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 in bold, my replies are in normal text.
To those who read and discuss for the purpose of display Part III
Does a philosopher invite people to a lecture?—Is it not rather the case that, as the sun draws its own sustenance to itself,[11] so he also draws to himself those to whom he is to do good?
When I was a section chief in artillery, I had some young Marines that were not in need of much counseling in either life or Marine matters. Spending my time working with them might have made me feel like I was being a good leader, but I tried to concentrate on the ones that needed guidance. Unfortunately some of the people that needed the simplest advice were the most resistant to it.
What physician ever invites a patient to come and be healed by him? Although I am told that in these days the physicians in Rome do advertise; however, in my time they were called in[12] by their patients. “I invite you to come and hear that you are in a bad way, and that you are concerned with anything rather than what you should be concerned with, and that you are ignorant of the good and the evil, and are wretched and miserable.” That’s a fine invitation! And yet if the philosopher’s discourse does not produce this effect, it is lifeless and so is the speaker himself Rufus used to say, “If you have nothing better to do than to praise me, then I am speaking to no purpose.”[13] Wherefore he spoke in such a way that each of us as we sat there fancied someone had gone to Rufus and told him of our faults; so effective was his grasp of what men actually do, so vividly did he set before each man’s eyes his particular weaknesses.
When I was a leader of Marines, my goal was not that they would be impressed with me. I was hoping to inspire them and guide them to do the right thing. I had better luck with some than others and that is more about whether they were willing to listen and change course than it was my skills as a leader. I was not great at reaching the ones that didn’t care and convincing them that since what they were doing wasn’t working out too well, they needed to straighten themselves up.
30Men, the lecture-room of the philosopher is a hospital;[14] you ought not to walk out of it in pleasure, but in pain. For you are not well when you come; one man has a dislocated shoulder, another an abscess, another a fistula, another a headache. And then am I to sit down and recite to you dainty little notions and clever little mottoes, so that you will go out with words of praise on your lips, one man carrying away his shoulder just as it was when he came in, another his head in the same state, another his fistula, another his abscess? And so it’s for this, is it, that young men are to travel from home, and leave their parents, their friends, their relatives, and their bit of property, merely to cry “Bravo!” as you recite your clever little mottoes? Was this what Socrates used to do, or Zeno, or Cleanthes?
I started studying Stoicism when I was struggling with anger after having an infection from surgery that had me couch bound. I found myself just being angry internally and because of that I was not a fun patient for my wife (who is a saint) to deal with. In the years since, I have been in much better control of myself and have found ways to enjoy things that used to have me spitting mad.
Well! but isn’t there such a thing as the right style for exhortation?—Why yes, who denies that? Just as there is the style for refutation, and the style for instruction. Who, then, has ever mentioned a fourth style along with these, the style of display?[15] Why, what is the style for exhortation? The ability to show to the individual, as well as to the crowd, the warring inconsistency in which they are floundering about, and how they are paying attention to anything rather than what they truly want. For they want the things that conduce to happiness, but they are looking for them in the wrong place.
I am still working on how to reconcile what I say I want versus my actions sometimes. I know what I need to do-sleep enough, eat well, take care of things around the house etc, etc. In spite of this, I still have a tendency to stay up later than I should and eat junk while being lazy. To quote Paul in Romans 7:15:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
I am doing better than I was last week, but I am not impressed with my self this week either.
35To achieve that must a thousand benches be placed, and the prospective audience be invited, and you put on a fancy cloak, or dainty mantle, and mount the speaker’s stand, and paint a word-picture of—how Achilles died? By the gods, I beseech you, have done with discrediting, as far as it is in your power to discredit, words and actions that are noble! There is nothing more effective in the style for exhortation than when the speaker makes clear to his audience that he has need of them.[16] Or tell me, who that ever heard you reading a lecture or conducting a discourse felt greatly disturbed about himself, or came to a realization of the state he was in, or on going out said, “The philosopher brought it home to me in fine style; I must not act like this any longer”? But doesn’t he say to a companion, if you make an unusually fine impression, “That was beautiful diction in the passage about Xerxes”; and doesn’t the other answer, “No, I preferred the one about the battle of Thermopylae”?[17] Is this what listening to a philosopher amounts to?
I try to be straightforward anytime I give advice and not speak in such a way as to make myself seem more important than the meaning I am trying to convey. If when I was talking to young Marines or my kids and all they remembered was what a grand speaking style I have, then I failed.
Unfortunately some of the people that needed the simplest advice were the most resistant to it.
That’s sadly common.
I think the greatest resistance is people not taking their own advice to others.
I am good at sounding wise, not so much at being wise.
One of the majesties of the English language is that there is a great difference between a wise man and a wise guy.
Wise ass.
Simple and easy are often 2 different things.
Had a buddy in the National Guard who got in trouble every time liquor crossed his lips. Our basic soldier advice: “Dude, you really shouldn’t drink.” Didn’t usually take. Great guy sober, nightmare drunk.
OT: To our new commenter, your posts have been approved. Welcome to the fun.
Welcome, Tulpa!
Fuck off, Tulpa.
I am Tulpa!
Well, then fuck off. I love that spell check corrected to “fuck off”.
Men, the lecture-room of the philosopher is a hospital;[14] you ought not to walk out of it in pleasure, but in pain.
The Church is often referred to as a hospital as well. I think it works well as a metaphor. In both cases you are in need of healing and the feel good shit is not part of the program.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Absolute banger. And one of my greatest frustrations as well.
