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When insulated elite take on the identity of some ancient philosophy or pragmatic quote, these ideas also tend to spread to the gestalt. Or maybe it's vice vers
by fsaid 3y ago
When insulated elite take on the identity of some ancient philosophy or pragmatic quote, these ideas also tend to spread to the gestalt. Or maybe it's vice versa.
As a younger adult and fresh college dropout I used to cling to stoicism around the time "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius become popular again.
Super embarrassing, but I even had a picture of Elon Musk hanging on my mirror. But, this also helped me ignore some painful aspects about my life and move on.
When I could finally do something about my problems, the idea of stoicism slowly outlived its utility for me. Sure as hell didn't stop me from burning out multiple times afterwards.
I picked up Chekhov years ago and this quote from Ward No. 6 helped me gain some perspective:
"You should go and preach that philosophy in Greece ... Diogenes did not need a study or a warm habitation; it's hot there without. You can lie in your tub and eat oranges and olives. But bring him to Russia to live: he'd be begging to be let indoors in May, let alone December. He'd be doubled up with the cold.
At this point I just believe that most of these high-minded ideas are after-the-fact reasonings about how or why ones life went well or poorly.
- UltimateEdge 3y ago> When I could finally do something about my problems, the idea of stoicism slowly outlived its utility for me. Can you expand on that? Isn't one of the ideas of stoicism to focus on the things you can do to solve your problems?
- fullshark 3y agoAs far as I can tell most philosophy/thought is really rationalization not reasoning. In the information age the clay at your fingertips to mold the strongest and most effective rationalizations to allow you to get through the day is near infinite. You can pick and choose the exact ideas you need to allow you to accomplish whatever goal or self-image you want.
- _yb2s 3y agoFrom what you wrote, it seems like you were fundamentally misunderstanding Stoicism. Not unusual for a young person just learning about philosophy, but still, and important distinction. The core idea of Stoicism is identifying what is actually under your power and control, and focusing your energy on that. It is in some sense, virtually the opposite of it's popular perception (e.g. "little s" stoicism) of just accepting things as they are and suffering quietly. I think the book Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot by Jim Stockdale is a good example of how effective stoicism is in actual "cold weather" so to speak.