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:
Discourses and Selected Writings
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Epictetus was born a slave around 50 ad. His owner was Epaphroditus, a rich freedman who was once a slave of Nero. Though he was a slave Epictetus was sent to study philosophy under Musonius Rufus.
Epictetus was lame and there are some stories it was caused by his master and others that it was caused by disease.
He was a freedman when all philosophers were banished from Rome in 89 by the Emperor Domitian. He then started his school in Greece, and had many students. He did not leave any writings from his lessons, but one of his students, Flavius Arrian, took notes and wrote the Discourses.
Epictetus did not marry, had no children, and lived to be around 80-85. In retirement, he adopted a child that would have been abandoned and raised him with a woman.
He died sometime around AD 135.
He is my favorite Stoic teacher. I love his bare bones and very straight forward approach.
Following is a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of one of his lessons. Epictetus’s text appears in bold, my replies are in normal text.
Of Freedom Part V
When, therefore, neither those who are styled kings live as they will, nor the friends of these kings, what free men are left?—Seek and you will find. For nature has given you resources to find the truth. But if you are unable of yourself, by employing these resources alone, to find the next step, listen to those who have already made the search. What do they say? Does freedom seem to you to be a good?—Yes, the greatest.—Is it possible, then, for a man who has this greatest good to be unhappy, or to fare ill?—No.—When, therefore, you see men unhappy, miserable, grieving, declare confidently that they are not free.—I do so declare.—Very well, then, we have now got away from buying and selling[13] and arrangements of that kind in the acquisition of property. For if you are right in agreeing to these propositions, whether it be the Great King[14] who is unhappy, or a little king, whether it be a man of consular rank, or one who has been a consul twice, he could not be free.—Granted.
Money, beauty, and influence are no guarantee of happiness. I remember when I used to go to church, our preacher made the comment once that if those things brought true happiness and freedom, those people would not have half of the problems we hear about. Who knows what problems they are successful at hiding from us. It also seems as though having everything most people could only dream of is not good for your soul. I don’t mean this in a religious sense, but more in the sense of keeping yourself grounded and happy with life instead of having so many temptations and the means to indulge them with the feeling that there are no consequences.
Answer me, then, this further question: Does freedom seem to you to be a great and noble thing, and precious?—Of course.—Is it possible, then, for a man who achieves a thing so great and precious and noble, to be of abject spirit?—It is not.55—When, therefore, you see one man cringing before another, or flattering him contrary to his own opinion, say confidently of this man also that he is not free; and that not merely if he be doing so for the sake of a paltry meal, but even if it be for a governorship or a consulship. Call rather those who do these things for certain small ends slaves on a small scale, and the others, as they deserve, slaves on a grand scale—This also I grant.—And does freedom seem to you to be something independent and self-governing?—Of course.—When, therefore, it is in another’s power to put hindrances in a man’s way and subject him to compulsion, say confidently that this man is not free. And please don’t look at his grandfathers and great-grandfathers, or look for a deed of sale or purchase, but if you hear him say “Master,” in the centre of his being and with deep emotion, call him a slave, even if twelve fasces[15] precede him; and if you hear him say, “Alas! What I must suffer!” call him a slave; and, in short, if you see him wailing, complaining, in misery, call him a slave in a toga praetexta.[16] However, if he does none of these things, do not call him free yet, but find out what his judgements are, whether they are in any respect subject to compulsion, to hindrance, to unhappiness; and if you find him to be that kind of a person, call him a slave on holiday at the Saturnalia;[17] say that his master is out of town; later on he will return, and then you will learn what the fellow suffers.—Who will return?—Anyone who has control over the things which some man desires, to get these for him or to take them away.—Have we, then, so many masters?—Yes, so many. For even before these personal masters we have masters in the form of circumstances, and these are many. Hence, it needs must follow that those too who have authority over some one of these circumstances are our masters.
No matter how important a person is, they can still be a slave. Even if their slavery is the addiction to their position. I am reminded of all the congressmen holding on to their office until their deaths instead of enjoying their last years.
60Why, look you, no one is afraid of Caesar himself, but he is afraid of death, exile, loss of property, prison, disfranchisement. Nor does anyone love Caesar himself, unless in some way Caesar is a person of great merit; but we love wealth, a tribuneship, a praetorship, a consulship. When we love and hate and fear these things, it needs must be that those who control them are masters over us. That is why we even worship those persons as gods; for we consider that what has power to confer the greatest advantage is divine. And then we lay down the wrong minor premise: “This man has power to confer the greatest advantage.”[† 2] It needs must be that the conclusion from these premises is wrong too.[18]
It seems as though worship of government has superseded the worship of god in today’s world. Reading these passages, that is not a new phenomenon. I don’t understand either compulsion, but I am a weirdo. Sucking up to those in charge was always a repulsive habit to me, but I knew some people in the Marines that made a career out of it.
