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.
To those who are vexed at being pitied Part II
5All these contrivances you must adopt, if you wish to take the way of the second alternative and avoid pity.But the first way is ineffectual and tedious—to attempt the very thing which Zeus himself has been unable to accomplish, that is, to convince all men of what things are good, and what evil.
I find that most people have a different attitude towards what counts as a misfortune than I do. After my mom died a couple of years ago, her funeral was on a Friday and I had a work trip scheduled for Monday. This trip had been set prior to her going to the hospital, but my boss was surprised I didn’t postpone it. To my thinking, staying home wouldn’t help anything and my wife agreed with me. I think getting back to regular life and not wallowing in grief was helpful.
Why, that has not been vouchsafed to you, has it? Nay, this only has been vouchsafed—to convince yourself. And you have not convinced yourself yet! And despite that, bless me! are you now trying to convince all other men? Yet who has been living with you so long as you have been living with yourself? And who is so gifted with powers of persuasion to convince you, as you are to convince yourself? Who is more kindly disposed and nearer to you than you are to yourself? How comes it, then, that you have not persuaded yourself to learn? Are not things now upside down? Is this what you have been in earnest about? Not to learn how to get rid of pain, and turmoil, and humiliation, and so become free? Have you not heard that there is but a single way which leads to this end, and that is to give up the things which lie outside the sphere of the moral purpose, and to abandon them, and to admit that they are not your own?
There is no way to convince someone of something I don’t believe myself. Convincing myself to follow the Stoic philosophy is easy in comparison. I do not advertise this to others and do not try to change them. To the ones that read this series and hopefully become better at dealing with adversity, you might find people pity things that you do not control and therefore the pity does not serve a purpose except to let the other person feel they have helped. I accept this pity from others and feel it would be rude to try to explain that it is not accomplishing anything. I also try to be nice to my friends and coworkers when they face adversity.
10To what class of things, then, does another’s opinion about you belong?—To that which lies outside the sphere of the moral purpose.—And so it is nothing to you?—Nothing.—So long, then, as you are stung and disturbed by the opinions of others, do you still fancy that you have been persuaded as to things good and evil?
If I let the fact others, from the goodness of their hearts, feel sorry for me, then I am obviously not a very good Stoic. I accept it in the spirit it was meant and when it is my turn, try to return the same, but I am not as good at that as I should be.
Will you not, then, let other men alone, and become your own pupil and your own teacher? “All other men shall see to it, whether it is profitable for them to be in a state out of accord with nature and so to live, but as for me no one is closer to myself than I am. What does it mean, then, that I have heard the words of the philosophers and assent to them, but that in actual fact my burdens have become no lighter?
Following Stoicism has actually helped me to deal with setbacks to me and family members with less pain and anger than I used to have in those circumstances. Failing to follow them is when I get easily frustrated. My wife still likes to remind me of this. I was replacing the door knob on our front door and the dog was outside. As I was attempting to align screws I couldn’t see, he kicked the door, causing me to drop a screw and lose the alignment. I yelled a quick “Dammit!”, next thing I heard was my wife saying, “Stoic, be Stoic”. That made me laugh and improved my mood.
Can it be that I am so dull? And yet, indeed, in everything else that I have wanted I was not found to be unusually dull, but I learned my letters rapidly, and how to wrestle, and do my geometry, and analyze syllogisms. Can it be, then, that reason has not convinced me? Why, indeed, there is nothing to which I have so given my approval from the very first, or so preferred, and now I read about these matters, and hear them, and write about them. Down to this moment we have not found a stronger argument than this. What is it, then, that I yet lack? Can it be that the contrary judgements have not all been put away? Can it be that the thoughts themselves are unexercised and unaccustomed to face the facts, and, like old pieces of armor that have been stowed away, are covered with rust, and can no longer be fitted to me?
There is nothing complicated about being a Stoic, it is simple. Simple does not equal easy. I may have used this before, but Forged in Fire host Ben Abbott explained it perfectly. To paraphrase him, running a marathon is simple, you just have to run. That can become difficult rather quickly, but it remains simple.
15Yet in wrestling, or in writing, or in reading, I am not satisfied with mere learning, but I turn over and over the arguments presented to me, and fashion new ones, and likewise syllogisms with equivocal premises. However, the necessary principles, those which enable a man, if he sets forth from them, to get rid of grief, fear, passion, hindrance, and become free, these I do not exercise, nor do I take the practice that is appropriate for them. After all that, am I concerned with what everyone else will say about me, whether I shall appear important or happy in their eyes?”
