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.
That kings also should study philosophy Part II
5 In the next place it is essential for the king to exercise self-control over himself and demand self-control of his subjects, to the end that with sober rule and seemly submission there shall be no wantonness on the part of either. For the ruin of the ruler and the citizen alike is wantonness. But how would anyone achieve self-control if he did not make an effort to curb his desires, or how could one who was undisciplined make others temperate? One can mention no study except philosophy that develops self-control. Certainly it teaches one to be above pleasure and greed, to admire thrift and to avoid extravagance; it trains one to have a sense of shame, and to control one’s tongue, and it produces discipline, order, and courtesy, and in general what is fitting in action and in bearing. In an ordinary man when these qualities are present they give him dignity and self-command, but if they be present in a king they make him preeminently godlike and worthy of reverence.
If you are in charge of others and have low impulse control or bad morals, I don’t see how you could expect your team to respect you. In the Marines, we knew who the worthless higher ranked ones were. I always tried to be a Marine that my subordinates could look at and be proud they were on my section. I wasn’t perfect, but I never embarrassed myself either.
6 Nov, since fearlessness and intrepidity and boldness are the product of courage, how else would a man acquire them than by having a firm conviction that death and hardships are not evils? For these are the things, death and hardships, I repeat, which unbalance and frighten men when they believe that they are evils; that they are not evils philosophy is the only teacher. Consequently if kings ought to possess courage, and they more than anyone else should possess it, they must set themselves to the study of philosophy, since they cannot become courageous by any other means.
A lot of Marine Corps training was to convince us that hardship was just a fact of life to deal with. That still shapes my thinking in a lot of ways, I can not respect someone that loses their cool over a minor inconvenience. Having this mindset also helped to instill into my kids that life is not fair and nothing is promised to them.
7 It is also the prerogative of kings (if they enjoy any whatever) to be invincible in reason and to be able to prevail over disputants by their arguments, just as over their enemies by their arms. Thus when kings are weak in this, it stands to reason that often they are misled and forced to accept the false as the true, which is the price of folly and dense ignorance. Now philosophy by its nature confers upon its devotees perhaps more than anything else the ability to remain superior to others in debate, to distinguish the false from the true, and to refute the one and to confirm the other. Professional speakers, at any rate, whenever they enter into the give and take of argument with philosophers one can see confused and confounded and obliged to contradict themselves. And yet if such speakers, whose business it is to practice debate, are caught because they are inferior to the philosophers in argument, what is bound to happen to other men? Therefore if it is the ambition of anyone who is a king to be powerful in debate, he should study philosophy in order that he may not have to fear that anyone will prevail over him in this, for a king should be completely fearless and courageous and invincible.
Understanding my beliefs is a prerequisite to being able to explain and defend them. If I have no strong principles, I can easily be swayed by falsehoods or half truths. If I am not sure of myself, how can I ask others to follow and put their trust in me? I do have a problem when I debate that I get irritated easily, so I try not to do it often. Just another area I still need to work on.
death and hardships are not evils
I like that he keeps bringing this up. The last week has been tough for a lot of people in our extended family/acquaintances. Several deaths, a cancer diagnosis with a bad outlook, and this morning a missing person. Was this in last week’s horoscope?
Mrs. TOK are doing our best to be supportive for everyone involved, that’s the best we can offer.
Yikes.
So sorry Kevin! 😟
+1!
I don’t go to many funerals anymore. My family, friends and classmate list has been pretty well depleted.
Mrs F and I are skipping the formalities. “Remember the good times and hold the memories” pretty well sums up our attitude.
Ooh. Understood, and a pretty wonderful example of stoicism through the death of others.
Was this in last week’s horoscope?
Capricorn or Aries – I recall this was supposed to be bad week.
That sounds rough TOK.
A missing person?
That’s a living nightmare.
Every one of them is a step or two away. I’m just having a hard time remember who’s on the prayer list at bedtime.
Keep a written list?
Remain stoic, New York voters – Kathy is on the case and boy is she pissed off.
She is gonna ride this all the way to November. What fortuitous timing!
Don’t remind me that we’re not about to be rid of her.
I want to keep my hopes up for a bit.
Did she drag out the “If I had a daughter, she’d look just like her” shtick?
No, but only because the accuser is still being protected and called “Jane Doe” rather than being postiively identified.
