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.
Of the Things Which Are Under Our Control and Not Under Our Control
Among the arts and faculties[1] in general you will find none that is self-contemplative, and therefore none that is either self-approving or self-disapproving. How far does the art of grammar possess the power of contemplation? Only so far as to pass judgement upon what is written. How far the art of music? Only so far as to pass judgement upon the melody. Does either of them, then, contemplate itself? Not at all. But if you are writing to a friend and are at a loss as to what to write, the art of grammar will tell you; yet whether or no you are to write to your friend at all, the art of grammar will not tell. The same holds true of the art of music with regard to melodies; but whether you are at this moment to sing and play on the lyre, or neither sing nor play, it will not tell.
There is a difference in understanding how to do something and knowing when to do it. I can change parts with the best of them, but the true automotive technician can diagnose the problem to ensure the right part gets changed and not just firing up the part cannon.
What art or faculty, then, will tell? That one which contemplates both itself and everything else. And what is this? The reasoning faculty; for this is the only one we have inherited which will take knowledge both of itself—what it is, and of what it is capable, and how valuable a gift it is to us—and likewise of all the other faculties.
If we do not have a reasoning faculty, then we are no better than dumb animals that exist off of instinct and are not sure why they do what they do. Using reason we can understand why we do things and decide which course of action to follow.
5For what else is it that tells us gold is beautiful? For the gold itself does not tell us. Clearly it is the faculty which makes use of external impressions. What else judges with discernment the art of music, the art of grammar, the other arts and faculties, passing judgement upon their uses and pointing out the seasonable occasions for their use? Nothing else does.
Not everyone agrees on discerning what makes good music, or well written prose, or any other matter. (I know not many of you like my music and you are all objectively wrong)
As was fitting, therefore, the gods have put under our control only the most excellent faculty of all and that which dominates the rest, namely, the power to make correct use of external impressions, but all the others they have not put under our control. Was it indeed because they would not? I for one think that had they been able they would have entrusted us with the others also; but they were quite unable to do that. For since we are upon earth and trammeled* by an earthy body and by earthy associates, how was it possible that, in respect of them, we should not be hampered by external things?
*restrained
Because we dwell in the physical realm, we are necessarily bound by physical laws.
10But what says Zeus? “Epictetus, had it been possible I should have made both this paltry body and this small estate of thine free and unhampered. But as it is—let it not escape thee—this body is not thine own, but only clay cunningly compounded.
Our bodies do not belong to us and cannot be controlled by us. I was reminded of this fact this week when a bout of positional vertigo made it impossible to look at a computer for very long without feeling like I was doing a barrel roll.
Yet since I could not give thee this, we have given thee a certain portion of ourself, this faculty of choice and refusal, of desire and aversion, or, in a word, the faculty which makes use of external impressions; if thou care for this and place all that thou hast therein, thou shalt never be thwarted, never hampered, shalt not groan, shalt not blame, shalt not flatter any man. What then? Are these things small in thy sight?” “Far be it from me!” “Art thou, then, content with them?” “I pray the Gods I may be.”[2]
As long as I can be content with reality, I can be content with my situation in life. In the past I would have been griping about the dizziness and spreading my misery to my wife. Instead, I was mentally untouched by the problem and did not feel the urge to be cranky.
But now, although it is in our power to care for one thing only and devote ourselves to but one, we choose rather to care for many things, and to be tied fast to many, even to our body and our estate and brother and friend and child and slave. 15Wherefore, being tied fast to many things, we are burdened and dragged down by them. That is why, if the weather keeps us from sailing, we sit down and fidget[3] and keep constantly peering about. “What wind is blowing?” we ask. Boreas. “What have we to do with it? When will Zephyrus blow?” When it pleases, good sir, or rather when Aeolus pleases. For God has not made you steward of the winds, but Aeolus.[4] “What then?” We must make the best of what is under our control, and take the rest as its nature is. “How, then, is its nature?” As God wills.
Trying to control the weather while traveling is still a problem today. A few years ago, I was stuck in Houston for 6 hours due to lightning preventing the ground crew from preparing the plane with our luggage and fuel. Many people were very upset by this. I was still a beginning Stoic at that time, but was easily able to realize that nothing I did would change the situation, so I went to eat and then relaxed by the gate. I had a much more enjoyable delay than the angry people I saw.
