Citizens Prerogative

Episode discussion topics

• Stoicism? Really? Why you may wonder?
  
  • It holds valuable timeless wisdom from our ancient ancestors. Being a human is pretty much a universal struggle for all humans throughout time. Who would have thought?
    
  • It provides practical steps and methods for being a better, less anxious, and happier human.
    
  • It aims to provide tools for you to become the best version of yourself based on your own measure.
    
  • Practicing the methods will make you a better citizen of our republic.
    
  • How does self-rule translate into the economy? How do we leave behind the concrete plantation that was built by the owners of the system?
    
• So what is it? A fad diet? A religion? Where did it come from? Do I need to attend a church or go to meetings?
  
  • According to the College of Stoic Philosophers is a complete philosophy informed by an integrated system of Logic, Physics, and Ethics.
    
  • The ethics part helps it feel like religion - guidance on making decisions and physics as the nexus of all things, and logic helps you in the process of considering things. It's a philosophy all about being human and more specifically about you being you and having agency in a world outside of your control.
    
  • During its heydays, it was a religion with ideas originating back in Greece circa Socrates. Actually, it was a lot more than what religion is today because it included other areas like cosmology, physics, psychology, and of course philosophy. We must note that much of what the Greeks taught had come from other peoples and times before them. We just don't have a lot of records today.
    
  • It lived on through many thousands of years from Greece to the Romans who picked it up after.
  • No church nor extraordinary socializing is required for you to study and practice this philosophy. It's practical as you are and where you are right now with whoever is normally in your life. No change, unless you seek it out.
  • The meditation, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and other mental health practices of our modern time draw from ancient stoic wisdom and you will notice more of it as you study it. But this practice is arguably beyond those in the capacity for it to affect your life in a positive way. For perspective, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is good for treating symptoms of mental health conditions (fear, anger, foreboding, self-loathing, etc.), but practicing Stoicism will help remove the disease from your life thus reducing or eliminating symptoms altogether.
• Why is it called Stoicism? It got named from the Greek word stoa, which was a covered open area where Zeno (last name), the attributed founding father of "Stoicism", began his public lectures. Zeno was calling it something else, but the people called it based on the building, and alas we have Stoics practicing Stoicism.
• So what's this thing all about?
  
  • Stoicism is a set of ancient practices born out of our ancestors' struggle with the human condition.
    
  • Most of all the teachings and writings have been lost to destruction, from Alexandria to the fall of Rome.
  • What we have are journals and accounts from a small number of philosophers who documented accounts of stoic thinking. They range from Greece to Rome in time and space and life experiences ranging from a former slave to an emperor and many in-between, all stoics.
  • They all struggled in ways that Stoicism helped them overcome. Our struggles are remarkably similar to theirs. This system works for our lives too.
  • There are many flavors of this thing because each of us makes it our own.
  • This is why the writings from the ancients are used as a stable foundation of reference, like a Tora, Bible, Koran, or other, for learning and growing the philosophy.
    
• How might it help me better myself and my community?
  
  • It offers practical guidelines for you to implement in your life in your way. You do you. With practice it can become useful for anyone's situations in life, it's that's flexible.
  • It consists of concepts around how to apply a set of virtues and disciplines in making decisions about things that are under your control.
  • We learn about how they operate through understanding the wisdom we've received from the ancients, through their stories, experiences, and even their thoughts in letters and in journals.
  • A practicing stoic is always challenging themselves to be a better person to themselves and to others. The philosophy teaches that the natural and happy state for humans to be in is a cooperative one.
• Here are some quotes from Emperor Marcus Aurelius' Meditations:
  
  • “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
    
  • “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
  • “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
• Some quotes from Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman philosopher, statesman, orator, and tragedian, who lived during the time of Christ:
  • "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful."
  • "As is a tale (story), so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."
  • "Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms -- you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older."
  • "If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable."
• Some quotes from Epictetus, who was born as a slave to a master that allowed schooling so that when he earned his freedom, he become a philosopher:
  • "There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."
  • "If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone."
  • "It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."
  • "Any person capable of angering you becomes your master..."
  • "The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."
  • "He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at."
• Calls to Action:
  • Get wiser - there are a few resources you can explore on your own. This is not a complete list, just some onramps that seemed more accessible to us as we also begin our journey down this rabbit hole.
    • Stoic Coffee Break podcast and website.
    • Daily Stoic website, email, podcast, articles, and books on this and related topics.
    • An easy read and good overview on Kindle is "The Beginner's Guide to Stoicism: Tools for Emotional Resilience and Positivity" by Matthew Van Natta. It's free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
  • Check out these foundational documents from the ancients (translated) at Daily Stoic for 3 Must-Read Books To Get You Started. They might all be free from one e-book service or another, so look around by name.
  • Give practicing it a try! Even if at first you don't succeed, keep trying and you will succeed with time.
    

Your hosts: Michael V. Piscitelli and Raymond Wong Jr.

More info

• If you want to connect with others in the stoic community near you, so far the only national network we've found is The Stoic Fellowship whose mission is, "Building, Fostering, and Connecting Communities of Stoics Around the World." Otherwise, check on MeetUp.com maybe.
  
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a peer-reviewed academic resource on key topics in all areas of philosophy.
  
• We have transcripts located at the end of each podcast episode's  page on our site. Check it out, but know this: It's all AI and not us. So thank you in advance for forgiving any and all errors.
  
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• Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this podcast are for listener consideration and are not necessarily those of the show or its sponsors.

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