Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII Part IX Part X Part XI Part XII Part XIII
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 italicized in bold, my replies are in normal text.
Of Freedom Part XIV
And what has all this to do with freedom?—Nay, nothing but all this has to do with freedom, whether you rich people so wish or not.—145And what is your witness to this?—Why, what else but you yourselves who have this mighty master,[33] and live at his nod and gesture, who faint away if he but look at one of you with a scowl on his face, paying court to the old women and the old men, and saying, “I cannot do this; I am not allowed”? Why are you not allowed? Were you not just now arguing with me and claiming that you were free? “But Aprulla[34] has prevented me.” Tell the truth, then, slave, and do not run away from your masters, nor make denial, nor dare to present your emancipator,[35] when you have so many proofs to convict you of slavery.
It is easy to think I am freer than I actually am. I would like to have more options to do what I want, but have chosen to buy a house and keep my job over being truly free. I also pay taxes and let the government steal my money that way. It can be hard to admit to myself, but reality is always there.
And, indeed, when a man out of passionate love is under the compulsion to do something contrary to his opinion, all the time seeing the better thing but lacking the strength to follow, one might be all the more inclined to regard him as deserving pity, because he is in the grip of something violent, and, in a manner of speaking, divine.
Part of the reason I made many of the choices I made were for my wife. She would not be happy living in my ideal environment and the same goes for me trying to live in a city. She has moderated on that and both of us are really happy in the suburbs where we live. I call it the 90% house, I have about 90% of what I truly wanted I would like to be a little more isolated and have some livestock, but very few people get everything they want.
But who could endure you with your passion for old women and old men, wiping the noses and washing the faces of old women, corrupting them with presents, and all the while you are nursing them, like a slave, in some illness, praying for them to die, and asking the physicians if they are finally on their deathbed? Or again, when for the sake of these mighty and dignified offices and honors you kiss the hands of other men’s slaves, so as to be the slave of men who are not even free? And then, God save the mark, you walk around in your dignity as a praetor or a consul! Don’t I know how you came to be praetor, how you got your consulship, who gave it to you? 150As for me, I should not care even to live, if I had to owe my life to Felicio,[36] putting up with his insolence and slavish arrogance; for I know what a slave is, who is prosperous as the world goes, and puffed up with pride.[37]
Striving for other people’s favor is a losing game. Feeling self important as you suck up to those you wish to be popular with is an attitude I have witnessed, but feel lucky to not understand. I much prefer to be as I am, a little taciturn and honest. I don’t overtly share my opinions, but it I am asked a question, I answer honestly. My mom used to exploit this to get me into discussions with her about things I was happier not arguing about. I swear after she finished a sentence, a bell would ring and a voice would say,”This is CNN”.
Are you, then, free, says someone?—By the gods I wish to be, and pray to be, but I am not yet able to look into the face of my masters, I still honour my paltry body, I take great pains to keep it sound, although it is not sound in any case.[38]
My body is not as sound as it used to be, but I am trying to take care of it to the best of my abilities. I have been going to the gym consistently and am feeling more normal than I have since my blood loss.
But I can show you a free man, so that you will never again have to look for an example, Diogenes was free. How did that come? It was not because he was born of free parents, for he was not, but because he himself was free, because he had cast off all the handles of slavery, and there was no way in which a person could get close and lay hold of him to enslave him. Everything he had was easily loosed, everything was merely tied on.[39] If you had laid hold of his property, he would have let it go rather than followed you for its sake; if you had laid hold of his leg, he would have let his leg go; if of his whole paltry body, his whole paltry body; and so also his kindred, friends, and country. He knew the source from which he had received them, and from whom, and upon what conditions. His true ancestors, indeed, the gods, and his real Country[40] he would never have abandoned, nor would he have suffered another to yield them more obedience and submission, nor could any other man have died more cheerfully for his Country.
