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 might be 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 in bold, my replies are in normal text.
What is the subject-matter with which the good man has to deal; and what should he the chief object of our training? Part I
The subject-matter with which the good and excellent man has to deal is his own governing principle, that of a physician and the masseur is the body, of a farmer is his farm; but the function of the good and excellent man is to deal with his impressions in accordance with nature.
If I keep my impressions in accordance with nature, than I am only concerned with the things I control. If I get out of whack and stress about things I have no control over then I am not in charge of my own principles.
Now just as it is the nature of every soul to assent to the true, dissent from the false, and to withhold judgement in a matter of uncertainty, so it is its nature to be moved with desire toward the good, with aversion toward the evil, and feel neutral toward what is neither evil nor good.
Most everyone thinks they are doing good while avoiding evil. If I have no real understanding of what is really good and what is evil, then I would be very easy to lead astray.
For just as neither the banker nor the greengrocer may legally refuse the coinage of Caesar, but if you present it, whether he will or no, he must turn over to you what you are purchasing with it, so it is also with the soul. The instant the good appears it attracts the soul to itself, while the evil repels the soul from itself. A soul will never refuse a clear sense-impression of good, any more than a man will refuse the coinage of Caesar, On this concept of the good hangs every impulse to act both of man and of God.
While it is true the soul is naturally pulled to good, that good is filtered through my prior beliefs and impressions, so it might not be accurate.
That is why the good is preferred above every form of kinship. My father is nothing to me, but only the good. “Are you so hard-hearted?” Yes, that is my nature. This is the coinage which God has given me. For that reason, if the good is something different from the noble and the just, then father and brother and country and all relationships simply disappear. But shall I neglect my good, so that you may have it, and shall I make way for you? What for? “I am your father.” But not a good. “I am your brother.” But not a good. If, however, we define the good as consisting in a right moral purpose, then the mere preservation of the relationships of life becomes a good; and furthermore, he who gives up some of the externals achieves the good.
Family is no guarantee of actually wanting what is best for you. Both of my parents had issues with their siblings and I have had issues with my Dad. I am lucky in the fact that my brothers and I are brothers in spirit as well as blood.
“My father is taking away my money,” But he is doing you no harm, “My brother is going to get the larger part of the farm,” Let him have all he wants. That does not help him at all to get a part of your modesty, does it, or of your fidelity, or of your brotherly love? Why, from a possession of this kind who can eject you? Not even Zeus. Nay, nor did He even wish to, but this matter He put under my control, and He gave it to me even as He had it Himself, free from hindrance, compulsion, restraint.
Talking to my stepdad and after my mom passed, he is trying to decide what to do with the farm. He wants to give it to his son (my half brother) but he is worried about how my brother and I would feel about it. My brother and I both told him we are fine with it, the half brother has already moved into the main farm house and him and his wife are the ones helping my stepdad more than anything else could After he lost my mom, he sounded lost for a few weeks, but them and their 2 daughters in the house with him have really brought joy back into his voice when I make my weekly phone call to him.
I am going on vacation back home for 2 weeks. We are going to have a party to celebrate mom on Saturday. I will try to get the next Stoic Friday done up there, but internet is spotty sometimes.
Enjoy your vacation!
And I’m glad your family is handling the inheritance questions calmly. That can turn ugly.
Long story so I’ll try to summarize.
My bee partner is married to an adopted (by American parents) Korean, she has 3 brothers from the family. When their mother died one brother bought the family farm, each kid, including Kim, got 700K. That’s the way things work in Iowa.
Iowa is relatively sane in the way it handles farms. There is a clear goal of keeping family farms whole and in operation. Something, something . . . heritage.
Good on ya for handling the farm inheritance the way you are. You’re a good person.
Too many people see a piece of their parent’s property as their entitlement. It’s a gift that the parents can choose to give however they see fit. Whatever someone gets is a windfall, not something they are owed.
