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 IX
This is the way also with the more cautious among travelers. A man has heard that the road which he is taking is infested with robbers; he does not venture to set forth alone, but he waits for a company, either that of an ambassador, or of a quaestor(public official), or of a proconsul, and when he has attached himself to them he travels along the road in safety. So in this world the wise man acts.
Being Stoic and accepting that fate can change regardless of what I do, does not mean I am to be careless. It might not be in my control if bed things happen, but I can and should try to lower the chances.
Says he to himself: “There are many robber-bands, tyrants, storms, difficulties, losses of what is most dear. Where shall a man flee for refuge? How shall he travel secure against robbery? What company shall he wait for that he may pass through in safety? To whom shall he attach himself? To So-and-so, the rich man, or the proconsul? And what is the good of that? He himself is stripped, groans, sorrows. Yes, and what if my fellow-traveller himself turn upon me and rob me? What shall I do? 95
A person can drive themselves nuts by overthinking. I have always been less inclined to do this than many people I have known. Once a decision is made, it is very rare for me to second guess myself unless things change. Always reconsidering my decisions would add another layer of stress and uncertainty.
I will become a friend of Caesar; no one will wrong me if I am a companion of his. But, in the first place, the number of things I must suffer and endure in order to become his friend! and the number of times, and the number of persons by whom I must first be robbed! And then, even if I do become his friend, he too is mortal. And if some circumstance lead him to become my enemy, where indeed had I better retire? To a wilderness? What, does not fever go there? What, then, is to become of me? Is it impossible to find a fellow-traveller who is safe, faithful, strong, free from the suspicion of treachery?” Thus he reflects and comes to the thought that, if he attach himself to God, he will pass through the world in safety.
Since there is always a chance of betrayal, it is imperative that I pick allies wisely. It is also good to keep in mind that the more power an ally has, the more potential there is for it to go spectacularly wrong. Once I have understood this lesson and turned my fate over to fortune itself, instead of perilous alliances, the less stress I will have.
How do you mean “attach himself”?—Why, so that whatever God wills, he also wills, and whatever God does not will, this he also does not will.—100
This does not mean that I am under special protection. It does mean that I surrender my will involving things I don’t control and focus on what I do control. While I don’t believe in a God that controls what happens to us, I do believe that fighting fate or fortune is a fool’s errand.
How, then, can this be done?—Why, how else than by observing the choices of God and His governance? What has He given me for my own and subject to my authority, and what has He left for Himself? Everything within the sphere of the moral purpose He has given me, subjected them to my control, unhampered and unhindered.
All I truly own are my own choices. Everything else, even my health, can be taken from me at a moment’s notice. There are decisions I make that impact things outside of my control, but I do not control the outcome of those choices.
My body that is made of clay, how could He make that unhindered? Accordingly He has made it subject to the revolution of the universe—my property, my furniture, my house, my children, my wife. Why, then, shall I strive against God? Why shall I will what is not in the province of the will, to keep under all circumstances what has not been given me outright? But how should I keep them? In accordance with the terms upon which they have been given, and for as long as they can be given.[22] But He who gave also takes away.[23] Why, then, shall I resist? I do not say that I shall be a fool for trying to use force upon one who is stronger than I am, but before that I shall be wicked. For where did I get these things when I came into the world? My father gave them to me. And who gave them to him? Who has made the sun, who the fruits, who the seasons, who the union and fellowship of men one with another?
Trying to resist fate because I don’t like what happened is like a toddler stamping his feet because it’s bedtime and he’s not tired. I will simply continue to make the best decisions I can and concentrate on my inner reactions.
I did have a birthday this week so I am now 54 which is 1 1/2 Evans old if my math is correct. My wife made me a devil’s food cake from scratch that my son and I love.
It might not be in my control if bed things happen
I like it.
Happy birthday!
Seconded. Keep racking ’em up.
I don’t want to make a blanket statement but someone needs to cover this.
I did have a birthday this week so I am now 54 which is 1 1/2 Evans old if my math is correct. My wife made me a devil’s food cake from scratch that my son and I love.
Happy Birthday!
Devil’s Food. Yum. You have a good wife.
This is true.
