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.
That we ought not to yearn for the things which are not under our control Part I
Let not that which in the case of another is contrary to nature become an evil for you; for you are born not to be humiliated along with others, nor to share in their misfortunes, but to share in their good fortune. If, however, someone is unfortunate, remember that his misfortune concerns himself.[1] For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene. To this end He gave them resources, giving each man some things for his own, and others not for his own. The things that are subject to hindrance, deprivation, and compulsion are not a man’s own, but those which cannot be hindered are his own. The true nature of the good and the evil, as was fitting for Him who watches over and protects us like a father. He gave to man to be among his own possessions. “But I have parted from So-and-so, and he is stricken with grief.” Yes, but why did he regard what was not his own as his own? Why, when he was glad to see you, did he not reflect that you are mortal, and likely to go on a journey? And therefore he is paying the penalty for his own folly.
Being upset about things we don’t control is a natural feeling, but an unproductive one. It can help to vent to friends about what has happened to you, but I will not forget that the only thing I control in trying circumstances is my reaction to them. When I had a friend in the Marines that would gripe about our boss constantly during our free time, I stopped spending too much time with him. His gripes were legitimate, but unproductive, and sucked the fun out of our drinking parties. He had others with the same complaints so he never noticed that I always wound up in a different group.
5But why are you bewailing yourself, and to what end? Or did you also neglect to study this matter, but, like worthless women, did you enjoy everything in which you took delight as though you were to enjoy it for ever, your surroundings, human beings, your ways of life? And now you sit and wail because you no longer lay eyes upon the same persons, and do not spend your life in the same places. Yes, for that’s what you deserve, to be more wretched than crows and ravens, which can fly away wherever they please, and change their nests, and cross the seas, without groaning or longing for their first home.—Yes, but they feel that way because they are irrational creatures.—Has, then, reason been given us by the gods for misfortune and misery, so that we may spend our lives in wretchedness and mourning? Or shall all men be immortal, and no one leave home,[† 1] but shall we stay rooted in the ground like the plants? And if any one of our acquaintances leaves home, shall we sit down and wail, and then again, if he comes back, dance and clap our hands as the children do?
Change is constant. It is not always the preferred outcome, but it is inevitable. I am still getting used to the fact that when I go home to visit my family and stay in “Mom’s house” she is no longer there. I could get upset at the fact my brother’s family have moved in with my step dad and my sister in law has changed the furniture and decor, but instead I am happy that she is helping him with all of the things my mom used to handle and he doesn’t sound depressed anymore when I talk to him. Plus their kids give him something to look forward to in the evening.
Shall we not wean ourselves at last, and call to mind what we have heard from the philosophers?10—if, indeed, we did not listen to them as to enchanters—when they said that this universe is but a single state, and the substance out of which it has been fashioned is single, and it needs must be that there is a certain periodic change and a giving place of one thing to another, and that some things must be dissolved and others come into being, some things to remain in the same place and others to be moved. Further, that all things are full of friends, first gods, and then also men, who by nature have been made of one household with one another; and that some men must remain with each other, while others must depart, and that though we must rejoice in those who dwell with us, yet we must not grieve at those who depart. And man, in addition to being by nature high-minded and capable of despising all the things that are outside the sphere of his moral purpose, possesses also this further quality, that, namely, of not being rooted nor growing in the earth, but of moving now to one place and now to another, at one time under the pressure of certain needs, and at another merely for the sake of the spectacle.
I have been through many changes in the last 10 years. My kids have grown up and moved out, I have retired from the Marine Corps, I bought a house, and my mom died to name a few. I will never get used to the fact I have adult children, and am still slightly surprised by how successful they have become. It took me about 5 years before I stopped missing being in the Marines. I have lived in this house for almost 8 years now and I realized today that this is the longest I have lived anywhere since I left home to join the Marines. Still getting used to the fact mom is dead, and I still wish we had had gotten along better, but I understand we were both at fault and for the most part we did have a good relationship. All I can do with the changes is accept them as a fact of life and live well with no added resentment or anger for the ones I didn’t like. I have many that I am glad happened and am not so ignorant as to imagine I could have decided what should change and what should remain static.