Not me, my bee partner’s wife.
I’m using a trust when the final day comes.
My parents left enough money for their burial, it worked out perfectly for my 2 brothers and me.
In today’s totally normal, nothing to see here news:
USMC Major General William Mullen died suddenly immediately after returning from Ukraine. – FRWL reports
So “retired” in 2020 at what would appear to be age 55. However, found dead at 29 Palms after a trip to the Ukraine.
Yeah, no back story here at all.
https://nypost.com/2024/07/02/us-news/ncis-probes-death-of-retired-maj-gen-william-mullen/
Gibbs and Abby are on the case.
If I was going to grease a retired Marine general, I don’t think I’d do it on a Marine base.
Sure sounds like the Russians nailed a command post in the Ukraine, then his carcass was dumped back in CA.
If I get out of whack and stress about things I have no control over then I am not in charge of my own principles.
Not sure I understand this one, as they (things one has no control over vs. principles) seem to be largely unrelated/orthogonal. In my everyday life, I stress about things I don’t control – and maybe even more so about things I can – but I don’t think that has any impact on my principles. I just don’t see how being in charge of my own principles is impacted – necessarily – by what I’m stressing over at the moment (and I’m sure it’s something).
Consider how the meanings of everyday words have changed subtly and not so subtly just in your lifetime.
I am not saying we cant understand what they are saying, only that context is important.
Comes down to a matter of what you can control, what you partially control, and what you can’t control or influence. Example: Driving to work this morning, I dealt with fart-around drivers doing 40 in a 65 mph zone as well as a couple who used the interstate as a racecourse. Kept getting angry until I realized I was an old man yelling at clouds because I had no control over what they did. Anger evaporated then and there. Reason solves this sort of problem nicely.
I find driving to be an excellent time/place to practice Stoicism for exactly this reason.
I laugh when some one passes me and I catch up to them at the first stoplight, particularly if I can get a shorter lane
Outside of procrastination and general laziness, my biggest failings are two very at odds sort of issues.
One, I can’t stand to let someone just be wrong. I have this strong urge to correct them, provide them with the real facts, and otherwise enlighten their day – which never goes that way. When acted upon, it usualy devolves into arguing on the internet. I don’t talk as much in person.
Two, I constantly fear that somebody, somewhere, is angry at me. It’s worse when it’s someone I know, or have tried to ‘enlighten’ by the impulse from number one.
Naturally the two collide and things just go downhill. I can’t let them just be wrong, and I don’t want them to be angry, but I lack the skill to make someone change their mind on anything.
“I lack the skill to make someone change their mind on anything.”
You seem to not taking into consideration that most people are incapable of changing their mind.
Many times people have said to me “I cant refute a single argument you make but I just cannot accept the conclusion that it leads to.”
I have short circuited many ‘arguments’ with “I think differently (or some variation of that) but I think it is immoral to try and talk someone out of their conscience.” Sometimes adding “We are on the same page with most stuff (morals). It doesnt matter to me how you got here. Let’s go have a cup of coffee…I’m buyin’.”
Sometimes I think that the better part of wisdom lies in enjoying someone’s company and otherwise leaving them the hell alone.
I’m very angry with you. But you can quell my anger with more FitzHelen novels…
There were paragraph breaks in the copied text…
My anger has vanished! How about that?
Thanks, UCS. Unfortunately you’ve just fronted a fix to a junkie, and who knows how long it’ll last? 😉
*points enthusiastically at avatar*
Thanks for the story snippet.
You’re welcome.
I’m still working on that one. I found that particular snippet in my emails, but I figured it didn’t need much context anyway.
“I can’t let them just be wrong”
Yes, you can. You just choose not to. Try to see that moment when you choose, and go from there.
I mean, if you want to. If you really do just want to keep trying to correct people, go right ahead.
One, I can’t stand to let someone just be wrong.
Well, you need to work on that.
So, I should try even harder to enlighten people?