One of my army buddies wives told me that I “was the best husband” while he was deployed.
I razz him about it nearly twenty years later every opportunity i get.
As y’all can see from the end of the last thread my normal stoicism is failing me today.
I have been reading a bit of Aristotle’s Politics lately. I am sure that is what Coolidge was referring to when he said
“. . . About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that theworld has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”
Much of what Aristotle says starts out sounding sensible but it becomes apparent very quickly that his is an argument that slavery is the natural order of things. Given the level of technology in his time that may have very well been true as slavery was, as far as I know, universal. Technology has destroyed the need for slavery yet the creed of nearly every modern peoples is simply a rewording of Aristotle’s argument. That is what makes our country different from every other in the world. We at least give lip service to the notion of inalienable rights.
Yes Cal, there is a sense of finality but there is also something troublesome. Happiness? Fuck happiness. I am more concerned about property rights. We need to replace ‘happiness’ with ‘property’.
two out of three ain’t bad
True. It is better than anyone else ever managed.
Slavery was never technically necessary, and it’s near eradication (yes, I know pockets of it still) is a great sign of human progress (and not Progressiveness).
Our rights really aren’t inalienable, but the sacralization implied by that formula is what matters. This is beyond what may legitimately be debated as a political matter. We need a lot more of that, because politics is our worst human failing.
Slavery will never be eradicated. It will simply ebb and flow and disguise its form.
I contend that if they aren’t inalienable then they aren’t rights at all, merely privileges.
Trying out a new feminist argument there UCS?
Suthen they are always alienable, as history has shown, and as the rest of the world still demonstrates daily. God hasn’t struck down those who offend against his law (presuming these really come from Him).
I get the need to present things that way, but I don’t have to follow the belief.
No, JI – An observation.
People want that kind of power over others and will figure out ways to get it.
People with power have suppressed and abused the rights of the weak since the beginning of time.
That is not the same as saying the weak do not have rights.
Being owned by a person is bad. Being owned by the state is good!
JI: I think the word you are looking for is violable.
Also, this conversation invariably brings in where rights come from and thus God comes up.
I was recently having this conversation where someone pointed out that I am an atheist and so disqualified from believing in natural rights.
Not so.
Does the universe have a sentience? Why yes, it does. You are as much a part of the universe as any stone or star or blade of grass. You are also the inevitable outcome of the universe just going about its business by a fixed set of laws. You are sentient aren’t you? Well, some of us are anyway. It turns out that the universe’s sentience isn’t an old man that lives in the sky, it is that asshole that lives in the mirror. We aren’t Gods in the sense that religions define that entity but we are, as Carl Sagan said, the universe’s attempt at understanding itself.
I contend that our natural rights arise from our sentience. They aren’t given by anyone, they are innate. Part of the package of being sentient.
My friend gave me the second biggest compliment I have ever had. He said “That is the most humane thing I have ever heard. I am going to have to think about that and get back to you.”
Cheap Lancer mags:
https://palmettostatearmory.com/lancer-systems-l5awm-30rd-5-56x45mm-223-rem-magazine-translucent-alien-green-999-000-2320-74.html
Unfortunate color though.
Blocked at work, but I can see “Translucent Alien Green” in the URL.
If you can get that stupid 10rd max limit in NY lifted, I’d take them away from you as recompense.
For $8 apiece, that’s not a bad deal.
Be warned though, the Lancer magazines are more difficult to seat on a closed bolt than either PMAGS or USGI magazines with Magpul followers.
In the PSA store, there are often normal colored mags for that price.
How dare you say Alien Green is unfortunate! Raycist!
Specieist?
Ha! Very good.
I’m sitting here having a good laugh. Reading a Guardian article about the reorganization of the Agriculture Dept, I see this: “In a memorandum issued on Thursday, the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, outlined the “key pillars” behind the department’s reorganization, focused on reducing its financial footprint, removing resources from the capital, eliminating management and consolidating workforces responsible for a range of functions, including freedom of information requests, tribal relations, grants and human resources.”
The thought of a DC bureaucrat getting relocated to Fort Hall is just priceless. I’d pay money to watch that.
