Stoics vs Obstacles and Uncertainty

Why do you hesitate or second-guess yourself when you know perfectly well what ought to be done? ~Meditations 10:12:1

Stoics take action. This is evident both from Stoic teachings and from the lives of famous practitioners. Stoicism, well lived, frees us to tackle the hard problems of this world without regard for the obstacles that fortune throws our way. That said, how can we move forward rationally without full knowledge of what’s ahead? Won’t we make mistakes, waste our time, or even waste our very lives fighting unwinnable battles?

Emperor Aurelius asked himself these questions. His daily decisions shaped an empire. From time to time in his Meditations, we find Marcus Aurelius struggling against choice paralysis. Wouldn't it be best to make no moves until the perfect solution came along? It's understandable to want to know everything before making a decision, but that doesn't work for emperors and it won't work for us either. Thankfully, Marcus Aurelius gave himself a pep talk that laid out a Stoic approach to action.

“Why do you hesitate or second-guess yourself when you know perfectly well what ought to be done? If you know where you need to go, make a considerate but determined effort to get there. If you don’t, wait and seek the best advice you can find. If you meet with resistance along the way, advance cautiously and prepare at any moment to take refuge in what you know to be just, for to reach your goal justly is the apotheosis of achievement whereas to advance even one inch by doing an injustice is the most miserable form of failure. Relaxed but alert, cheerful but determined—such is reason’s faithful follower.”

— Meditations 10:12

• If you know where to go, make a considerate but determined effort to get there.

The first point lays out the most obvious duty in Stoicism. If we know the right thing to do, then we do it. We don’t ask what others will think or if they will stand in our way, such things are indifferent. We simply move towards the goal. Do we mow over the opposition to get our way? Of course not. Stoics treat people with respect, but we still do what is required.

• If you don't, wait and seek the best advice you can find.

The second point allows that sometimes we just don’t know what the right move is. That’s alright. It just means that the right thing to do is to learn the right thing to do. Stoics don’t wander around aimless, we seek out directions.

• If you meet with resistance along the way, advance cautiously and prepare at any moment to take refuge in what you know to be just...

Obstacles may delay your efforts, but they can’t touch your moral choices. Life throws us curve balls, but once again, we're expected to be indifferent to such things. Yes, unexpected resistance may challenge our projects. That’s when we rely on our character.

• ...for to reach your goal justly is the apotheosis of achievement whereas to advance even one inch by doing an injustice is the most miserable form of failure.

Stoicism does not support the idea that the ends justify the means. Stoics understand that how you reach your goal shapes the outcome. Besides, we haven't invested our hope in whatever project is in front of us. Our goal is to be the best person we can be no matter the circumstances of life.

• Relaxed but alert, cheerful but determined--such is reason's faithful follower.

Aurelius’s final point is a mental posture. Relaxed but alert, cheerful but determined. It sounds like he’s repeating something, doesn't it? I hear this line as something Stoics said under their breath as they faced the trials of the day. Relaxed but alert, cheerful but determined--such is reason’s faithful follower.  This is how Stoics are meant to be; cheerfully engaged with the real world as we seek to build a better one.

Stoics expect obstacles and uncertainty. Such things can't dissuade us from our goals. If we know what is right, if we know where we need to go, there is no room for second-guessing. So let's go out there ready to meet resistance with grit and good cheer.

Stumbling, Dusting Off, and Getting Back to Action!

I am planning on 2015 being a year of action, both for the Immoderate Stoic project and for my life in general. On this blog, I want to focus attention on active Stoicism. In my personal life, my family and I are picking up and moving to a new city and I plan on using that shake up to change a few personal patterns. All attempts at change come with the possibility of setbacks. To a Stoic, those obstacles that come from the outside (e.g. items broken in the move, plumbing at the new apartment needs work, or the new neighbors don’t understand noise ordinances) are no big deal. It’s the inevitable personal failures that can be disheartening. If my grand plan to have everything quickly unpacked doesn’t come to fruition...that’s all on me. So to start this year, I want to remember some Stoic advice concerning non-Stoic actions.

Marcus Aurelius begins Meditations 5:9 reminding himself to never lose heart.

“Don’t become disgusted with yourself, lose patience, or give up if you sometimes fail to act as your philosophy dictates, but after each setback, return to reason and be content if most of your acts are worthy of a good person. Love the philosophy to which you return, and go back to it, not as an unruly student to the rod of a school-master, but as a sore eye to a sponge and egg whites, or a wound to cleansing ointment and clean bandages. In this way, you will obey the voice of reason not to parade a perfect record, but to secure an inner peace.”

