How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness.
Today’s lesson comes from: Musonious Rufus’s Lectures
We don”t know much about Rufus’s life, he was born between 20-30 AD. By the rein of Nero he was a leading Stoic teacher. He was banished twice under different Emperors. His most famous student was Epictetus and like him, Rufus did not write any of his own lessons. The lessons and fragments that remain were written by his students. We do not now when he died, but in 101 AD Pliny mentions him as deceased.
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
On Training Part II
5 For by these things and others like them the body is strengthened and becomes capable of enduring hardship, sturdy and ready for any task; the soul too is strengthened since it is trained for courage by patience under hardship and for self-control by abstinence from pleasures. Training which is peculiar to the soul consists first of all in seeing that the proofs pertaining to apparent goods as not being real goods are always ready at hand and likewise those pertaining to apparent evils as not being real evils, and in learning to recognize the things which are truly good and in becoming accustomed to distinguish them from what are not truly good. In the next place it consists of practice in not avoiding any of the things which only seem evil, and in not pursuing any of the things which only seem good; in shunning by every means those which are truly evil and in pursuing by every means those which are truly good.
Practicing Stoicism properly can help to identify what I control and what is external. Using this, I can easily see that what most of the world considers good or evil are external forces that are truly neither. There may be things we prefer to happen, but when other things happen instead that does not make what happens evil. The only true good or evil is how I choose to respond to the external forces.
6 In summary, then, I have tried to tell what the nature of each type of training is. I shall not, however, endeavor to discuss how the training should be carried out in detail, by analyzing and distinguishing what is appropriate for the soul and the body in common and what is appropriate for the soul alone, but by presenting without fixed order what is proper for each. It is true that all of us who have participated in philosophic discussion have heard and apprehended that neither pain nor death nor poverty nor anything else which is free from wrong is an evil, and again that wealth, life, pleasure, or anything else which does not partake of virtue is not a good. And yet, in spite of understanding this, because of the depravity which has become implanted in us straight from childhood and because of evil habits engendered by this depravity, when hardship comes we think an evil has come upon us, and when pleasure comes our way we think that a good has befallen us; we dread death as the most extreme misfortune; we cling to life as the greatest blessing, and when we give away money we grieve as if we were injured, but upon receiving it we rejoice as if a benefit had been conferred.
I believe Stoicism is a very individual pursuit and it would be arrogant for me to recommend a particular way to study and practice. Knowing what my weak points were, mostly anger at things I had no control over, that is what I started working on first. I have come a long way, but every now and then, I catch myself slipping. It is almost a fake and performative anger for the most part, and being shallow, it is usually easy to brush off and laugh at myself for acting like a baby. A person with different issues would want another starting point I would assume.
7 Similarly with the majority of other things, we do not meet circumstances in accordance with right principles, but rather we follow wretched habit. Since, then, I repeat, all this is the case, the person who is in training must strive to habituate himself not to love pleasure, not to avoid hardship, not to be infatuated with living, not to fear death, and in the case of goods or money not to place receiving above giving.
Repetition makes it almost automatic. The first time I was able to go out to eat with my wife while I was hungry and talk to her like a human,not just scowl at the table waiting for my food, she was amazed. Now it is much easier. I still work on it and have issues when things don’t work the way they are supposed to. I will continue to practice and hopefully continue to improve.
Follow up to UCS’s question in ded thred
https://xkcd.com/386/
There is no stronger motivation to argue online.
I’ve decided that if a comment should start with “well, ackchually”, then its generally better not to make it.
I try not to argue online or in person, feels like a waste of time.
My mom knew how to push my buttons and I would get into it with her.
Ron, do we have the same mom?
You guys sound like sons I never had. I run into the same problem with the one I have
I had to laugh at the mental image of Ron scowling at a table until food arrives. Then inhaling it like a recruit at the Parris Island Chow Hall.
When I graduated boot camp, my mom and granma came to pick me up.
we stopped at a steakhouse right by the base and my granma and I both ordered the same steak.
I ate it so quickly that mom thought they had brought me a tiny steak when she looked up and my plate was empty.
Years later, I got to laugh at my son as he ate a burger in record time when we picked him up.
My wife says I still eat too fast. That may be so but it’s not as fast as in the chow hall in basic. Also, that I’ve never complained that she eats too slow apparently doesn’t matter.
I lost 15 lbs at OCS.
We all got the same serving size, little guys, big guys, fat guys, skinny guys.
*ron scowls* needs to become a thing whenever someone isn’t stoic.
Next level to narrows gaze.
exactly.
3Door, got stoplossed a month before ETSing but thanks to Rumsfeld’s doing war on the skinny, our battalion’s mob order was rescinded and I got out (to IRR). Bank error in my favor again, USAR discharged me entirely for most of my IRR obligation (which I was unaware of until they sent my rescission orders) so I didn’t get plucked out as an individual augmentee either.
Nice.
I had previous time in OSW (with a clown show of a unit) and was getting that shot timer disgruntlement so I wasn’t unhappy at the time to miss the sand, even if it was a bunch of joes who had their shit together. My NG platoon was awarded a PUC for Fallujah during a later activation and another one of the guys in my company was awarded a silver star for his actions. Very proud of those guys.
*short timer
A good long form by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. When your enemy says they hate you, believe them.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/mohamed-atta-25-years-911
Always a good idea.
/dives in
The founders knew about Islam.
The more I think about he first amendment in context of the times the more I come to believe that it was written to mean freedom of different Christian faiths. Not religion as a catchall. The founders would not have allowed the importation of the Barbary pirate’s wives harems and brothers in law.
