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 exile is not an evil.
1 Hearing an exile lament because he was living in banishment, Musonius consoled him in somewhat the following way. Why, he asked, should anyone who was not devoid of understanding be oppressed by exile?[2] It does not in any way deprive us of water, earth, air, or the sun and the other planets, or indeed, even of the society of men, for everywhere and in every way there is opportunity for association with them. What if we are kept from a certain part of the earth and from association with certain men, what is so dreadful about that? Why, when we were at home, we did not enjoy the whole earth, nor did we have contact with all men; but even now in exile we may associate with our friends, that is to say the true ones and those deserving of the name, for they would never betray or abandon us; but if some prove to be sham and not true friends, we are better off separated from them than being with them.
People will complain about any punishment, no matter how well deserved it is. Exile is not a threat to us, but it would probably feel like an open air prison. Being cut off from all that you are familiar with could be difficult with out the proper mindset. In the Marines, I was deployed many times and that was like being exiled from my wife and kids. The peacetime deployments were easier for me because I had all of my drinking buddies with me in the same situation. The combat ones were like a sentence of hard labor, but they were both only 7 months.
2 Tell me, is not the universe the common fatherland of all men, as Socrates held?[3] Well, then, you must not consider it really being banished from your fatherland if you go from where you were born and reared, but only being exiled from a certain city, that is if you claim to be a reasonable person. For such a man does not value or despise any place as the cause of his happiness or unhappiness, but he makes the whole matter depend upon himself and considers himself a citizen of the city of God which is made up of men and gods. Euripides speaks in harmony with this thought when he says,
“As all the heavens are open to the eagle’s flight
So all the earth is for a noble man his fatherland.”[4]
It doesn’t matter where I am if I decide to be unhappy. The same applies if I decide to be happy regardless of the external circumstances. Currently I like where I live and my wife and I are still glad to spend time together. If I had to move, it would be easier to deal with if she was with me, compared to being on my own. Either way, it would be up to me to make the best out of a situation I had no control over.
3 Therefore, just as a man who was living in his own country but in a different house from the one where he was born would be thought silly and an object of laughter if he should weep and wail because of this, so whoever considers it a misfortune because he is living in another city and not the one where he happens to have been born would rightly be considered foolish and stupid. Furthermore, how should exile be an obstacle to the cultivation of the things that are one’s own and to the acquisition of virtue, when no one was ever hindered from the knowledge and practice of what is needful because of exile? May it not even be true that exile contributes to that end, since it furnishes men leisure and a greater opportunity for learning the good and practicing it than formerly, in that they are not forced by what only seems to be their fatherland into performing political duties, and they are not annoyed by their kinsmen nor by men who only seem to be their friends, who are skillful in fettering them and dragging them away from the pursuit of better things?
When I travel for work, my wife usually comes with me, but the ones she doesn’t feel a little longer. I still enjoy myself by finding good restaurants and keeping the discipline to go to bed early enough for the gym in the morning. When I am by myself it is tempting to stay up later reading and telling myself I will go to the gym after I finish on the ship (spoiler alert: I usually don’t). It is always my fault when I don’t do the things I claim I want to do.
4 In fact, there have been cases where exile was an absolute blessing as it was to Diogenes, who by his exile was transformed from an ordinary citizen into a philosopher, and instead of sitting idly in Sinope, he busied himself in Greece, and in the pursuit of virtue came to surpass the philosophers. To others who were in poor health as the result of overindulgence and high living, exile has been a source of strength because they were forced to live a more manly life. We even know of some who were cured of chronic ailments in exile, as for instance, in our day Spartiacus,[5] the Lacedaemonian, who suffered long from a weak chest and for this reason was often ill from high living, but when he stopped living a life of luxury, he ceased to be ill. They say that others addicted to high living have got rid of gout, although they were previously completely bed-ridden by the disease—people whom exile compelled to become accustomed to living more simply and by this very thing were brought back to health. Thus it appears that by treating them better than they treat themselves, exile helps rather than hinders health both of body and of spirit.
It is up to me to find the good in any adverse circumstances. I hate when people say “Everything happens for a reason.” That is unequivocally not true. I look at it as in this “bad” circumstance, what can I find that is positive? Once I have that answer, then I strive towards that. Sometimes, the only positive is the ability to improve my self control and keep my Stoicism working for me.