Being a practicing Stoic requires practice. Just like not being able to exercise for a year and a half has made me weaker than I have ever been in my life, not actively thinking about what I control and what is an external force can cause me to get angrier easy or frustrated with something that I can do nothing about. Without use, everything can atrophy.
I have been traveling in Jacksonville and Port Canaveral Florida for work all week and fly home on Friday. It will be nice to be home, but I did get to go to some nice restaurants also. It helps to that the weather was great, 55-60 during the day and 50 at night. While I was away, I still made it to the gym, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.
While I was away, I still made it to the gym
Excellent!
Did you find any good gyms on the road?
The best gym I’ve ever used on the road is American Iron.
Wow that place is beautiful. I am jealous. Nice web site, too. We volunteered at a Spartan DEKA event a month ago at a CrossFit gym. They had a really nice space too.
You have a good place. Legitimately a good place. But this place…. consider it aspirational.
Exactly. We’re just a baby gym right now, only 2 years in business. We’re working with our landlord to renew our lease for another 3 years, and after that, we’ll see if we’re successful enough to find a bigger place. You never know what will happen, last year we acquired another business and doubled our membership.
I sense big and good things happening.
So does Tres.
I am a Planet Fitness member, so itcosts $5 to use an out of town one.
I remember when they were requiring masks during the Rona Panic. I remember lots of chatter on the Reopen NH group about people dropping them over them requiring masks.
This was a really good one for January, at least for those who have new year’s resolutions. I have struggled my whole adult life with personal improvement books, videos, and podcasts that I 100% agree with, but that I just can’t seem to put into practice.
I don’t believe in New Year resolutions.
For most people, they seem to be empty gestures.
Self improvement needs discipline, not a calender date.
Self improvement needs discipline, not a calender date.
I’m going to hang that on my wall … someday.
Changing habits requires changing who you are. Recompiling your own operating system, as it were.
* deleted a whole long monolog about how human OSs can only be programmed by macros… *
I had a shooting instructor, now sadly retired, who was really eloquent on this topic.
Habituation is key.
Once I get through the first 3 weeks, working out becomes automatic for me.
Just crossed that last week.
Precious
If Americans band together and defeat the rising forces of evil this time, the U.S. Constitution will need realignment with core human values. It is not too early to envision what a post-Trump constitutional order might look like. Germany after World War II offers a place to start.
In May of 1949, West Germany adopted “Grundgesetz,” or German Basic Law. Initially intended to serve as a temporary constitution, it became the German legal system’s defining document after reunification of the East and West in 1990.
Its animating premise is contained in Article I, which states: “Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority. The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and justice in the world. The following basic rights shall bind the legislature, the executive and the judiciary as directly applicable law. …”
Rights are created, defined and granted by the State.
Read the whole thing. It will make you a better person.
Not right before lunch, it won’t…
First line of the new constitution . . . .
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
That should be in the U.S. constitution.
More than half of the federal spending would go away and all of the debt.
One day, America must likewise reconstruct the constitutional order to ensure that democracy can never again democratically vote itself out of existence.
Sorry, sheep, you’re not allowed to change the Constitution the wolves wrote.
I am a Planet Fitness member, so itcosts $5 to use an out of town one.
If my local Planet Fitness had a sauna I’d probably join. I don’t know if any of them do.
I know they get a bad wrap, and I’m not sure what percentage of the members actually work out, but for what I need(dumbells, a bench, pushup space, and a pullup bar) as long as I avoid peak hours they are fine.
My younger brother, who is in bananas shape, also uses Planet Fitness for similar reasons – it’s close, it has the basic things he needs and it’s not crowded at 05:00 when he goes (or earlier – he’s nuts).
One thing that would get me back into a gym (as opposed to the kettlebells/sandbags/Swedish ladder I have now) would be a complete ban on video recording for any reason. That shit really annoys me.
Our posted rule is no taking videos or photos of anyone without their permission. But we don’t have any wannabe influencers thankfully. Some people record their lifts for their trainer to watch or to put on social media, and one guy does online coaching so he might record a workout he’s doing.
Never seen that, but Planet Fitness is not known for its beautiful people.
The document goes on to list many individual rights that far exceed those in the U.S. Constitution, from “free development” of “personality” to the right to “physical integrity.”
The language in Article I was a direct response to Nazi dehumanization and crimes against humanity. It has influenced the drafting of constitutions across the globe. It should guide ours, as well.
Positive rights are where it’s at.
FDR’s “Freedom from want” says hello.
And this leads to the UK not repatriating murderers and rapists to their home countries because they might be prosecuted for it, and for immigration judges revoking deportation orders because the perp’s son doesn’t like the taste of foreign chicken nuggets.