So I’m celebrating Independence Day by filling out the necessary paperwork to legally purchase two 11.5″ AR-15s and a silencer. Yay, me…
There is no reason you should need to own those kinds of things.
Really, no one should own paperwork.
I already do own those kind of things. This is SBR numbers 2 and 3, and silencer number 4 for me. So I suppose I’m pretty well fucked at this point.
That’s what Personal Assistants are for, to deal with the mundane
Arsenal! Arsenal!
Reminds me of when somebody has a couple of boxes of .22LR with them and the news go apoplectic how some guy had 1,000 rounds of ammo in the car or the bag!
Those are almost as bad as owning a replica sword in the country you fough a while back for this 4th thingy
Jiminy, Evil. Just the tax stamps alone make my wallet pucker up.
NFA stuff is like Fritos – one just isn’t enough.
I’m about one big bonus check away from shopping for a transferable IMI Uzi or Sterling Mk4…
So, I should try even harder to enlighten people?
Yes. Start a church, so you may properly punish the wicked heathens.
And gay properly paid for it.
Get.
Wtf autocorrect?
Your autocorrect was written for diversity hires?
Gay for pay is not that easy
They have pills that help.
Thanks Ron,
I’m on vacation as well next week. I’m trying to be stoic about all the family stuff that will occur is this is our once a year get together. It’s mostly good, but there is always some tension with my mother. Sadly, son broke up with his girlfriend and moved back home. I feel badly for him much more than myself. Also I’ve got a new boss at work who was a former co-worker and I’m again trying to be stoic. He was a great coworker so I’m hopeful.
OT – I watched Isekai Suicide Squad and the first episode surprisingly did not suck. I watched the Japanese dialogue version and the voice talent was all veterans with exception of Harley Quinn. They cast some brand new cute young girl and I was also pleasantly surprised. However, there is plenty of time for things to get worse and I’ve dropped plenty of series after 3 or 4 episodes.
Back to old hot Bucharest after nice cool Scotland. I think i will need to be stoic this summer.
So, Scotland was experiencing weather whilst Bucharest is gripped in the throes of climate change?
“in accordance with nature” is a fancy way of saying “common sense”. Easy enough to coast along in this mentality in a homogeneous culture with established and universally held norms and beliefs, but it falls apart under scrutiny. As we’re fond of saying in modern times, “common sense isn’t so common.”
Huh? That seems quite naive. If anything, it seems that the soul assents to the convenient, dissents from the unpleasant, and only withholds judgment when necessary to prevent negative consequences.
I think the moral motive is just as corruptible as the truth motive, rendering this a rather naive approach to understanding individual morality.
I think you nailed the critique pretty well here. However, I’ll quibble a little bit. I think it’s quite optimistic to assume humans are good-seeking automata whose mistakes are solely or even substantially caused by making decisions with limited info. By default, we seek good when the benefit of seeking evil is outweighed by the risk of consequences, whether they be physical or social. That’s because we’re not good-seeking, we’re self-seeking. It just happens that good and self align quite often, mostly because “being good” is much less effort than being a scofflaw.
The good kind of judicial activism
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ruled 4-3 to reinstate the use of most ballot drop boxes across the crucial battleground state, overturning a decision it made less than two years ago that banned the use of most of those boxes.
“Our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes,” the decision Friday read. “It merely acknowledges … that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion.”
While the ruling had largely been expected after the court’s liberal justices signaled their positioning on the issue during oral arguments in the case in May, it is likely to have large ramifications on the 2024 presidential election in the crucial battleground because it effectively permits the broad use of ballot drop boxes.
Vote early, vote often.
Called it.
Interview back in the 2016 campaigns –
Interviewer: “But why do the democrats keep wanting things that make it easier to commit voter fraud?”
Guest: *poker face, flat, matter-of-fact tone* “Because they want to commit voter fraud.”
Dont get lost in the weeds. Most of the time things are just what they appear to be.