Would you First me? I know the question is ridiculous. Of course you would.
Whatever happened to the “First that would change everything”?
You still carrying that?
It didn’t change anything.
Thanks Ron – all spot on.
There is no group so stoic as proponents of liberty. Otherwise we would have all blown our brains out long ago.
It looks like Trump is saying to the slavers, grifters and power mongers “Your turn”
I cant tell you how much I am enjoying all of this.
He is more than just a symbolic fuck you this go around which is nice.
Share your car with your neighbors.
My neighbors agree…
Good God, the WEF crowd is beyond parody.
I wonder how she got to the WEF fart smelling convention and how she gets around while she is there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LucwPWzjlyQ
You cant have my guns, you cant have my jeep and you cant plant a chip in my head to monitor my thoughts you evil crazy fuckers.
I bet she has a nice car. What country does she live in? I’ll plan a trip there and save money on transportation.
My neighbor’s an asshole and he probably thinks the same about me so no.
I’m sure insurance companies love this idea.
Because letting people improve their lives to the point everyone has cars is not an option for these globalist vermin.
But I bet she has a nicer car than I do, do you think she would share?
Thanks Ron,
As the great Satchell Paige is alleged to havve said,
“Don’t look back, something may be gaining on you”
So it is with life and something is gaining on us. I’ve tried to be more stoic and let the anger flow but only for a short time. Then sit down and laugh.
Nothing is gained by carrying the resentment (except for ex-wives, then it’s OK)
/anniversary of my divorce on Sundee. Might be the best decision I ever made.
Glad I have no idea what that’s like.
I read a book on Satchel Paige when I was a kid,it said that when he was feeling it, he would call the outfielders in because nobody was going to get any hits.
I’ve always wondered if that was true or a story that came later.
A small but particularly welcome Federal spending cut. 😁
And Pompeo and Bolton! Wtf do either one of those need post employment security? Or security while employed?
An awful lot of people count on their security clearances for life as a meal ticket and it turns out to be for the gourmet restaurants, not Mc?Donald’s.
Security clearances should end with ‘we no longer need your services’.
They need money from taxpayers so they can be protected from all the people they hurt while spending money from taxpayers.
One of my friends worked for IBM and had security clearance to do some server work for the government.
I say, once you leave the government, you lose your security clearance and have to re-apply, and they give you only what is required for your new job.
My clearance expired after I left the military. Why do they get to keep them?
They’re important Drake, unlike little person scum like yourself. I was happy to give mine up as getting reinvestigated every three (five? whatever it was) was just too damn intrusive.
Yeah, I think mine was suspended as well but the penalties still carried forward for divulging.
I can’t remember yesterday so I can’t be compromised now
Security clearances are a *HUGE* social standing thing in Beltway circles, separate and apart from the career benefits. Having your clearance revoked is not unlike being publicly castrated.
Security clearances should be automatically revoked the instant someone leaves a role where they are relevant to the job. Want a new job that needs one – start over.
Not security clearances, or just clearances. Both Pompeo and Bolton had government provided security guards yanked.
Also mostly about ego and social standing. But don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll make enough on the OMB lecture circuit to pay ITT for an executive protection team…
I’d let that “share your neighbor’s car’ girl give me a piggyback ride to the store. That would cut down on traffic.
Asked if he would feel partially responsible if something were to happen to Fauci or Bolton, Trump said he would not.
*outright prolonged laughter*
Gabbard turns into back into a swamp creature, but debatable if swampy enough. (from NatRev)
She was either bullshitting then or she’s bullshitting now but sometimes people have to compromise on their principles to gain political power. It’s the nature of the beast unfortunately.
She can always change her mind once she’s confirmed. Democrats shouldn’t have a monopoly on changing their policy positions once they get in power.
Also just because she ‘supports’ them now doesn’t mean that she’ll allow everyone free access to them as before.
Time will tell.
Being thoroughly abused by the democratic party has taught her lessons.
But that doesn’t mean she’s actually become a conservative.
She’s a republican in the same way that Trump is a republican. Anti-woke, anti-progressive (to some extent), and mostly populist.
The republican party is still in love with FISA. So, she has to bow her head and agree.