“Must I, then, be the only one to be beheaded now?” Why, did you want everybody to be beheaded for your consolation? Are you not willing to stretch out your neck as did a certain Lateranus[5] at Rome, when Nero ordered him to be beheaded? For he stretched out his neck and received the blow, but, as it was a feeble one, he shrank back for an instant, and then stretched out his neck again. 20Yes, and before that, when Epaphroditus, a freedman of Nero, approached a certain man and asked about the ground of his offense, he answered, “If I wish anything, I will speak to your master.”[6]
Losing our head seems out of the realm of possibility today, but there are many ways we can be punished by the authorities.I hope to be as glib when I am marched off to the camps.
“What aid, then, must we have ready at hand in such circumstances?” Why, what else than the knowledge of what is mine, and what is not mine, and what is permitted me, and what is not permitted me? I must die: must I, then, die groaning too? I must be fettered: and wailing too? I must go into exile: does anyone, then, keep me from going with a smile and cheerful and serene? “Tell your secrets.” I say not a word; for this is under my control. “But I will fetter you.” What is that you say, man? fetter me? My leg you will fetter, but my moral purpose not even Zeus himself has power to overcome. “I will throw you into prison.” My paltry body, rather! “I will behead you.” Well, when did I ever tell you that mine was the only neck that could not be severed? 25These are the lessons that philosophers ought to rehearse, these they ought to write down daily, in these they ought to exercise themselves.
If bad things happen to me, adding to them with crying and complaining is counter productive. Working on my internal strength ahead of the crisis will help me to remain in control of my reactions. One of these days I will be able to talk to a cop while open carrying without having a blood pressure spike.
Thrasea used to say: “I would rather be killed to-day than banished to-morrow.” What, then, did Rufus say to him? “If you choose death as the heavier of two misfortunes, what folly of choice! But if as the lighter, who has given you the choice? Are you not willing to practise contentment with what has been given you?”
Wherefore, what was it that Agrippinus used to remark? “I am not standing in my own way.”[7] Word was brought him, “Your case is being tried in the Senate.”—”Good luck betide! But it is the fifth hour now” (he was in the habit of taking his exercise and then a cold bath at that hour); “let us be off and take our exercise.”
Agrippinus knew his trial was underway, but didn’t sit around and stress himself out worrying about it. He understood that the result would be told to him and nothing he did would change the verdict. Realizing this, he kept to his usual exercise schedule. I’m sure that keeping busy also helped to keep him from thinking too much about it.
30After he had finished his exercise someone came and told him, “You have been condemned.”—”To exile,” says he, “or to death?”—”To exile.”—”What about my property?”—”It has not been confiscated.”—”Well then, let us go to Aricia and take our lunch there.”
He fully expected to be killed and have is lands taken after the trial. Thinking in this way, he was prepared for any outcome and ended up unfazed by a simple banishment.
This is what it means to have rehearsed the lessons one ought to rehearse, to have set desire and aversion free from every hindrance and made them proof against chance. I must die. If forthwith, I die; and if a little later, I will take lunch now, since the hour for lunch has come, and afterwards I will die at the appointed time. How? As becomes the man who is giving back that which was another’s.
I think I have adopted this attitude toward dying. I know it will happen to me, and I know that I do not know when this will be. My only real worry would be if my wife dies before I do. While I try to be prepared for fate’s twists and turns, that would be one that is hard to deal with.
Music this week is from the Turnpike Troubadours. I thought I had all of their CD’s, but then I discovered I did not have A Long Way From Your Heart.
It is another excellent one.
That’s an event I hadn’t heard of. What was his reasoning?
Maybe they were all stand-up philosophers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl4VD8uvgec
I don’t know and a cursory googling doesn’t show any reason.
It could just be because they taught a person should do the right thing and not necessarily follow the edicts from the emperor.
Another reason The Daily Stoic’s author was wrong when he was pushing compliance with lock downs, mandates, and vaxxing.
I don’t recall reading about it either. I suspect it might have been they were considered by many to be the “groomers” of that period. Domitian did have some pogroms to bolster morality on occasion.