This.
I’m also not accepting the “universal franchise is the ultimate good” undertones. Yes, there should be a way for the homebound to vote. No, we shouldn’t make it “easier” to vote. There should be a barrier to entry.
Easier to vote means easier to cheat Ease of access is ever the enemy of security.
Ohio House wants to eliminate wild hogs – so they pass a bill banning hog hunting?
https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/ohio-passes-bill-to-ban-hog-hunting/
Maybe they realize that if they declare a war on hogs, they’ll end up with more hogs, so if they declare war on hog hunting, people will go kill them some wild pork?
From my reading of the coverage locally, it is so that the state can trap them without worry about hunters and it also added several other provisions (banning feeding feral hogs, importing feral hogs, releasing feral hogs) and makes it mandatory to report any feral hogs seen to the state.
So… they want more hogs?
If I read that correctly, they think open hunting makes the pigs more wary and less likely to fall for traps, and DNR would rather trap them. I’ve never hunted wild pigs, but from what I’ve heard only the young ones are stupid (and tasty). The adults are pretty crafty already.
Landowners would still be allowed to shoot them without a license (but they have to report the kills). I guess this mostly bans shooting them on public land.
Various govt’s over time have tried offering bounties on snakes, rats, etc. Since it was cheaper to raise the critters people began doing just that. When it was revealed that that was going on those govt’s stopped offering the bounties. The people raising said critters simply stopped but released all of the ones they had. Voila, more snakes and rats than ever.
Wildlife people do this every time. Other states, including mine, wanted licenses, regulations blah blah blah (fees and fines) but the exotic species got out of hand. If they were serious about their stated goal the rule would be ‘day or night, shoot them on sight’. No fees. No licenses. No regulations or limits. Exterminate them.
They just cant do it. They have to have the money and power that comes with regulation.
Give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for a day.
Elect a man to fish for you and all of a sudden fishing becomes some mystical function that only a few elite in society can perform at great expense to the rest of us.
HT, the book of faces, ‘Alice Smith’
Jacobin
@jacobin
Socialists have to wrestle with the tricky questions about the nuts and bolts of socialism. We need to put forward a credible vision of a future socialist society. Here’s what that society could look like.
https://jacobin.com/2019/08/socialist-society-future-cooperatives
What I’m trying to emphasize is that we will have to make choices as long as people don’t feel like going to work every day. Unless you assume that people are ready to work for free because they love the work, then you won’t have scarcity. But as long as there’s a choice, you have to have some incentives.
“the rule would be ‘day or night, shoot them on sight’. No fees. No licenses. No regulations or limits.”
It’s been awhile, but I think that’s the basically the rule for “vermin” (think, coyotes) and exotics in TX.
Coyotes and, yes, feral hogs.
Interesting aside for the SCUBA divers in the house – that’s also the rule for Lionfish. No limit, any method.
https://oceanwideexplorers.com/your-complete-guide-to-hunting-lionfish/
And socialists.
My wife and I have known since we were married that my parents will have little to no inheritance. At most a home that will either have to be sold or bought by one of us. I have no desire for anything from them. My two sisters are likely going to have a fight over any assets or the home. I’ll likely be the one who has to decide on what happens. My own personal assets are to be given to my wife to do with as she sees fit and in the event of her death to be liquidated and given to the nephews and nieces.
I might donate a portion to a scholarship fund for a college I support, but that depends on when I croak.
I don’t care what they do with it. I’ll be dead.
The thing about growing up poor is that there won’t be much to argue over, just sentimental pieces.
The same happens when your parents give till it hurts. At some point they run out of the means to keep helping.
Drake’s comment and link once again reminded me of a pet peeve of mine – to be ‘wild’ an animal and its ancesters must never have passed through human hands. Once corrupted by the touch of domestication, escaped animals can only ever be ‘feral’, even after generations free from human influence and subject to the selective forces of the wilderness they now occupy. The Mustang and the Razorback are the prime example of the ‘forever feral, never wild’ convention.