I have been struggling with being a good Stoic this week. My weakness from the blood loss is still here and some days are worse than others. I think my inability to do much has been making me grumpy. This doesn’t happen with my wife, but it has been manifesting itself in the car by myself. Traffic and bad drivers irritate me much more than they used to. For whatever reason, today was a difficult one. I had the day off and had many projects I wanted to work on. Instead, I was out of breath coming down the stairs. Going out to the garage wiped me out. All I got done today was to take my wife’s car for an estimate to get the clear coat repaired. The entire drive there I was in a foul mood, but on the bright side, I did work my way out of it and the drive home was more normal.
Stoicism is an anti-Firstite ideology.
Firsting is all about claiming your power over the seconding class through acts of heroism – Firsting is the most heroic virtue, the highest calling of man. The Great Firster has instilled every being with the ability to First, but only a small portion of us are able to claim the mantle of Firster.
A couple nights ago my bee partner sent me a picture of one of our hives nearby upside down, too late in the evening to do anything. He thought the bees probably had flown. It was not a stoic moment but there was nothing I could do. Looking at the picture puzzled me, I couldn’t see any damage.
Next morning I went to check/fix. I saw the bees were still there, I donned my pro attire, fence was intact and hot, no indicators of bear activity. I went in and re-assembled the hive. In a few minutes the bees were back to business. Thanks to Ron’s weekly reminder I didn’t get too angry, since that wasn’t a solution.
We may have lost a day or three of production but I think the hive will recover.
I still can’t understand what caused it to tip over. Surely no one would vandalize an almost hidden bee hive, there was another one at the same place. Anyway, Thanks to Ron’s contributions, they have made things better for me.
I would in fact not fuck with a bee hive, but some of us are dumber than others.
We have an active bear in my neighborhood but so far the powered fence is keeping him away, my partner’s bees are about 5 miles away.
I still can’t understand what caused it to tip over.
We had a 30 lb buckling disappear last year. Just gone. No carcass. 4 foot field fencing topped with barbed wire and 2 Great Pyrenees guarding him. About six months before that, we found a 50lb buck dragged up against the fence with its neck snapped.
Still have no idea what did it. Something that can silently slip over the fence and kill a goat quicker than the dogs can react. Coyotes can’t get through the fence and bear would be too noisy, so best guess a mountain lion or one hell of a bobcat.
NBD, just a stealthy apex predator hanging about.
😬
Bears can be sneaky as hell but they stink so bad the dogs would smell them. Cats are going to leave a lot of damage to skin. That is a mystery.
As for your problem 4×20 I had stored some bee food in a 5 gal bucket with a tight lid…something came on three occasions and tore the lid off, dragged the bucket off and ate it. No tracks, no noise, no droppings…nothing. Bucket as clean as if it were new. No trace of pollen or sugar. Hives untouched. I do have a bear that steals most of my figs but the raccoons are just as bad.
Rampaging gang of raccoons?
I set up a gamecam, in case it happens again.
A few years ago I had a problem with a bear but he had an accident, under the yard light.
My neighbor in Tanzania told me a story about how some animal, probably a kicheche (mongoose/weasel) kept getting into the chicken coop and stealing eggs and sometimes killing chickens. So he took out all the chickens and all the eggs but one and used a syringe to inject it with poison. After that, he lost no more eggs or chickens.
Does freedom seem to you to be a good?—Yes, the greatest.
Liar liar pants on fire.
True in all walks of late. People ingratiate themselves to those above them for favor, and the people in power love having their asses eaten. It’s the entire reason many go for positions of power in the first place.
I’d argue people like to live vicariously through those in power or who have status above them.
AI makes you dumb(er)
ChatGPT can harm an individual’s critical thinking over time, a study released this month suggests.
Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab asked subjects to write several SAT essays and separated subjects into three groups — using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, using Google’s search engine and using nothing, which they called the “brain‑only” group. Each subject’s brain was monitored through electroencephalography (EEG), which measured the writer’s brain activity through multiple regions in the brain.
They discovered that subjects who used ChatGPT over a few months had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels,” according to the study.
You can’t fool those MIT eggheads.
You can’t spell “underperform” without derp!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pr-xzajQo0
“What really motivated me to put it out now before waiting for a full peer review is that I am afraid in 6-8 months, there will be some policymaker who decides, ‘let’s do GPT kindergarten.’ I think that would be absolutely bad and detrimental,” the study’s main author Nataliya Kosmyna told Time magazine. “Developing brains are at the highest risk.”
We should listen to her. She’s an expert.
Has anyone ever seen Chase Oliver and Chase Strangio in the same place at the same time?
LOL, wut?
What kind of “business” does he have in DC? The guy didn’t even work when he was president. Does he have a Playskool desk in his office?
It’s fucking strange.
I thought other ex-presidents retired to a ranch or something. Maybe Biden just likes trains and ice cream.
He’s desperately scrounging for money. Also, his ego and dementia compel him to return to old habits.
Given the way he spent public money as president, I figure he’s been just as careless with his own finances. Jill and Hunter are most likely used to living high on the hog as well.
Dumb, corrupt, and now bankrupt. Perhaps there is a little justice in this world.