I try to be straightforward anytime I give advice and not speak in such a way as to make myself seem more important than the meaning I am trying to convey.
Absolutely. Seeing my kids pass my advice on to others is amazing. Small victories ftw!
Thanks Ron! Another good one.
Even into medieval time, Hospital was more about hospitality than healing, though I suspect the translation from latin is modern and used the modern sense of a place of healing.
…and the word hospice, which is a place of peace before dying. I wonder if there is a connection to the word ‘Hestia’.
It is cloudy, damp as hell and just above freezing out. The perfect miserable Louisiana winter day for staying in.
I have a nice warm fire glowing and a hot cup of mint tea. The dogs are all dead asleep and the wife is dozing off and on while watching some hallmarky thing on the tv.
Perfect.
Trump’s inauguration was moved inside the Capitol. Ds are going to have a harder time getting an operative in range.
Snowing here — the warm kind.
Florida “snow”?
Isn’t that falling frozen iguanas?
Large flake conglomerations
Romania’s silent coup. EU/NATO tries to stop Georgescu
https://rumble.com/v6adqag-romanias-silent-coup.-eunato-tries-to-stop-georgescu.html?e9s=src_v1_mfp
The anti-EU guy has to be banned for democracy.
It’s the EU way. If they don’t like the results they force a do-over. Like when Ireland rejected the EU constitution, they held a second referendum so they could get it right.
It will be awesome if he actually increases his lead.
Signs point to that. A lot of people who didn’t vote for him last round were disgusted by the shenanigans and may well change vote.
Apparently CNN has lost its defamation case.
any details?
https://apnews.com/article/cnn-guilty-defamation-afghans-137bf5dbc2d72762d29c9f7596f63ec2
https://www.foxnews.com/media/jury-finds-that-cnn-committed-defamation-against-navy-veteran-awards-punitive-damages
Last week I read some of the texts that were part of the discovery. They did not paint CNN in a very good light to say the least.
Nice to see those texts get some light. CNN is an awful place. More people should know this.
Looks like the initial judgement is five million, punitive damages has yet to be decided. The legal fees alone were probably millions so those punitive damages need to be big.
https://archive.fo/jqIcw
CNN’s really, really dumb messages
A senior engineer in the certification office taught me two lessons regarding emails very early on (early 1990s).
1) Imagine reading your email on the front page of the New York Times.
2) Imagine yourself standing in the box saying “I swear to tell the truth, . . . . ” prior to being questioned about what you meant in any given email.
Always remember, just walk down the hall and have a conversation with someone as the first choice.
I would giggle if Biden pardons CNN.
[I know he doesn’t have that authority, but he also doesn’t have the authority to declare the ERA enacted and that didn’t stop him]
That was fast. On to the damages!
CNN is begging for mercy, because they’re “in decline.” The jurors have asked for a calculator.
[all according to secondhand twitter-watching]
Ha!
“I am still working on how to reconcile what I say I want versus my actions sometimes. I know what I need to do-sleep enough, eat well, take care of things around the house etc, etc.”
You and me both. I’ve written out a list of what I want to accomplish during the week, whether it’s at home or at work and if I complete at least 75 percent of those tasks I treat myself to ice cream.
I just need to stick a cork in my mouth while working at home until I control stress eating. It’s a hard thing.
I simply can’t have the shit in the house.
Me neither. No chips, softdrinks or sugar.
Mrs. TOK and I are opposites in that regard. I will forget we have junk food in the house, but if it’s around she’ll eat it, and she’ll stress eat just like the two of you. It’s a lot easier for her to say no at the store.
Tundra:
I’m there with you. A bag of chips is a single serving, no matter the size of the package.
My wife buys this amazing salt & vinegar popcorn. It’s like crack.
@ Tundra: if I can get out of the store on my twice-weekly shopping trips, I do pretty good (i.e., I have little temptation to stop in other days to buy crap).
lol
Look what I found!
https://hedgehogreview.com/web-features/thr/posts/from-machiavellis-study-to-joe-rogans-studio
Stay frosty as you read, fellow Stoics!
The hedgehog review? I was expecting some Ron Jeremy witticisms.
That would have been great. And less of a word salad.
Tucker Carlson is hyper male?
Hyper, maybe. Like a squirrel on coffee.
https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/2025/01/homicide-victim-was-killed-after-advertising-party-that-drew-attention-of-venezuelan-street-gang-da-says.html
Trendy arugula hits the Poconos.
🙁
The victims were Venezuelan, too. Interesting.
Near my neck of the woods. I couldn’t figure out how a Venezuelan street gang found out about some random party in the Poconos, but it appeared to be a party held by Venezuelan “immigrants”.
By the way what ever AI app is being used by the news organizations loves to use transnational instead of international. This is the third time I’ve seen this term used this week.
https://marketingmind.in/the-difference-between-international-multinational-transnational-global-companies/
That sounds like a plot line in an 80’s movies. Except for the killing part.
It is only 2:30 in the afternoon God’s Chosen Time, and I’m pooped.
You’ve earned it.
Thank God for Trump.
Victimhood. It draws us together.
I have no doubt that the Democrat party is in a downward spiral and possibly toast. They are really off of the rails.
That act she has does not fool me one bit. She is a nasty piece of work and an idiot. They would be turning up the lawfare to 11, seizing guns, confiscating property, suspending courts…the whole bit. A win for her would have been their cue to completely stop pretending. They would be doing everything that they accused Trump of planning and then some.