I will wait until I see how she actually works before passing judgment.
The republican party is still in love with FISA
Good reason I’ll never be a Republican.
Though Trump had initially followed Fauci’s recommendations at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he began to criticize Fauci as the government’s pandemic response and recommendations proved to be unpopular.
Perhaps they were “unpopular” because they were not merely ineffectual but grotesquely destructive.
Trump visited Western NC today. They are finally getting some help after Biden’s FEMA and the shithead Dem Governors ignored them for months.
https://x.com/AbsoluteWithE/status/1882503681016516848
Trump letting NC residents call out not only FEMA but the insurance companies who have stiffed them on national tv.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/24/watch-president-donald-trump-visits-north-carolina/
I sometimes forget that my favorite bands and their members are super socialist and it makes me realize how much I seperate art from the artist
“favorite band”
I can understand, thank God Jimmy Page hasn’t weighed in with his thoughts on the Ukraine war.
every band that I’d listen to is going to be super liberal because they’re all poor from their choices of pursuing art. I’m not out here listening to like Sabrina carpenter or something
There are good non-progressive bands out there. They’re just few and far between. There’s several bands that I love, while I disagree with them about nearly every single political position they take.
Who posted the Ringo Starr ‘The Weight’ video?
Watching that it hit me just how much they are what they are and why. Musicians dont separate people by race, music style, social status, nationality etc…the usual stuff. They separate humanity into musician and not-musician. Their world is that utopian rainbow world where we are all brothers and sisters. International socialism comes natural to them and is probably the only way they can see the world. Most of the entertainment industry is like that but none more so than the musicians.
Not sure if I am right about that it is just my strong impression from observing them.
In a way I cannot separate performance from artist. It is a shame. Most of the music I grew up with when I hear it now I think “Fuckin’ commie shitbirds” and change the station.
Trump is targeting the immigrants who will be called on to rebuild LA
News is full on ‘think of the slaves’
Stoic today. Still able to telework adhoc as per my boss. Which is good, cause it is extra duty I would not get done if I were at the facility.
It’s measurable, result based work.
Who’s going to rebuild our gilded mansions and clean our toilets? The answer is white folks, black folks, and Hispanic folks but the stupid environmental regs along with Cali’s insane codes will likely be more of a hindrance.
“Being upset about things we don’t control is a natural feeling, but an unproductive one.”
I have a big issue about this. I just tend to bitch and rage and one day I realized how much energy and happiness I was losing bitching about stuff that I had no control over. And on top of that it prevented me from focusing on what I could control. If I become too negative or find myself bitching a lot I try to stop myself and think of something positive and what I can do to make my situation better.
That’s part of the reason I started studying Stoicism.
Too many things were making me angry and none of them were under my control.
Not the best way to live.
I concur with your comment. Life’s too short to waste it screaming at the sky.
Life’s too long to waste it screaming at the sky.
We’ll never get finished and when it’s over, it’s over.
Muttering is just as effective as screaming.
True, JI. 0=0.
Heretics
Europe’s CEOs appeared to watch on with envy as President Donald Trump overturned a slew of regulations on Monday, with a growing chorus of voices calling for similar moves on the continent.
Trump wasted no time on his first day in office, announcing a series of executive orders designed to shore up key industries, including curbing electric vehicle production targets and accelerating oil and gas production.
The returning president has long argued that regulation is stifling innovation and U.S. competitiveness, campaigning for a second term with pledges to roll back the red tape. And, in the face of a more assertive U.S. and increased global rivalry, European business leaders are echoing that view.
Morten Wierod, CEO of Swiss robotics firm ABB, warned that excessive regulation and the associated high costs were pushing frontier businesses to relocate to other markets, ultimately risking the “deindustrialization of Europe.”
“It needs to be a clear reset on regulation and let business get on with it,” Wierod told CNBC “Squawk Box Europe” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
I thought that was Brussel’s clearly expressed intent.
Let’s turn Europe in a medieval theme park (but without the plague and violence).
without the plague and violence
Look at you excluding Muslims.
¯\(ツ)/¯
Kinnath the Impaler? Kinnath el Cid? Kinnath the Hammer?