“He was talking in the quiet car!” a disbelieving Amtrak regular vented to The Post.
Right to jail.
Seriously, the quiet car is the single best thing about the Acela.
shut the fuck up old man
I’m not _that_ old…
Uh. . I. . . Uh . . Well I was speaking to former occupant of the oval office.
This is a new one even for me:
U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll said: “We talked to an astronaut yesterday who’s on the moon, who’s a soldier.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/there-are-no-soldiers-on-the-moon-despite-what-us-army-secretary-said/ar-AA1H6dC0
I love this video of the Apollo 10 flyby with earthrise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byLkaqycE3g
There are no soldiers on the moon as far as you know.
Ever wonder why the Army has an Antarctica medal? Or an astronaut badge?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica_Service_Medal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_astronaut_badges#U.S._Army_astronauts
Antarctica is good place for certain space-related things.
Of course there are. They’re there to fight the Nazis.
I thought they were there to fight SugarFreed links.
Ixnay on the oonbasemay.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunex_Project
***
The Lunex Project was a US Air Force 1958 plan for a crewed lunar landing prior to the Apollo Program. The final lunar expedition plan in 1961 was for a 21-person underground Air Force base on the Moon by 1968 at a total cost of $7.5 billion.
***
Amusing that the F-35 program is orders of magnitude more expensive than a moonbase even after adjusting for inflation.
You rang? Oh…never mind..
I was just thinking the same thing..no soldiers on the moon but now that you mention it, how do you know? It suddenly seems unlikely that there are not.
There were soldiers on the moon, but The Gorgatron destroyed them.
What are you some kind of Moon Master?
They should have had some Gorgatron repellent.
Ron,
Glad you are feeling a bit better baring some weakness.
Believe me you are lucky you paid attention and got it taken care of.
https://youtu.be/eO0VwmQb_2A
I am torn
On one hand…play brother. Takes guts to put it out there.
On the other…what in Gods name is this other than knowing you wont be bullied into nothingness cause its about as great as you thinkin Guam is going to capsize.
When I think about the horrific loss in human potential that we have suffered there are two main culprits – savagery and mental illness.
What a shame. Hank actually has a decent voice. With sanity and some training he could actually have a great voice.
Why i was torn. Music is healing…this is bullshit
If Don-don was actually making an effort to destroy the idea of democracy…I’d be a lot more positively disposed towards him than I am.
Well, the new hotness from the Bomb Iran chorus is that us bombing the bunker with our super-duper bunker-buster would be better than the Israelis nuking it. Because the Israelis are totally going to do a first-strike nuclear attack on Iran.
King of the Hill quote:
***
Somebody breaks into your house, but you don’t have a gun. How are you going to shoot him?
***
Killing or attempting to kill the leaders of other countries means open season on all world leaders.
I’m also hearing that the bunker-buster can’t penetrate deep enough. Maybe they need to send AGENT STEVE SMITH, PROMINENT FOREST SPECIAL OPERATIVE.
It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face
It’s unclear how many projects could survive without the support offered by the credits. Even so, “now is not the time to be taking new generation off the grid, and especially new cheap generation off the grid,” said Tom Taylor, senior policy analyst for Atlas, speaking of renewable energy.
Roughly three-quarters of clean electricity generation facilities not yet under construction would be in Republican districts, according to POLITICO’s analysis of Atlas data.
They love to hammer on this “Republican districts” angle. As if anybody is going to put five hundred acres of solar panels in downtown Chicago. Republican districts are where the open space is.
Another bump in the road to Green Utopia
Steelmaker ArcelorMittal’s withdrawal from the planned climate-friendly conversion of two plants in Germany puts the future of its steelworks in the country at risk, unions warned in a report by news magazine Der Spiegel. The metalworker’s Union (IG Metall) said the decision was a “serious threat” to the future of ArcelorMittal’s plant in Bremen.
“The rejection of the direct reduction plant was already apparent, but the announcement that no electric arc furnace will be built in Bremen for the time being has shaken the company’s credibility” among its workforce, policymakers, and citizens, the union said. Ines Schwerdtner, who heads the leftwing party Die Linke, called the decision “an alarm signal” for Germany as an industry location, given that “without transformation, there is no future viability.”
ArcelorMittal also canceled a decarbonisation project in the city of Eisenhüttenstatt in the state of Brandenburg. The state’s economy minister Daniel Keller from the Social Democrats (SPD) said “it’s necessary for the EU to better protect the European steel market from cheap imports with much lower environmental standards and to find an adequate response to tariff policies of the US.” State premier Dietmar Woidke, also a Social Democrat, said his government would do “everything” to protect jobs, given that the steelworks are the “heart and backbone” of the region’s economy. “Germany’s and Europe’s standing as an industry location must not be put at risk,” he warned.
The Luxembourg-based steelmaker on Thursday announced it would drop plans for converting two plants in the country, in Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt, to carbon-neutral production, arguing that energy costs in Germany were too high to allow for profitable operations.
Profits? How dare you?