The founders also enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Yep
Religious freedom was far more restrictive than many of us were taught. While the Jews in Newport, RI were praised by George Washington in 1790, they couldn’t hold office. Even some Christians who were Roman Catholics could not serve in office in some states until well into the 1800s. However, if the Founders meant religious freedom to apply only to Trinitarian Christians, then they should have made it clear in the language of the 1st amendment.
“It is true that all of us who have participated in philosophic discussion have heard and apprehended that neither pain nor death nor poverty nor anything else which is free from wrong is an evil, and again that wealth, life, pleasure, or anything else which does not partake of virtue is not a good.”
The distortions then were as bad as they are now. Because of that distortion men try to do good, and end up doing only evil.
I shall remain calm.
I shall not scream “Do you even speak English?” to uncomprehending people.
I shall forebear their endless need to correction so that the task gets completed.
No, you stupid 🤬, Do not do that!
ARRRRGGGHHH~!
*headdesks*
Is my vacation here yet?
A truly appropriate thread for the stoicism post.
*ron scowls*
Like that, Aloysious?
Have you done this meme to people?
https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/116571546/Idiot-sandwich
I’m going to calmly ignore the asshole who a) didn’t configure the new router despite having agreed turn up dates b) after sitting on it for weeks, emails out a change ticket with scheduled date without checking first c) does the bullshit ‘isn’t there some one else, we have to do it on only this day’ when informed I’m already booked up with other projects. Fuck you, you figure who’s going to meet you.
I wonder how much the Stoics had an influence on the early Christian church.
None of that developed in a vacuum and I see plenty of similar ideas.
Stoicism seems like ‘common sense’ (which ain’t). Look on things from a distance, think, see if it’s something you can affect or now, and when you realize you can’t, don’t stress about it cuz it’s not in your hands. When it *is,* focus on your hands and what they do.
*shrug* ACTING this way requires discipline, intelligence to see different angles to understand what is/ is not controllable, and add in the patience to wait. <– That shit ain't easy. It also requires enough food/comforts for your brain to not be in Survival Mode, where fuck stoicism and get some fucking calories (and that spear outta your face).
It's a cultural thing, and it needs enough stability to promote intelligence and discipline in children. Not frequent in human history, that.
Your brain has to have the ability to understand what the meaning of tomorrow is.
Lots of people and cultures don’t have the IQ for that.
Known advantages
Proposition 40 is a one-time tax bill and it is impossible to predict future extensions. With the one-time limit, it seems quite absurd that California billionaires will pull all their resources and workers out of this state, considering that many have chosen California for its known advantages.
There is no need to catalog them. They are self-evident.
one-time tax bill
Right, pull the other one.
impossible to predict future extensions
Is it now? Is it really impossible?
it seems quite absurd that California billionaires will pull all their resources and workers out of this state
See, to me, it seems quite absurd that they wouldn’t, or more correctly, haven’t already. I won’t say that if you stay you *deserve* what you get exactly, no one really deserves the tyrants sword, but… You can’t be so god-damn naive as to think that parasites won’t bleed you completely dry. Get out while you can – you of all groups have the means. Just don’t bring your retarded ideas that got you here with you.
What would you tell Atlas to do? Shrug.
Letters to the Editor: It’s absurd to think that Prop. 40 will drive out all of our billionaires
not all
It’ll also drive out more millionaires.
and in the case of goods or money not to place receiving above giving.
Fair share!
Celebrity juror
She said they spent several days seeing if they could convince the holdout, who believed Clancy should be found guilty of murder, to come to their side, but he would not budge.
“We all worked together. And I don’t know if it was to convince him to start with,” Devlin told King. “We all worked together to convince ourselves once we got to that point where it was 10 to 2. I felt very bad for them because they felt attacked. And there is no way to not do that.”
“As hard as we tried, we just couldn’t help that boy to get his mind right.”
He was right. It’s the 11 crazies who needed to change their verdict to Guilty for sanity to return.
Every case that has had interviews with jury members afterward, makes me pray to god that my fate is never in the hands of a jury.
So much this.
Peers, my ass.
You guys are my peers.
Not the NPR listening childless holders of useless masters degrees.
So much love in the house
He [husband] couldn’t say anything bad about her
Plus a bunch of other nonsense. All of which has about ZERO to do with whether she was sane or not/knew what she was doing was wrong. Just more emoting rather than thinking.
Good night.
The jurors need to be in a loony bin.
Plus a bunch of other nonsense.
But the decorations were so cute and tasteful.
Live
Laugh
Homocide
Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Live
Laugh
Lacerate
I don’t know who this hateful bitch is, but it’s exactly this mindless and self-destructive mindset that was described in the Tablet link above and which is making western countries powerless to defend themselves from actual hate.
Commie bitch, Jesus is coming back with a sword and the blood will be up to the horses bits.
These fools are all the same. Trying to use a faith they know nothing about to shame its adherents.
She sounds like one of the vapid people that say “We just want to feed people, evil Republicans want them to starve.”
To put some perspective on my problems, I got back to my house to fine every approach cordoned off with police tape for a block out in some directions, fire engines from the local department and the next town over lined up and filling the space.
A house several doors down caught fire at some point today and they’re still in the “Is it entirely out?” stage of dealing with it. I did manage to flag down an officer and make sure I could go into my house. (If there were still a serious fire hazard I’d not want to be there). Thankfully it appears the issue is in hand but I’m going to delay my planned “trim the margins” until after I’m no longer wandering around inside a fire cordon to do it.
How close together are the houses? Thankfully I don’t live in an apartment sharing a wall with another unit anymore. Having a fire in a townhouse would screw all the units dwellers.
The alley between me and the apartment building next door is maybe 5 feet. It is one of the wider gaps along that row (which is where the fire was) The houses are all built cheek by jowl. So yes, fire leaping building to building is a real risk.