Note: everybody I have dealt with in Fort Hall has been great. Knowledgeable, helpful, easy to deal with. It would be a shame to fuck that up.
“Notice: when you arrive to your new destination, you’ll be expected to actually work.”
Then stand back and watch the retirements roll on in.
The move follows wide-ranging and often chaotic cuts to staff and services being implemented under Trump 2.0, as the administration seeks to dismantle the federal government and fund tax cuts for the wealthy including the president’s billionaire donors.
They just can’t help themselves.
Linky
Trump kicks the stilts out from under them, and suddenly they are reduced to the midgets they were all along.
The ‘not taking is giving’ mendacity gets so tiresome.
They will spread them out, like a metastasizing cancer.
Then each office will grow to be of a fatal size.
They have nearly 100,000 employees?!
Lop a zero off of that and it’s almost right sized.
“Ermagerd! You’ve decimated the department!’
To whom shall he attach himself? To So-and-so, the rich man, or the proconsul? And what is the good of that? He himself is stripped, groans, sorrows. Yes, and what if my fellow-traveller himself turn upon me and rob me? What shall I do?
Fall on your sword and get it over with.
I took yesterday off, so of course Legal picked that day to blow up my project.
Huh.
I ordered the P220 4 days before the Fuse. The Fuse has shipped. Interestingly enough, I assume because of the modularity the order/shipping form does not refer to it as a particular model, but as a collection of components, to wit:
Excerpt from chat…
Chefs kiss.
Trying to resist fate because I don’t like what happened is like a toddler stamping his feet because it’s bedtime and he’s not tired. I will simply continue to make the best decisions I can and concentrate on my inner reactions.
I got taught this lesson when my hair started noticeably thinning and receding. I was upset about it for a while, but realized that we are constantly going through transformations, and we shouldn’t be afraid of the next version. Bald Akira is just an upcoming version that will have many advantages (saving money on shampoo, showers are ~1 minute faster, etc.) That’s just what my genetics have dictated I should look like at this age (37 – kinda feels old, although just a kid compared to some people around here).
Since I work 2nd shift and therefore have my dog-walking and errand-running time during the “workday”, I see mostly old retired people out and about. The happiest-looking ones are those who are just rolling with it, not the ones who are using all manners of products and procedures to try and look 25.
With the amount of early onset male pattern baldness in my family, I was convinced I would be bald by thirty. So I more or less ignored my hair, just buzzed it down when it got long enough to be annoying.
And then I didn’t go bald. I sat in a satate of confusion for a while and began accepting that I wasn’t going to look like my father and grandfathers. After accepting that… it’s decided to begin to thin.
😑
The gene for male pattern baldness comes from your mother’s father. Baldness on your father’s side is not an issue.
My son started losing his hair in his 30s even though I have all of mine. That’s because my father-in-law was bald.
That’s an old wive’s tale, but to quote my comment “grandfathers“. My ancestry has a lot of bald men.
That’s an old wive’s tale
AI Overview
Will I Go Bald? Genetic Study Shows Complex Answer
The primary gene associated with male pattern baldness is the androgen receptor (AR) gene. This gene provides instructions for making a protein that binds to androgens, like testosterone, and plays a crucial role in hair follicle development and growth. Variations in the AR gene, particularly on the X chromosome, can increase susceptibility to male pattern baldness.
More details:
Location:
The AR gene is located on the X chromosome.
Inheritance:
Since males inherit their X chromosome from their mother, the AR gene’s contribution to male pattern baldness is often linked to the maternal side of the family.
Other genes:
While the AR gene is a major player, other genes also contribute to male pattern baldness, with some research suggesting over 60 genes may be involved.
Complexity:
Male pattern baldness is a complex trait influenced by multiple genes and environmental factors, making it difficult to predict with certainty based on family history alone.
yes and no
Think about genetics for a moment.
Most genes controlling hair, skin,a nd eyes are actually complicated compound alleles inherited from both sides of the parentage.
But assuming baldness is an excludive X-chomosomal linked trait. Your mother got two Xs, one of which came from her mother. So that gene could have been from more or less any path on the maternal tree that didn’t have two consecutive males in it.
I was typing that while you were doing research.