The EU has one of the strictest regulatory business environments globally, often priding itself on being a first-mover in developing guidelines to manage industries and protect consumers.
Europe is no place for unfettered cowboy capitalism.
Europe is like being a kid and living at home
Ahahahahahahahahahaaha … breathes …. hahahaha. My company just acquired a company from the EU and the amount of red tape and regulations along with the fear of the parent company becoming a monopoly convinced me that the Europeans absolutely hate economic growth and want to suck the life out anything that could potentially make money
“Let it not be their punishment but their reward” – Brother Dave Gardner.
Wierod added that European Union regulations, while often well-meaning, had become too bureaucratic and needed to be simplified to give firms the flexibility needed to innovate and grow.
“Each regulation is set with good intentions. But it’s when you take and you put everything together, it just becomes too much. It gets too complex,” he said.
They mean well. Their intentions are good.
For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene. To this end He gave them resources, giving each man some things for his own, and others not for his own. The things that are subject to hindrance, deprivation, and compulsion are not a man’s own, but those which cannot be hindered are his own.
Love this. Exactly the opposite of how I have approached things in the past.
Thanks, Ron! These last two have been really good.
Thanks Ron. This is good.
Marines just arrived at the border – armed.
https://x.com/DC_Draino/status/1882855059287048279
When I was in the Army National Guard, they asked to volunteers to work the border – no weapons to be issued and no personal weapons allowed. Nobody volunteered for that bs.
Fuck yeah!
*waves tiny American flag*
Our friend in the BP was in town this week. He’s in the middle of a 2-week vacation so he hasn’t seen this firsthand yet. But he really likes all the EO’s, especially designating the cartels as terrorists. Under Biden they had catch and release, so he’d see the same smugglers sometimes 3 times a night. They’d stand on the border and taunt him, jumping from the Mexico side to the US side and back. He’d like to see them go after the network of houses the cartels have throughout the US to traffic humans and drugs.
I still don’t trust the terrorist designation. Too much fuckery historically.
Also, I keep reading about how the BP was a cartel concierge. Are people really that married to their jobs that they will do what they know is wrong for a fucking paycheck?
Not picking on your buddy, but why weren’t they quitting en masse?
Are people really that married to their jobs that they will do what they know is wrong for a fucking paycheck?
How many people knowingly put their own lives at risk with the clot shot because of a paycheck? If so many will do that, plenty will gladly do what pays regardless of harm to a third party.
I have heard about BP basically assisting human trafficking, but he said he didn’t see many kids, and didn’t see any with numbers on their arms. He wasn’t making sandwiches for anyone either, just patrolling and arresting people, and then getting frustrated because he had to let them go. It’s like working for any shitty company that’s understaffed and has poor management.
We thought he was crazy for taking that job, and we think he’s crazy for keeping it.
Whay are the ROE for them? I don’t want some cartel lackey playing duck hunt.
It may already have been said, but there seems that the AA serenity prayer was based on Stoicism. There are however contradictions on the steps and self ownership / powerlessness.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
https://x.com/evanakilgore/status/1882821116735176997?s=42
HOLY CRAP…
Martin Luther King Jr:
-Serial adulter having affairs with multiple women.
-Participated in gay orgies.
-Drug Addict and Cocain Abuser.
-Paid prostitutes for sex.
-Drunkard alcoholic.
Why the HELL does the United States have a national holiday in honor of him?
This stuff was known years ago. Although I think the homosexuality referred to in the documents was lesbian shows by the hookers.
All this was known in the 70s. Maybe not the gay orgies. I can still hear my dad ranting about all this at the dinner table and what a piece of shit he was.
Just means we should have a holiday for John McAfee too.
Yes…yes we should.
I’m on board with that.
I’d rather see national holidays for random cool people. Like TOK or Mo.
Just means we should have a holiday for John McAfee too.
Holidays are for dead people. John is not dead. 🤣
This has been known for a very, very long time.
Ben Franklin’s own autobiography documented his many, many conquests (and many, many bastard children) during his residence in Europe.
I am surprised that most people don’t recognize that most of the “great” leaders of the past were actually very flawed humans who someone managed to achieve great things anyway.