From what I’ve read about him, I’m pretty sure it was because he was extremely thin skinned and insecure, and couldn’t stand criticism of any sort. Not even the subtle and back-handed type that philosophers tended to give out.
Epictetus was the main stoic cited in A Man in Full. I know I talk about that book a lot. Anyway, I based one of my characters on him, and then did a callback when another character said of her, “Shit, she could give Epictetus lessons.”
I’m struggling this week. I feel like so much is out of my control that should be in my control. I should have gotten used to being acted upon by now, but I end up carrying resentment of those who exercise control over me. This is why I write aspirationally.
Sometimes it’s not so much that someone else really has control over you as it is that you’ve weighed the consequences of defying their control and decided those consequences are worse than those for allowing them to “control” you. Wish I could put it more succinctly.
That’s an interesting way to look at it. Also kind of comforting. I need to think about it more.
Kind of related, I recently heard someone say you never “have” to do anything. You don’t have to pay taxes, you don’t have to go to work. If you don’t you will pay the consequences. But in the end you always have the choice.
You don’t have to pay all your student loans…
Everyone has to make their own choices on what they will comply with and what is a step too far.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
*jams on air-guitar as if MikeS. wasn’t watching*
🙉
Yes, that’s what I took from GT’s comment. Usually I can figure out my choices and act accordingly. I try to choose the least worst consequences.
I did taxes. Rushed them. We are getting a substantial state return, which I’m not happy about and I’m not sure I trust the numbers (TurboTax), AND I forgot a 1099, and 2 state/local refunds. I decided that instead of immediately amending the return, I’m going to see what happens with the returns, if they catch the missing 1099, if they deposit the money. At that point, I will amend the return. I’ve chosen this course because I honestly don’t know which choice has fewer consequences.
They will likely find the 1099, but it could take several years.
You won’t get jailed, but they will ask for the tax, interest and a penalty. If it’s not a big number don’t sweat it. If it is large either amend or have it set aside.
Between the 2 refunds and the 1099, it’s not quite $5k.
The only thing I *have* to do is die! 🙂 So empowering for some reason.
That’s a tough one to deal with.
The things we don’t control and wish we did or feel it’s not right that we can’t are sometimes things that can devastate us.
You have got to be kidding….
https://twitter.com/Not_the_Bee/status/1679869611037331458?t=7nyU29ixUnK5gR8zwKndXQ&s=19
Oof… it is real.
And Gal Gadot plays the evil queen.
In no possible incarnation is the snow white actress “fairer” than Gal freaking Gadot.
Gal can’t act. But I will watch her not act in a skimpy outfits for hours at a time.
I have a strong suspicion that shit gets leaked intentionally about these movies to make them sound as bad as possible so that the real thing won’t turn out so bad. Or that they can test run ideas to see how they’ll fly. See James Bond’s last movie, or the Indiana Jones shitshow.
You make it sound as woke as possible so then you can downplay the real wokeness that makes it into the final cut and make your critics seem like reactionary liars.
In this case, the Daily Mail seems to have just printed bullshit.
But there is no universe or straight male who would prefer the actress cast as Snow White to Gal Gadot.
And it has worked to some extent. You get people who shall remain unnamed who should know better saying it wasn’t that bad because it wasn’t quite as bad as it was made out to be by certain leaks.
Not really. “It’s not as bad as we thought” doesn’t make up for the massive losses they’re having on their films. Unless this goes straight to Disney+ there is no reason to put this in theaters unless they’re trying to see how many movies in a row they can make that lose money.
So what was woke about the new Indiana Jones movie?
https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1679897581378318338
*golf clap*
So we’re going to have black people singing, ‘Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go…’ while marching off to the mines?
That level of cringe needs a warning label.
In no possible incarnation is the snow white actress “fairer” than Gal freaking Gadot.
Yeah. That’s insane.
Biden-Harris Administration to Provide 804,000 Borrowers with $39 Billion in Automatic Loan Forgiveness as a Result of Fixes to Income Driven Repayment Plans
Straight from the horse’s ass:
The forthcoming discharges are a result of fixes implemented by the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify toward forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. These fixes are part of the Department’s commitment to address historical failures in the administration of the Federal student loan program in which qualifying payments made under IDR plans that should have moved borrowers closer to forgiveness were not accounted for. Borrowers are eligible for forgiveness if they have accumulated the equivalent of either 20 or 25 years of qualifying months.