Diogenes was truly free, but at what cost? He was free the same way the homeless are free, but he made a rational decision to live that way. If he did not have wealthy patrons donating money so he could live that way, how long before hunger forced him to find productive work? Or would he have not surrendered and kept living off of refuse? I think to be truly human, living like Diogenes is not an option. While I can take parts of his philosophy that make sense, most of them do not work if you want a “normal” life.
I disagree that Diogenes was truly human. As an outlier he does not fit the standard template.
Or did I misread what you wrote? My attention is divided during working hours.
I think you misread it.
Figures.
Freedom from attachments is great in moderation. In practice having a roof and climate control is quite pleasant even if it does limit my freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIdYhgFhYHA
Freedom’s just another word
For nothin’ left to lose
I swear after she finished a sentence, a bell would ring and a voice would say,”This is CNN”.
With some of my relatives, it is MSNBC.
She accused me of getting all my information from Fox News, even though I quit watching anything on them except Stossel and The Independents.
I think to most of the typical Dem/Rep devotees, there are only three categories of news:
1. CNN, NYT, MSNBC and a few other lefty networks
2. Fox News and a few other righty networks
3. “The Internet”
Democrats consider #1 to be reliable and balanced and #2 to be dishonest partisan drivel; for Republicans it’s the reverse.
They both agree that #3 occasionally has some good tidbits but is 99% unreliable, unregulated, and probably covert propaganda by malicious actors. They don’t make distinctions between different sources on the Internet, so they don’t recognize that very often that’s the only place you can find the actual truth.
It doesn’t matter if there’s a podcast that has an excellent track record of being correct while the corporate media sources are wrong. To them, a podcast is still just “some guy on the Internet”.
Akira:
Well what do you expect, there’s no licenses, certifications, or credentials that can tell them which podcaster/internet site is correct and valid.
1. Hot commie trash
2. Cold commie trash
3. Entertaining, occasionally on point.
That it used to be Darth Vader’s voice makes it all the more appropriate.
Good to hear you’re feeling better, Ron
A couple days in the woods won’t hurt. Nature has been kind to us this year, bringing bright fall colors.
…also bringing Glibs for the roundup…
Looking forward to meeting you.
We land on Friday, is there anything happening on Saturday or is it all on Sunday?
Saturday the NoDaks will roll into Nisswa and start making the rounds. I don’t encourage you to follow them, without bail money..
I think Kinnath will be in the neighborhood, CPRM probably.
Where are you going to stay?
Saturday will be a work day, we will probably go out to dinner, you and any other Glibs are welcome to join us.
latvia2112@ yah…
I am staying at the Good Ol’ Days Resort.
Ron, I hope you enjoy the Good Ol’ Days as much as TT and I did! 🙂👍
Do they hand out rose-colored glasses with every room?
It was your recommendation that got me there.
Freedom isn’t real unless you’re free to be wrong an asshole an obese drunken self-indulgent slob.
That’s not the same as saying that being wrong an asshole an obese drunken self-indulgent slob is a good thing, or even an acceptable one.
Go home. You’re drunk.
Wait, before you go, talk me out of a DPMS Kitty Kat.
They don’t run very well, the short barrel significantly compromises the ballistic performance of the 5.56mm round, and the concussion from firing one is horrible.
Because of the A2? I have a 7.5″ with a flash can that’s too bad.
And it runs great, but then again it’s not a DPMS…
It’s designed so that the thing that goes up whacks you in the cranium every time you shoot.
Why would you run a round optimized for 18” barrels out of a 7.5” barrel? In what way is that not going to be a bad experience?
I feel attacked.
Come on, you’re not drunk all the time…
Mossad would attack you, wouldn’t they?
Damnit, those should have been strike tags…
Matt Kibbe interviews The Daily Stoic: https://freethepeople.org/kol-what-stoics-can-teach-libertarians-guest-ryan-holiday-ep-348/
¡uǝʌɐɹ ᴉH
Hi Sean.
There are times I wish I thought like a search engine. Apparently a 6′ x 9″ book is too big for a fanny pack.
That’s a big book.