These fuckers are wild animals again, even if their ancestors had been bred to domestication at some point.
You are correct. In some places I believe they were accidently or purposely bred with actual wild boars. Feral hybrids?
🤷♂️
I didn’t address the hybridization, because I’d been fixated on the part that annoyed me (forever feral) rather than the complicating factors.
Wild pigs are smart and can cause a lot of damage to crops and landscaping.
They should be like coyotes and be open season all year with no limits.
They’re currently classed as vermin, and the only restrictions on hunting them is during deer season, when you need a deer permit to be hunting them (most likely to prevent people from poaching deer while claiming to be hog hunting).
I don’t have much of a problem with “feral” as distinct from “wild”. Feral animals are basically invasive species, imported by man.
Also, deer and elk are ranched these days, but are still classified as wild. I think the distinction isn’t based on the touch of domestication. I think it’s based on whether they were here when we showed up.
Because I said so
The writings of a Nashville school shooter won’t be made public, a Tennessee judge ruled late Thursday, finding that there is more harm to be done in releasing them now.
——-
“Therefore, the right to unencumbered access to public records was tempered by certain exceptions which serve to keep certain information from disclosure as the risk of harm from disclosure is outweighed by the public’s right to know,” she said.
Unassailable logic.
Who’s harmed by it? The woman who wrote it is dead.
The Narrative.
“keep certain information from disclosure as the risk of harm from disclosure is outweighed by the public’s right to know”
Sounds to me like the public’s right to know should win, if it outweighs the risk of disclosure.
Unless it’s critical to national security, and maybe even the, it should be released. What a crock of bullshit.
OT,
Lagunitas Hop Refresher is better than the beers they make.
Water with Hops extract is better than I expected.
Unfortunately they also cost the same.
Yeah, kind of my issue with NA beers, there are some I don’t mind, but I’m not paying $12/six pack for pop.
There is always the option of making your own hop tincture and dosing seltzer/soda with it.
That sounds like a good option. I’ve been doing some club and bitters with a lime as well.
If by chance you’re only drinking a little bit, as opposed to not drinking at all, a tall Americano cocktail might be a palatable choice…
EvilSheldon:
There’s always the Diplomat cocktail as well.
I’m no longer drinking for health reasons. It sucks but I’m ok with it.
I’m off today along will all of my team in the USA. This will be my Independence Day celebration. I have two racks of KC style ribs and 5lbs of chicken on the smoker.
Dammed >70 dew point can go fk itself. The breeze is blowing in, so not as bad as it could be.
I flat out ruined the KC ribs yesterday. My pellet grill has been having issues since the inside of the hopper got wet, and despite me following the 3-2-1 method, the ribs were undercooked. At times, the grill was struggling to maintain temp, which explains the poor result, but I’m having a hard time getting it to cycle all of the sawdust out so I can put fresh pellets in.
Sounds to me like the public’s right to know should win, if it outweighs the risk of disclosure.
Something something needs of the many versus the needs of the few.
I was just pointing out that the judge garbled the critical sentence in the ruling. As written, it says that when the public’s right to know outweighs the risk of disclosure, the information is not to be disclosed. Probably meant to say “outweighs”, not “is outweighed by”, but hey, I’m just reading the words on the page here.
I was just pointing out that the judge garbled the critical sentence in the ruling.
That’s why I quoted it. It’s unintelligible.
Millennial Anti-Theft Device
Are there even enough manual-transmission cars anymore for this to be a thing? (Please say yes…)
Chess update for Rob
“Wisconsin Supreme Court Reinstates Unstaffed Drop Boxes Ahead Of 2024 Election”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/wisconsin-supreme-court-reinstates-unstaffed-drop-boxes-ahead-2024-election
Gentlemen, start your vote falsification engines.
Staff them with snipers?