So, is the administration fucking with the rules for political purposes?
Or, did past administrations actually fuck up a program that was in existence?
Why not both?
Excellently written and thought-provoking, as usual. Many thanks.
And I’m a big fan of the TT ever since I saw them here locally with Corb Lund. Solid show, right there.
I’d love to see Corb Lund. I like a bunch of his stuff.
He does a decent show. I’ve seen him live a couple few times. The one he did with TT was huge: lots of people, some signing along, outdoor venue in the summer.
But I do prefer the othes: smaller, indoor, just a little more intimate.
Corb Lund is an underrated treasure of country music.
Liquidator to sell Anchor Steam brewery after sudden closure
Potrero Hill brewery, tasting room across street could be worth more than $75M
After the sudden announcement of Anchor Steam’s closure this week, a company representative confirms that the Potrero Hill property that held its brewery operations for over 40 years will be sold, along with a tasting room across the street.
“It will be out on the market,” Anchor Steam spokesperson Sam Singer said via email, adding that the liquidator will make the determination on when it will be listed and at what price.
Recent property tax records from PropertyShark indicate that the value of the real estate could be close to the $85 million that Tokyo-based brewing giant Sapporo paid for America’s oldest craft brewery in 2017.
Take the money and run.
Given all the other retailers bailing on San Fran, are you sure you can still get $75M for that property?
A favorite of mine from Turnpike Troubadours.
Gin, Smoke, Lies
great song
Here’s a good ‘un of Lund’s about gin and whiskey.
Yes! Love that song. Very fun. Maybe my favorite from Corb.
Oooh, big fan of that one.
Honestly, I can’t even pick one. Counterfeiter’s Blues and Trouble in the Country are way up there. But so is Five Dollar Bill… and Roughest Neck Around… and The Devil’s Best Dress… and and and xD
For sure. Gettin’ Down on the Mountain should resonate with this crowd.
Wrapping up the NATO summit with some kid sniffing.
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1679891068127522826
I’ve never seen Joe Biden sniff a black child. I think it’s proof positive of his racism.
He learned in the 80s that sniffing Jeri Curl hair and cocaine use don’t mix.
He was freebasing with Richard Prior.
+1 “When you’re running down the street on fire, people get out of your way!”
I’d love to see someone in the media ask him about that even if it is just trolling.
He lets them touch the hair on his legs, he’s no racist.
Songs about gin, you say?
Though he was a slave Epictetus was sent to study philosophy under Musonius Rufus.
Famous for his quote: “Non semper operaris?”
For what else is it that tells us gold is beautiful? For the gold itself does not tell us. Clearly it is the faculty which makes use of external impressions. What else judges with discernment the art of music, the art of grammar, the other arts and faculties, passing judgement upon their uses and pointing out the seasonable occasions for their use? Nothing else does.
This is why I think there is such a thing as objective truth. If you disagree, you are objectively wrong.
Great music! I like your eclectic tastes, Ron.
Assuming Musonius means muppet in Latin that would be yes.
Not something like laboraris?
Some things really are under your control and have easy answers.
German NATO instructors just told Ukrainian soldiers to drive around minefields.
-> Problem solved … great training!
Straight into the ambush?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvujypVVBAY
Him and this guy are my 2 favorite counselors.
Now drop and give me 20.
ZERO, ZERO, ZERO.
Both so good.
I’m surprised that he allowed himself to be called a drill sergeant and not insisted on drill instructor.
Well that didn’t take long.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/unthreaded-so-called-twitter-killer-app-sees-exodus-users-plunge
The surprising part is how fast it happened. I think we all knew the “OMG look how many people signed up!” stories meant nothing unless they kept users on and kept getting new ones.
I expected another week or two.
Meh. Meta’s got the user data, and the account, and the people are unlikely to uninstall the app from their phone (one of my favorite plot points from S1 Silicon Valley).
That makes it effective spyware. But if you’ve got Facebook installed, you’re already fully monitored.
They were hoping a Twitter killer for narrative control.
Zuck must have cheaped out and only bought ads for a week.