You are definitely going to tear pages if you aren’t careful
It’s a book about dimensional lumber.
Now I need to work in transdimensional lumber into a story.
Gotta think on it.
Transdimensional wood? so like a Harem Isekai?
Big? That is octavo size, which would be half of a quarto, which in turn is half a folio.
So, it is an average hardback.
UnCiv, your remark reminds me of the Heinlein short “He Built a crooked House” which also described what happens when a tessaract is not built propery.
Zwak, the typo in the unit mark says that’s a six foot by nine inch book.
Look more closely than I did at my dimension markers.
UnCiv, there was a pork futures warehouse in Ankh-Morpork that was used for pork that didn’t actually exist yet. I suppose that counts as a trans-fourth-dimensional commodity.
Big Book of Dick Pics?
During our time living in Los Angeles, I encountered many homeless. Many were crazy, addicts, and / or alcoholics. But some were clearly free like Diogenes and didn’t feel like participating in normal life. I didn’t hate them, also didn’t appreciate dealing with them all over the damn place. We had a 130 lb bullmastiff back then who did not like the homeless and let them know it.
Freedom means giving your life to the collective.
Freedom is dangerous and scary. It certainly doesn’t give you that blissful little dopamine rush that comes with submitting to a higher authority…
Or the comfort of people around you who believe like you do.
Social bonding is more oxytocin than dopamine.
Moreover, does freedom prevent one from seeking out the company of the like-minded? I don’t think that it does.
Really, freedom doesn’t prevent one from submitting to higher authority, either. If it did, I wouldn’t have a job…
Imaginary friends
The federal agency said AI chatbots may be used to simulate human-like communication and intrapersonal relationships with users, and that it wants to understand what steps these companies have taken to “evaluate the safety of these chatbots when acting as companions,” according to a release.
“Protecting kids online is a top priority for the Trump-Vance FTC, and so is fostering innovation in critical sectors of our economy,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.
The FTC said it is seeking information about how these companies monetize user engagement, develop and approve characters, use or share personal information, monitor and enforce compliance with company rules and terms of service and mitigate negative impacts, among other subjects.
Big Brother loves you.
I’ve wondered if I could run one offline. I’ve found some open source models but I don’t know if they’re fit for purpose.
“Our priority is making ChatGPT helpful and safe for everyone, and we know safety matters above all else when young people are involved,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. “We recognize the FTC has open questions and concerns, and we’re committed to engaging constructively and responding to them directly.”
We’d never pull a Soupy Sales.
*On January 1, 1965, miffed at having to work on the holiday, Sales ended his live broadcast by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents’ bedrooms and remove those “funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. presidents” from their pants and pocketbooks. “Put them in an envelope and mail them to me and I’ll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico”
What is the stoic position on smoking a cigar on the terrace and drinking a port charlotte 10 with a big square icr cube? I know good malt it best neat but outside whre there is no AC it is still lind of warm and i do not smoke indoors.
Too Epicurian.
The cigar is a bit dry though i bought it from a reputable store
Dip it in the drink? I don’t know, I don’t smoke.
Alas i do not have a hot woman on hamd to ehm dip the cigar
I’m not a purist about water or ice in a nice whiskey and no one should tell you how to enjoy yourself if it doesn’t hurt anyone.
It sounds like a great way to spend an evening. I plan do something similar in about 3 – 4 hours with my favorite person.
Personally, I feel most cask strength whisk(e)ies need either some water or ice to open them up.
Agreed. A whiskey tasing is a good way to determine this for yourself. Try a cask strength without and with a splash and see if the flavor and notes are more present. In my case they were.
Four fingers, two cubes.
Thus is is written.
Four fingers – four finger width or length? I remember a long time ago at my uncle’s house a guest asked for a finger of whisky and my then 12 year old cousin poured a fingers length in a large glass which was considered a bit much
ZWAK:
What type of cubes?
