the documents as declassified. IOW, they don’t have to be declared so either formally or informally.
So? It’s Trump, he’s evil. And it’s okay for Biden to do before he was President, because he’s good.
That’s pretty much it. The left is convinced they’re the good guys. Trump is the bad guy, therefore it’s ok to do anything and everything to take him down. They’re kind of like Batman.
And Pence and Bush II and Biden dating back to his Senate and VP days when he didn’t wield the ability to declassify and Obama had a bit of a row concerning some docs he had for his presidential library if I recall correctly and Mrs. Clinton and etc. It’s such a joke, a bad one.
One person went into the office rich and did not keep his presidential salary. The other built up a fortune over years as a “public servant”. Which do you think might have profited from classified documents?
Reading the allegations in the indictment….goddamn, Trump is even more of a dumbassthan I already thought. No wonder his lawyers just quit.
Yes, Hillary belongs in jail too, and Biden almost certainly does as well, but Trump fucked himself with his own stupidity.
⬆⬆⬆
There are four important words in the statute – is to be used – to injure the U.S. or benefit a foreign nation. Parking boxes of stuff at Mar-a-Lago does not satisfy that element. Nor do the Pence or Biden caches necessarily qualify either.
Thanks Ron and all y’all.
Everyday I have a mental list of things I want to do. Some get done, some don’t. Those that don’t get done weren’t so important. I thought the army would collapse when I left, it is going downhill but taking longer than I expected. I was concerned that the company I worked for would go upside down without me. Somehow they have grown and expanded in my absence, I don’t understand how that is possible.
I have done enough in life not to have to look back with regrets. Somethings I wish I could change but who knows if that would have been any better. Now my worry is about my health. Not bad health but good health. Having seen so many friends and relatives leave I’m not so sure living too long is a blessing.
Having young friends like the 52 year old Glibs though makes life better. Real life meetings are always a good time. Al Gore’s inventing the internet has helped to keep me connected to sanity.
Now I have to cut grass, I’ve avoided that all spring.
You haven’t had to mow yet? Good for you.
Also, I’m not quite 52. 😉
52? I won’t be there for over a quarterscore.
It sounds like a long time when you put it that way.
I’m more than 6500 hours away from 52
I think you misspelled “51”.
“55,” punk
As of Wednesday I’m no longer 52.
I heart the internet.
Norway Chess update. Hikaru defeated Caruana to win the tournament. He also takes over #2 ranking in the world and #1 ranking in the USA, passing Caruana for both. All because Caruana made a move order mistake on move 17. Nakamura didn’t release the pressue and Fabi finally resigned on move 55. They started the tournament ranked #5 and #6, both rose 3 spots.
Pre-tourney #2 Alireza Firouzja fell to 6th with his performance. Pre-tourney #3 and #4, Ding and Nepo, didnt play in it, still recovering from their World Championship battle. They fell to #4 and #5.