All those stories reeked of “this dude bought $millions in ads for Meta and in return we’ll write some puff pieces”. Flashbacks to the dotcom years.
All new products from one of the goliaths will get tons of signups based on people wanting to see exactly what it does. Then after a couple days realize it does nothing new or fun and gets dropped.
Mildly curious about the bump for Twitter on the line graph (which annoyingly doesn’t show dates on the X axis) apparently just before the Threads launch.
It was always easy to get a large bump in signups when it’s tied to your Instagram account.
You know why kids are so screwy? Because we gave this to them to play with in 2005. No wonder they were willing to fall in line during the Rona Panic and rat out people.
Never saw that before. Thank you for that little bit of toadyism.
Tucker is taking scalps.
LOL.
Pence is just awful.
Yeah that was it LOL
“That’s not my concern.”
WTAF?!?!
Holy crap. He said the quiet part right into a microphone.
Like, HOLY SHIT!
He actually said it.
Just shows that he’s not real bright. A reasonably skilled politician could have turned that around at least partially.
Bill Clinton certainly would have. It all would have been bullshit, but his sophistry would have been spot-on.
At least pretend to are about Americans’ standard of living, crime, cities, etc. Then maybe make something up to connect them, however weakly, to his neo-cons notions. Not just “fuck the cities, I have a warboner”.
I’m just elated that he destroyed his career right there.
And that attitude of indifference to Americans is going to mark the rest of the neocons by association.
That was real? I figured it was some sort of mashup.
How can Pence be that dumb?
Obligatory.
Ugh. Meant for Scruffy.
That’s how you do it.
Pain being a code word for tittie.
This was the guy in charge of COVID.
I’m delighted simply because we just watched him end his political career. He’s done.
Pence was never going anywhere, but in the clip I saw he torpedoed his own campaign. He talked about Ukraine, then Tucker said “all our cities are terrible”, and Pence said “That’s not my concern.” Ouch.
What’s going on? Is he interviewing all of them?
If any of remaining ones were smart they’d walk the hell out of there and never look back.
But there is a camera there TOK! How can they walk away from that?
I also think that people that get to that level of politics are so swell-headed that they think that there is no way that anyone – not even Tucker – can find anything wrong with their positions.
Yep. The Blaze is hosting a summit. Tucker is murdering them one by one.
I wonder if my governor isn’t there, or if he’s just on the who-gives-a-shit list.
Speaking of you NoDaks….
Looks like you guys narrowly missed out to us Minnesodans again.
Bet you are green with envy that EGF has a “celebrity”. I bet she would have settled in Grand Forks, but being a (((chinese))) mix, she was worried about all the white supremacy on your side of the river.
Actually she seems pretty put together in the interview.
Stupid Minnesoda “journalist”…their farm is on the bad side of the river and always has been. I suppose they just assumed she would move to NoDak…why would you live in Minnesoda when paradise is right across the river?
“That’s not my concern.”
“Once the rockets are up
who cares where they come down
That’s not my department
says Werner von Braun”
I’ve been there, kid.
https://twitter.com/qcapital2020/status/1679626576747454464
Perfection.
Now that is some gender-affirming therapy.
Tucker is murdering them one by one.
If only. At the edge of a ditch.
I’d donate a box of 9mm for that.
The New Republic has found us out! Because around here and other libertarian sites I read nothing but enthusiasm for always connected self driving cars.
https://newrepublic.com/article/174089/big-tech-watching-drive
One of their primary arguments was that public transit was outdated and a waste of money because self-driving cars were just a few years away. Five years later, we’re still waiting for the self-driving revolution—but the Koch brothers’ bad-faith ideas about public transportation are still around.
Those of us not burnt to a crisp by global warning, anyway.
Or killed by COVID.
Things I can’t control: Irritated my bladder going down slides at Schlitterbahn.
Today is a visit at Blue Hole to swim: I relaxed and stayed out. Still having a great time.
Piker.
One thing libertarians all agree on is the unquestioned benefit of surrendering control to a black box.
That is constantly collecting information.
We’ve found the alternate universe version of ron73440
I moved my family from the US to Japan. Healthcare and housing are significantly cheaper and I feel a lot safer here.
This bicycle lover is not happy with US healthcare or gun violence.