I’ve always threatened if I run out of other ideas, I could put up a post talking about different types of ice and when they should be used. 🙂
Wife bought me a whiskey smoking kit (interesting concept) and it came with two spherical ice molds. I prefer them over smaller ice pieces because it interferes less with drinking.
That goddamn half-circle ice that comes out of the fridge is the worst. Every time I take a sip, one of them has fit itself perfectly to the inside of the glass and formed a dam around which the drink flows, resulting in a spill-out down both sides of my chin. It’s OK if you’re drinking from a straw, but I’m not usually doing that with cocktails.
#FirstWorldProblems
Sorry Neph, I have never been a huge stickler for things like that, so it is what ever comes out of the freezer.
ZWAK:
Those would generally be considered 1″ cubes (considered low quality as well, assuming you’re using standard trays). Off the top of my head, I’ve got three different cube molds in the freezer at all times, and at least four different sized molds sitting unused at present.
Real connosewers freeze RC Cola and use those cubes
I actually don’t mind ice in Port Charlotte.
Sybarite.
Much depends on the ice. A large clear cube (they really do melt a lot slower) would be the way to go. Crushed ice, no way. Ordinary cloudy ice out of the freezer? Eh, in an emergency, if I don’t have clear ice.
The societal impacts of companions are already profound, even with the industry in its very early stages, as the U.S. suffers through a loneliness epidemic. Industry experts have said they expect the ethical and safety concerns to intensify once AI technology begins to train itself, creating the potential for increasingly unpredictable outcomes.
But some of the wealthiest people in the world are touting the power of companions and are working to develop the technology at their companies. Elon Musk in July announced a Companions feature for users who pay to subscribe to xAI’s Grok chatbot app. In April, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said people are going to want personalized AI that understands them.
“I think a lot of these things that today there might be a little bit of a stigma around — I would guess that over time, we will find the vocabulary as a society to be able to articulate why that is valuable and why the people who are doing these things, why they are rational for doing it, and how it is actually adding value for their lives,” Zuckerberg said on a podcast.
We all want our very own Jeeves.
This sounds familiar. Gary saw the future and it was cold.
https://youtu.be/AweJWo8_WFs?si=CXxOygKN9yI56DiD
It’s a book about dimensional lumber.
A carpenter can never run out of inches.
If a woman wants livestock she gets it.
And he gets to buy the fence, one ton, horse trailer, barn, tractor, feed and veterinary care.
And tell her thank you when he’s mucking out the stalls he gets to build and do maintenance on.
It’s only fair that you pony up the labor after being saddled to pay for everything.
Alas i do not have a hot woman on hamd to ehm dip the cigar
What is the official position on the optimal thicc-ness of such a woman?
On the low end of medium
Svelte.
*nods sagely*
36-26-36.
whats that in metric
or a pic for research purposes
Putting her glorification of Charlie Kirk’s murder to one side for moment, I ask: How the hell is someone who looks like this a “director of health promotion and advocacy”?
https://x.com/Babygravy9/status/1966551766851367220
Paging… Nevermind.
Feeding off hate must be a calorie intense diet.
Calling that a glorification is a pretty big stretch.
Agreed. Words’ meanings’ should matter, especially when it’s your job to communicate.
Yeah, more of a justification, or an excuse.
The “to be sure”s don’t really do anything, to my mind.
Somewhere, a bridge is missing it’s troll.
JFC, words like hate, fascist, nazi, racist, and misogyny have been diluted more the US dollar over the past 20 years.
No kidding. And on that note, she needs to stop genociding all over Twitter!
Look back at the Biden administration. It was literally a freak show. That is a proggie thing…think the Stranger appointing Mordecai as Mayor in High Plains Drifter. They have contempt for our culture and institutions so they infiltrate them and make a mockery of them.
Remember the White House party with trannys shaking their ‘tits’ in our faces. It was mockery and contempt. I cant think of a more blatant ‘Fuck You’.
How the hell is someone who looks like this a “director of health promotion and advocacy”?