I’m hoping the worst thing that pops up on my inspection tomorrow is “you need new windshield wipers”
I absolutely do not want to have to replace rotting rotors or the hyperexpsensive emissions widget that robs your horsepower.
Live in a state that still requires inspections?
Remain stoic.
I hate when people say “Everything happens for a reason.”
Me too. Too often people use this phrase to excuse someone’s bad behavior and wave off any responsibility they might have.
Everything does happen for a reason, but it’s the absolute pinnacle of hubris to expect to know or understand what those reasons are.
Everything happens because the other guy is an asshole.
Usually it is laziness and disregard of consequences.
Magic dirt.
Sayonara, baby
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised “real leaders” Friday after a summit in Belgium as tension simmers between the United States and Ukraine following recent developments.
“I am so thankful that we have such huge support from EU Council, Commission and leaders, real leaders so that they stay with us from the very beginning of this war,” Zelensky told reporters in Brussels, in a clip CNN posted Friday.
Best of luck in your future endeavors.
I’m having trouble keeping up. Are Russia (Putin) and China (Xi) our good buddies now? Iran is still on the shit list though, right?
It doesn’t matter where I am if I decide to be unhappy. The same applies if I decide to be happy regardless of the external circumstances. Currently I like where I live and my wife and I are still glad to spend time together. If I had to move, it would be easier to deal with if she was with me, compared to being on my own. Either way, it would be up to me to make the best out of a situation I had no control over.
This rings so true. I moved from NH to TX when I couldn’t find work I liked there. It helped that my sister and her family live in the area I’m at now, and that my BiL and I go back to high school and he and I work at the same place. But even if I had to move to an entirely different area for a well-paying job it’s what would have been necessary. I still keep in touch with friends and family in NH and have every intention of retiring back up there, so for now I enjoy what time I have with my sister and her kids and grandkid. Then when I return to NH I’ll merely resume what I was doing before then, which was spend my vacation time in TX with them. Being miserable is a waste of time and energy.
Senator Sorority Girl weighs in
But as debates about campus culture and law enforcement lapses permeated the public conscience, Congress made clear that it had a very different priority: debating regulations for college sports. Not a second was spent on campus safety at a time that one in four undergraduate women report being sexually assaulted at school. At Cornell, that figure is more than one in three.
There is no question: the system has failed Jane Doe.
This is not just a problem with one case, one fraternity, or one university. Jane Doe’s story echoes a heartbreaking reality on campuses across the country. Time and time again, victims experience the same story: they report, then watch their perpetrators get by with a slap on the wrist.
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A system that fails survivors repeatedly is fundamentally broken. The price of a college education shouldn’t include a greater than 25 percent chance of being sexually assaulted.
Congress must do more to protect students. We must pass the Campus Accountability and Safety Act.
CASA is commonsense, bipartisan legislation. It would hold institutions accountable, uphold a fair process for students, and give sexual assault survivors a trauma-informed advocate to help them through the adjudication process.
More of the same. Deeper harder faster.
These schools just need more money and another layer or six of administrators and advocates, which will teach those rapey boys a thing or two.
You don’t get what you deserve. You just get what you get.
Regarding exile: I had to explain the exile of Dante from Florence to my daughter. Times never change, people react the same.
This car is ugly. I am trying to be stoic about it.
https://www.theautopian.com/toyota-is-bringing-its-version-of-rolls-royce-to-the-united-states/
That color isn’t doing it any favors.
It highlights the awkward proportions. That’s a color best for a small car.
It’s like they saw the headlights on the newer GM pickups and thought they were a good idea.
Reminds me of the Family Truckster from National Lampoon’s Family Vacation.
For example, Doe’s lawyer alleges that the Tompkins County District Attorney never contacted her after she made her initial statement to Cornell police. A New York Times investigation later showed that a key statement from Doe’s testimony — “I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped” — was left out of the six-page statement that was sent to the district attorney.
Better-trained investigators are far less likely to make that mistake.
We need to establish a concrete policy of presumption of guilt, so the DA won’t pass on a case because he doesn’t think he can win it.
It even housed Toyota’s only passenger-car V12 engine.
Wait, what? 2 2JZs grafted together?
No, they got a whole shedload of Geo Metro 3-cylinder engines and welded four of them to an overly complex gearbox.
I’m getting the strangest erection right now…
Sweet drunken Enkidu…
https://www.drifted.com/1gz-fe/