Same conclusion.
All I know is that I’ve spent the last 20 years telling my son to blame his mother.
I don’t want to stop now. 😉
A friend of mine in college was bald before he graduated high school.
I don’t get the guys dying their beards.
But then how would they cover up the gray?
A nice salt-and-pepper beard is a sign of virility.
No, it’s a sign that you’re around 45-55
I have a black bears, brown mustache, and a gray streak 3 inches wide down the center of the black beard. If I was going to leave it all I would probably dye mine.
UCS:
The grey was coming in long before I was 45, and if there’s still anything resembling pepper in it by the time I hit 55, I’ll be surprised.
I don’t get guys dying anything.
Just For Men commercials make me laugh.
I dye mine, when I have one. My mustache and soul patch both are salt and pepper, but my beard is Santa Claus.
As a ginger, in exchange for not having a soul, I get a white beard.
Ghislaine Maxwell looks alarmingly similar to one of my old girlfriends.
*pokes commentariat with a stick*
Y’all still livin’?
I cant believe no one bit on my inalienable rights source comment
I don’t argue philosophy or theology.
I thought that was a large part of the purpose of this site.
What did I miss? Been busy.
I musta missed where you said something I disagreed with.
Suthen, I’ll agree with you on the grounds that those rights are vital to human flourishing. No need to give real-world examples of countries which ignore them in part or wholly (one day we’ll have to get into a discussion of the other unalienable rights not mentioned in the Declaration or the Bill of Rights. Should be fun).
To get back to Ron’s post and your comment above, happiness varies from person to person. Regarding property, I think that people own themselves and need property to survive and prosper. Whatever we own is, or should be, ours to use and dispose of as we please, given the fact that everything we have is on loan.
I cant believe no one bit on my inalienable rights source comment
Everybody knows rights are created and granted by the government.
I am readily more stoic today. The good news is that we have negotiated all the kinks out the cabin sale and should be a done deal. We’re positive with the results and hope to close in a couple weeks or less.
After 4 months on the market we found the right customer or rather he (they) found the right property. There was not a lot of Trumpism going on, only two parties that were willing to negotiate sincerely. Just need for the details to work out.
Not trades back now without the earnest money getting involved.
I can’t help wondering, in all this blah blah blah about Colbert, if CBS even bothered to offer the possibility of a financial restructuring of the show, or if they just assumed it was a lost cause.
Late night talk shows are as dead as variety shows.
If they weren’t all facile political posturing joined with puerile fawning and preening, I’d think that still be able to draw some audience,
The USAID money got cut off. I think the constant leftist propagandizing we were awash in we were funding with our tax money. The media companies were getting paid to do that. They certainly aren’t going to do it on their own dime.
https://x.com/WarPath2pt0/status/1948426796346536193
I mean…it did work…
Better than a full body tackle I guess.
Bet it hurt though.
Much preferable to a full-body tackle. You can hurt yourself real easy trying to tackle someone, if you haven’t had some practice in how to do it.
Hilarious and effective. One thumb up.
If he’d missed his opportunity, we’d have been subjected to a slow and sloppy marathon.
Late night talk shows are as dead as variety shows.
Do people listen/watch podcasts live? Or only on demand later? I am not a podcast person.
*Presumably, Colbert’s banal uninteresting tripe was available on demand.
Podcasts would be on demand, livestreams would be the only ones to watch live (and will still likely be recorded to watch later).
I listen to music on podcasts. I rarely do spoken voice podcasts. Either way I listen at my convenience, not live.
Podcasts are for when I am driving long distance. Otherwise I just sit and stare at the damn things, while I would rather be reading.
I used to listen to Dave Smith and Tom Woods on the work drive, but I got bored with that.
Been listening to Thomas Sowell books instead.
I don’t get guys dying anything.
Just For Men commercials make me laugh.
I have always been much too vain to risk exposing myself to that sort of ridicule.
Who has made the sun, who the fruits, who the seasons, who the union and fellowship of men one with another?
Who gives a shit? I have bigger fish to fry.
Now that you mention it I have a few pounds of catfish filets thawed out. I need to get the oil ready.
Happy birthday, you Stoic Whippersnapper!