A rule of law called FYTW.
And this leads to the UK not repatriating murderers and rapists to their home countries because they might be prosecuted for their crimes, and for immigration judges revoking deportation orders because the perp’s son doesn’t like the taste of foreign chicken nuggets.
A rule of law called FYTW.
You can’t deport squirrels either.
If the judge wishes to not repatriate or punish, then the judge must take on the punishment personally and take the criminal’s palce on the flight out of the UK.
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
subordinate doing an upgrade on a failover server replaced the correct info already in the installer window with really random incorrect info that doesn’t even make sense internally.
FDR’s “Freedom from want” says hello.
“A unicorn in every pot” is the essential lesson of Stoicism.
“…you might find people pity things that you do not control and therefore the pity does not serve a purpose except to let the other person feel they have helped.” Agreed, but they’re not wrong. It does feel better. They have helped themselves and their *social* primate selves. Most people really do care, if they actually know you. If they *really* know you, it can be shorthand for ‘ask if ya need some help or a shoulder.’ Which depends on the person and relationship, if they really mean it.
If/when it really does make them feel better, that’s not nothing. Social wiring built-in, people also don’t want to risk looking like an asshole who ‘ignored’ or ‘didn’t give a shit’ to the Pitiful or give off that sign to others. Who also just act like they care, most of the time. It also ‘signals’ others that they ‘care’ about others in the group.
It helps the Pitying inwardly (and outwardly) ‘strengthen’ their belief that they really do belong to something. And they’re accepted within that group. As we’ve seen throughout our species, pretty much anything sparks this drive to belong. Religion, ‘nations,’ the awful awfl shit we talk about, sports teams, whatever.
Politically, I’d say city-states are about as big as a government can get before shit goes astray. The united States, indeed.
Given how progressives can gain control of and destroy cities, I’m not even sure about that.
https://www.amazon.com/San-Fransicko-Progressives-Ruin-Cities/dp/0063093626
Depends on culture. And size. No matter the group, I don’t think a group of 1-5 million of ’em are going to run things without very ‘human’ levels of bullshit of one flavor or another.
Singapore’s an interesting example of that, perhaps.
Back in the dedthred, Pie asked if I could expand on ways to enforce federal immigration law, that don’t involve ICE agents snatching people off the street. I think this is a reasonable and important topic, so here I go.
1.) I’ve talked about this before – the DOJ should be aggressively pursuing the companies who knowingly employ illegals and/or abuse the H1B visa system, to the point of arresting and prosecuting owners and executives. Ironically, most of the pushback on this would probably come from the Chamber of Commerce Republican types, versus the Democrats.
2.) Many posters here have pointed out, correctly, that the reason that ICE is out on the street in some places and not others, is because of police departments that are ignoring federal immigration holds and kicking said illegals out onto the street. If the DOJ issued a finding that such police officials are to be prosecuted for federal obstruction of justice*, this would allow a lot more deportations to be conducted behind the scenes, without the clashes with purple-haired Cluster B types. This would also satisfy my personal desire to see more government-on-government violence – the idea of a U.S. Marshals Service SOG team dragging Brian O’Hara out of his office in a cloud of pepper spray is literally making my dick hard right now…
3.) The practical reason that the Dems are pushing the ‘no human is illegal’ bullshit is because they can use illegals for votes, and more importantly for population-based redistricting. Why are illegals counted in the census, and what needs to be done to change that? I don’t know, personally, but if it were my job to manage immigration enforcement I’d make a point of finding out.
I think that these three off-the-cuff solutions would be more effective, have better public optics, and aren’t quite as blatantly handing the commies rope to hang us with.
We keep hearing that “Clinton and Obama reported even more illegals.”. So how did they do it without all the “brutal” optics? Yeah, media gave cover, but there must have been effective tactics that didn’t piss off AWFLs.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/12/nx-s1-5647761/ivf-fertility-motherhood-40s-cost-donor-decision
How IVF has led to a record number of single moms in their 40s
Laura Terry dreamed of having kids — a family she could call her own. But there was one challenge: She wasn’t interested in dating, marriage, or partnering up.
So, she came up with an idea for an unusual present to give herself.
“For my 39th birthday, I bought a vial of donor sperm,” says Terry, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., and works at a top management consulting firm.
Idiocracy — The Sequel
Posting a link to the forum – Jan. 19th, VCDL Rally Day in Richmond
https://www.glibertarians.us/community/announcements/virginia-vcdl-rally-day-monday-jan-19/