Ow, my eye!
https://www.k-var.com/ar-m14sft-tact-ak47-4-piece-flash-hider-plum
Ugh….
I need to stay off gun vendor websites.
>.>
I watched a review that said the Bersa 2011 is actually good. US Made, only $1500.
I have a Turkish Tisas B9R 2011 that runs like a sewing machine, that I paid $750 for.
Of course, I added a magwell and a flat trigger, and coated the grip frame with epoxy and silicon carbide grit, and tweaked the trigger down to 2.5#. But still, a hell of a gun for something with under a Cleveland invested in it.
At last weekend’s 2-gun match (2nd Standard, 4th overall) a guy on my squad asked if I was shooting a Staccato. I (very quickly, by my standards) quipped, “No, this is the Staccato we have at home…”
A forged AK receiver on a SBR seems like a needless expense.
$52,000,000 Wyoming Ranch on 96,000 Acres
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOeU4boBUv0
no one needs 96,000 Acres
I do. But $52M is a bunch of cheese. Surely Bill Gates is about to swoop it up.
Yeah, but….Wyoming.
Do they have Amazon Prime there?
If you can swing $52 million for the house, surely you can afford a helicopter and pilot to run into town and grab your packages.
If Mrs. Dean had bought the winning lottery ticket like I told her to . . . .
Nah. Owning something like that is a lot of work. I’m too old and lazy for that shit.
JFC, Daily Fail….
You fucking kidding me?
Leftism is a disease.
Meh. I’ll give a partial pass, we don’t KNOW a motive yet, we’re all guessing. I for one, am interested in hearing what the alleged shooter’s statements are. I will say that the planning and escape should hurt any insanity plea.
For all we know the neighbor’s dog told him to do it. Is the most likely reason the obvious one? Yes. But we don’t know yet.
They know what was etched on the casings, and “Catch this, Nazi” is pretty clear.
They’re trying to say he was right-wing because his family was Republican. Gotcha!
Yes. It is a disease.
Pre school
Grade school
Jr High
High School
College
Is the vector.
Yeah X is littered right now with the lefties all screeching “see, he’s a normal white male Republican kid!!!” and utterly pretending the collegiate mind-virus radicalization didn’t happen.
Of course they leave out that a goodly chunk of them they too were raised in white, republican homes.
The radical left is filled with white kids from normal, middle class, families who were poisoned with a steady mixture of social media and propaganda telling them that in order to repent for their sin of being white they needed to hate themselves.
They didn’t just land on crazy. They were driven there on purpose.
Flip that around, and you have the black kids who are otherwise functional, being told that they are victims of structural racism or whatever, and that they deserve reparations for the sins committed against them by the system.
You tell someone over and over again that they’re entitled to something, and they get to a certain point where they don’t have that something…is it any real surprise that they decide to take it?
Progressivism is really a perfect storm of shitty destructive memes.
no one needs 96,000 Acres
Tell Ted Turner.
I will be the judge of that.
How big is the other half?
At one cow per 40 acres that’s only 2400 head.
The motive for the assassination remains unclear.
It was most likely a hunting accident.
Dick Cheney killed Charlie Kirk?
Exactly. Let’s just completely ignore A, who it was that was assassinated, B, where he was assassinated (at a well attended public speaking event on a college campus), and C, that the bullet casing had Antifa bullshit on them.
I want Fedgov to rampage these fucking terrorists. All Antifa groups infiltrated and rooted out. Fortress last decade we’ve heard nothing except that “far right terrorism” is the biggest threat we face as a nation. Every group from local college Republican chapters to gun clubs, to churches were infiltrated. It’s time to get rid of their evil.
You want to stomp ants. I want to poison the queen. Find out where the money is coming from, seize all the assets and put those people in prison. They are waging war on our country FFS.
So Nepal has apparently elected their new PM via discord.
There are worse ways to do it. At least they didn’t use junk mail ballots.
I guess we can’t laugh too much after our own government was apparently discussing military strikes on the Houthis through a Signal chat.