Jane Hoe
Threedoor beat me to it.
Usually not a betting man, but I’d wager money this ends like the Duke Lacrosse case. Eventually the university will be paying the men for ruining their lives.
Hell, that stripper wasn’t stoned, just a stone liar.
You’ve heard of trial by jury and trial by fire. Welcome to trial by emotion.
Bring back trial by ordeal. Maybe trial by combat with pay per view.
In the ded-thred, Mr. Deansed: I have noticed that the old trope “Don’t worry, the second and third generations completely integrate” doesn’t seem to be holding up any more.
I don’t think that was ever true of Europe, while it used to be true here. And our Euro-philes are busy trying to stop that from ever being true again.
Somehow I thought, “Yeah, when those boys go to school and that cute girl winks at them, they’ll integrate.”
Boy, was I wrong.
I lived in the center of what Mamdani claims is “Little Palestine” – never mind that it’s still loaded with Italians and Hispanics and Whites in roughly equal amounts – for ~15 years and it was absolutely the case that succeeding generations were fitting in fine.
Until that bitch Linda Sarsour started preaching on the corner every weekend to radicalize them.
“This young woman had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable,” Hochul told reporters at a press conference in Manhattan on Friday. “And then at every turn she was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her.”
Let’s get to the root problem.
The state should charge and prosecute the girl’s parents for child endangerment and neglect for allowing her to leave her home without the close supervision of a male relative. And for permitting her to lewdly expose her limbs to public view.
She should be prosecuted for serving alcohol to a minor! Herself of course.
Holy fuck – https://nypost.com/2026/10/02/us-news/texas-mom-shoots-daughter-4-in-murder-suicide-hours-after-losing-custody-battle/
Jesus… how many is that in the last month or so?
Media contagion is a thing among vulnerable psyches. And those psyches tend to be female and progressive – we don’t know for certain that Mommy was a proggie in this case, but female, Brazilian, 35 years old, and living in an $800k home in Houston…I’m comfortable taking the leap.
These murder/suicides always get carried out in the wrong order.
Yep.
Very much yes.
I’m trying to remain stoic about AI completely ruining my PC and media hobbies.
For some reason, just two months ago after Nvidia cancelled its lower priced Shield TV, I figured I’d better get a backup as I use it as my primary media device. They just upped the price $100 over where they introduced it back in 2019.
We all got used to the same electronics getting cheaper – not more expensive. This may be one of my few electronic wins recently.
The 7-year-old Nvidia Shield TV is now $100 more expensive due to AI
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/the-7-year-old-nvidia-shield-tv-is-now-100-more-expensive-thanks-to-ai/
One of two things will happen.
A: the bubble bursts and a lot of secondhand hardware floods on the market.
B: somebody scales their production to meet the new normal.
Probalem is anyone who might make B happen has seen companies get burned when previous A outcomes hit other bubbles and are waiting to see if this is a new status quo or the bubble bursts as people realize the tech isn’t all it’s hyped up to be.
Usually not a betting man, but I’d wager money this ends like the Duke Lacrosse case. Eventually the university will be paying the men for ruining their lives.
I’m rooting for scorched earth. Drag her through the mud and then sue everybody at the school who “educated” her on the pliability of the concept of rape and female immunity from responsibility for their actions.
On the bright side, Kathy and Tish will never be called to account for their grandstanding over this weeks before an election.
That gal will have an awesome advertisement for her OF.
Did she drag out the “If I had a daughter, she’d look just like her” shtick?
A drunken man-hungry floozy?
Kathy “Special K” Hochul?
Speaking of the actual topic…
I watched The Fall of the Roman Empire. Man, talk about the glory days of Hollywood; there were probably a thousand horses in that movie. And the sets were spectacular.
Anyway, Rome went to shit after Aurelius kicked the bucket.
Rome wasn’t all that great beforehand. The fucking Republic was constantly at war – if not with an external enemy, then one(s) within. It’s a stupid fairy tale that Rome was wonderful.
Sex should be considered a stain on the woman’s purity endured solely for the purpose of procreation, and not to satisfy the low beastly urges of men.
Ah, the good old days. Sex was something you did to a woman not with a woman.
::starts to raise hand, realizes no good can come from any comment she can make on the subject, slowly lowers hand::
Spill it.
Well. Your opinions would be most welcome.
