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9/28/2020 Raging wildfire up in wine country tens of thousands evacuated, Record heat triple-digit, Town of Calistoga turned into a ghost town, Air quality very poor, COVID 19. Where are the killer hornets Ha?

50,000 miles below my brain ten years after

When things are hard, when things are scary, when we’re tired, when we’ve had a run of bad luck, that’s when it happens: Magical thinking kicks in.

This will all be over soon, we convince ourselves. This one thing will solve all our problems. Our ex is going to walk through the door any minute now. The pandemic will just disappear because we want it to. This kind of thinking makes us feel better, sure, but…

That’s just not how it works.

Not only is it not how that works, but the last few months have been a great example of the costs that come when magical thinking doesn’t materialize and the chickens come home to roost. When hope is your strategy, you get caught unprepared. When you expect problems to solve themselves, you are disappointed. When you don't listen to advice because it’s unpleasant or comes with difficult obligations, when you focus on short-term solutions or disregard risks, you’ll find even bad situations can be made worse.

This is why the Stoics insisted on objectivity and rationality. Marcus reminds us that we have to see not what the enemy wants us to see but what is really there. He works through, in Meditations, stripping things of “the legend that encrusts them,” of removing the magical thinking that distorts our picture of the world. You can’t go around expecting Plato’s Republic, he said—the world is harsh, problems are real and no amount of hope makes it otherwise.

Seneca’s premeditatio malorum is another exercise to combat magical thinking. Don’t see what you want to see, he is saying, see the risks, see the dangers, prepare for a worst case scenario. It might not come to pass, but that’s better than the worst befalling you and you not being ready.

You need to understand this. Just because you’re tired, because you’re done with the coronavirus already, doesn’t mean it’s done with you. Just because you have needs or your kids have needs doesn’t change the risk profile. Just because you read some bullshit on the internet doesn’t invalidate the overwhelming consensus.

Our thinking—and this is a core Stoic teaching—does not change reality. Things are what they are. Life is what it is. And it must be faced—with courage, discipline, justice and wisdom. ...Daily Stoic

When things are hard, when things are scary, when we’re tired, when we’ve had a run of bad luck, that’s when it happens: Magical thinking kicks in.

This will all be over soon, we convince ourselves. This one thing will solve all our problems. Our ex is going to walk through the door any minute now. The pandemic will just disappear because we want it to. This kind of thinking makes us feel better, sure, but…

That’s just not how it works.

Not only is it not how that works, but the last few months have been a great example of the costs that come when magical thinking doesn’t materialize and the chickens come home to roost. When hope is your strategy, you get caught unprepared. When you expect problems to solve themselves, you are disappointed. When you don't listen to advice because it’s unpleasant or comes with difficult obligations, when you focus on short-term solutions or disregard risks, you’ll find even bad situations can be made worse.

This is why the Stoics insisted on objectivity and rationality. Marcus reminds us that we have to see not what the enemy wants us to see but what is really there. He works through, in Meditations, stripping things of “the legend that encrusts them,” of removing the magical thinking that distorts our picture of the world. You can’t go around expecting Plato’s Republic, he said—the world is harsh, problems are real and no amount of hope makes it otherwise.

Seneca’s premeditatio malorum is another exercise to combat magical thinking. Don’t see what you want to see, he is saying, see the risks, see the dangers, prepare for a worst case scenario. It might not come to pass, but that’s better than the worst befalling you and you not being ready.

You need to understand this. Just because you’re tired, because you’re done with the coronavirus already, doesn’t mean it’s done with you. Just because you have needs or your kids have needs doesn’t change the risk profile. Just because you read some bullshit on the internet doesn’t invalidate the overwhelming consensus.

Our thinking—and this is a core Stoic teaching—does not change reality. Things are what they are. Life is what it is. And it must be faced—with courage, discipline, justice and wisdom. ...Daily Stoic

You want it, don’t you?

That “I told you so.” That “Thank You.” That recognition for being first, or being better, or being different. You want credit. You want gratitude. You want the acknowledgement for the good you’ve done, for the weight that you carry.

What you want is what Marcus Aurelius has called “the third thing,” because you’re not content enough with the doing. “When you’ve done well and another has benefited by it,” he writes, “why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top—credit for the good deed or a favor in return?”

Now, “fool” is a strong word, but the point stands. Why can’t the deed be enough? Was a pat on the back really the reason you decided to value the truth? Is that why you helped someone? Did you leave a big tip to that waitress or driver who was clearly struggling so they’d run out and thank you—or did you do it because you knew that it was right? Do you take your lonely stand because it will look cool, or because it was unconscionable to you to throw in with the mob?

You don’t need a favor back. You don’t need to be repaid. You don’t need to be acknowledged. You don’t need the third thing. That’s not why you do what you do. You’re good because it’s good to be good, and that’s all you need....The Daily Stoic

For most of history, we’ve gotten it precisely wrong.

We have given far too much attention to what philosophers have thought or written, when really what counts is what they do. What someone says is not important; what’s important is if they live up to what they say. In the end, what matters—whether a person is ancient or modern—is whether their ideas work in the real world, whether they make our lives better or not.

This core distinction is what separates Stoicism from the other schools. “Don’t talk about your philosophy,” Epictetus would say, “embody it.” That’s why he would become so frustrated with his students who congratulated themselves on being able to read the obscure writings of Chrysippus: they were missing the point. Philosophy wasn’t about big words or complicated texts. It was about applying concepts to the real world. It was about the example one followed and the example one set.

“All study of philosophy and reading should be for the purpose of living a happy life,” Seneca would say. “We should seek precepts to help us, noble and courageous words that can become facts… we should learn them in a way that words become works.” And that’s what makes Seneca such a fascinating person to study. Because he wasn’t always noble or courageous. He worked for Nero! He was obscenely rich and threw Gatsby-esque parties! Was he happy? We don’t know, but it’s worth studying his life to see where he succeeded and where he failed. Where did he embody the philosophy he so beautifully captured in his Letters, and where did he fall short?

Because in the end, that’s what matters and that’s what will teach us the most.

Which is why for the last two years, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman have been hard at work on a new book, Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, the follow-up to the runaway bestseller, The Daily Stoic. They pored over hundreds of ancient texts and modern scholarship to bring you 26 biographies of the most important—and most interesting—Stoics from history. We study the lives of these men and women so that they might inspire us to follow in their footsteps. So they can teach us how to be better people—not just better philosophers.---The Daily Stoic

COMMENTS

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Amaranthine
09:08 Sep 09 2020

Very well put.. I would love to read the book

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POST COMMENT

We all have within us the potential for greatness or for failure. Both possibilities are an innate part of our character. Whether we reach for the stars or plunge to the depths of despair depends in large measure on how we manage our positive and negative potential. It is doubtful that, if left unchecked, your virtues will rage out of control. Unfortunately, the reverse is not true about your faults. Left unattended, faults have a way of multiplying until they eventually choke out your good qualities. The surest way to control your faults is to attack them the moment they appear. -- Napoleon Hill

Doomed……
We are so DOOMED !!!!!!
DOOOOOOOMMMMMMEEEEEDDDDDDD I SAY !!!!!

Fudgical.