Gileadtarians?
https://x.com/RealAlexJones/status/2106023708624142444
https://x.com/RadioGenoa/status/2106029051450126344
Not so stoic in France.
Yes more laws are needed..
https://www.foxnews.com/world/frances-teen-riots-take-explosive-new-turn-government-points-finger-hard-left
I’ll bet the anti-riot laws are already written up, just waiting for the excuse to submit them.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
Youths.
I’m delighted to see that Alex Jones remains true to form.
lolrite?
Somewhere between that and the milquetoast coverage coming from the MSM may lie the truth.
Sure it did. 🙄
Not so stoic in France.
As I said yesterday:
I saw a news story about the “student protests” which said a mob of rioters chased/dragged a squad of firepersons off their firetruck and burned it.
It’s a fitting epitaph for western civilization.
Well, thar’s yer problem. Firemen would have defended their truck with their axes.
Danger zone
At Thursday’s assembly, some labelled the perceived lack of justice a “disgrace” and criticised the prestigious university, which has defended its handling of the case.
“We deserve to know that our institution values our safety more than its reputation,” undergraduate Sophia Riley Sim told those at the gathering.
Sim said she had been too upset by the case to attend classes for the past week.
She might be mercilessly subjected to the male gaze. Or worse. Patriarchal homework.
Ban coed schools. For the children.
French schools are the heart of the riots, so I was told. Uh huh. And boilerplate excuses, all lifted from the US, it seems. And France actually spends how much on their military, now?
““School is a right, not a privilege,” read a cardboard sign as Sophia listed the grievances of teenagers across France: a lack of state investment in education, overcrowded classes of up to 40 children in crumbling buildings, poor teacher pay, staff absences and an unequal system in which social background determined success. Other reasons for the protest included the opaque and difficult online system for university applications as well as the unbearable temperatures in classrooms during the heatwaves in May and June.” (HAAHAHAH!)
““The education budget is being cut to shreds while so much extra funding is being put into the army,” said Sophia, who wanted to go on to study art and work in animation. She said she hoped the demonstrations and blockades would continue into next week. Several teachers stood by the barricades in support.”
None of that comes close to being the believable ‘grievances’ the ‘students’ are rioting over. Why are they out in the streets? Uh. They were told to by their parents and other older folk in their community. How’s that? Why? To fuck up France. How’s that?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/02/student-protests-shut-schools-across-france
Sophia wanted to study art and work in animation. Yep. I’m sure you did. So?
An upcoming “Justice for Survivors” protest, planned at the university for 5 October, is being advertised in flyers all over campus. It calls on Cornell to take action against alleged rape culture.
Student organisers are calling for Cornell to expel and revoke the degrees of the alleged perpetrators of the rape, rewrite policies around sexual assault punishments, initiate an external investigation of the university and mandate prevention training for campus police.
“What? You haven’t been raped yet? Get busy. You want to be special, don’t you?”
Also- what will those students say when the cops start kicking doors down at the merest suspicion of hanky panky?
When everybody is raped, nobody is…
Well, do you want the individual rape, or were you more in the mood for the gang rape?
I heard but can’t be bothered to verify that this girl, like so many before her, continued to text and interact with the frat bros (particularly the one she had a thing for) even calling him “king.” As many speculated word had gotten around campus and she didn’t understand why people were calling her a whore. And she got angry when they wouldn’t let her come to a later party.
Trauma is a funny thing and works in mysterious ways, don’t it?
My only real question is with all the propaganda on this bullshit out there (all of which is designed to justify whatever a woman does) is whether she actually convinced herself it was rape after the fact.
And then you really have to wonder how dumb and out of touch the people who believe these stories truly are. If you’re in your 30’s, how many high profile and sensationalist fake rape stories have come out over the years? Yet here we are in another culture war battle over this shit.
Saw some video of cultural enrichers trying to enter Poland. Beyond again getting confirmation that it’s all military age males, you really have to wonder why they are so eager to breech Poland’s border of all places. They know that it’s one of the least hospitable countries in Europe, it’s out of the way for them looking at a map, and the border itself is actually defended with threats to open fire.
So why the hell are they massing there if this is just about getting asylum? Doesn’t make much sense that it would happen organically now does it?
Tell me the Poles opened fire and gunned every last one of the invaders down
I don’t care what the video shows, tell me what I’d rather hear.