— Meditations 5:9:1-3

Marcus points out that the goal of the practicing Stoic is not to have been perfect in the past but to be actually content in the present. It’s unfortunate that I lost my temper in traffic this morning, but what am I doing to be fully present and joyful in the staff meeting this very minute? I should be happy to return to my daily practice. Again, in Marcus’s imagery, Stoicism is not a disappointed teacher waiting to scold me, it’s a salve waiting to heal my wounds.

The quote above is incomplete. After speaking about securing an inner peace, our Stoic emperor continues, “Remember, philosophy desires only what pleases your nature while you wanted something at odds with nature.” The Stoic conception of our human nature is prescriptive; it’s not about our desires in the moment but our life at its best. This point is so important Marcus actually felt the need to counsel himself against getting it wrong.

“Remember, philosophy desires only what pleases your nature while you wanted something at odds with nature.

’Precisely, doesn’t it all come down to what pleases me most?’

Yes, it does, but be careful. This is just the argument pleasure uses to trick most people. Ask yourself—what could possibly please you more than to be great-souled, free, natural, gentle, and devout? And what is more pleasing than practical wisdom when you consider the reliability and efficiency of knowledge and understanding in every situation?”

— Meditations 5:9:4-8

Here’s Stoicism’s reminder to aim for the best things. It is, after all, possible to not stumble in life but also to never walk towards anything worth the journey. Marcus Aurelius often admonishes himself for reading philosophy books as a means of hiding from the real duties his philosophy requires him to fulfil. I could point a finger at myself when it comes to philosophy podcasts, r/stoicism discussions, and the like. There are things to do in this world. I should finish them, then do more.

I’m ready for 2015: The Year of Action. I’ve been reminded to not lose patience with myself; to return to right thinking and then to take worthwhile actions. I think this year is going to be a joy and, if I think like a Stoic, that’s exactly what it will be.

The War on Saturnalia: Staying Stoic on Holidays

“It is the month of December, and yet the city is at this very moment in a sweat. License is given to the general merrymaking. Everything resounds with mighty preparations, – as if the Saturnalia differed at all from the usual business day! So true it is that the difference is nil, that I regard as correct the remark of the man who said: ‘Once December was a month; now it is a year.’”

— Seneca: On Festivals and Fasting

Poor Seneca. Saturnalia used to be a single day! Then suddenly it's stretched out to a week? Add in the preparations and the shopping and the holiday Muzak in every elevator and what's a Roman senator to do...can't we all just settle down and remember to keep Saturn in Saturnalia!?

I sure love reading thoughts like those in Seneca's letter on Festivals and Fasting. The lines feel contemporary, but that's because complaining about change is as old as humanity. I guarantee 200,000 years ago some crotchety old guy complained that, "we used to feast only on the blue moon and now it's every full moon? Bah!"

Of course, most of us modern Stoics are not worried about Saturnalia, but we do have holidays to celebrate. I'm a Christmas man, myself. How should I approach the holiday as a Stoic? Does Stoicism care? Seneca pondered these questions as well. Continuing in his letter, he says:

“ If I had you with me, I should be glad to consult you and find out what you think should be done, – whether we ought to make no change in our daily routine, or whether, in order not to be out of sympathy with the ways of the public, we should dine in gayer fashion and doff the toga. As it is now, we Romans have changed our dress for the sake of pleasure and holiday-making, though in former times that was only customary when the State was disturbed and had fallen on evil days. I am sure that, if I know you aright, playing the part of an umpire you would have wished that we should be neither like the liberty-capped throng in all ways, nor in all ways unlike them; unless, perhaps, this is just the season when we ought to lay down the law to the soul, and bid it be alone in refraining from pleasures just when the whole mob has let itself go in pleasures; for this is the surest proof which a man can get of his own constancy, if he neither seeks the things which are seductive and allure him to luxury, nor is led into them. It shows much more courage to remain dry and sober when the mob is drunk and vomiting; but it shows greater self-control to refuse to withdraw oneself and to do what the crowd does, but in a different way, – thus neither making oneself conspicuous nor becoming one of the crowd. For one may keep holiday without extravagance.”

Here we find Seneca laying out two Stoic solutions. The first is to give a hearty BAH-HUMBUG to the whole idea of holidays and simply continue on in Stoic soberness. Considering that Saturnalia often consisted of drunk mobs staggering around in the streets, this tactic isn't unsound. Our Stoic aim is to live with virtue so who cares what people think? Go home and remain content. However, I'm a bigger fan of solution two.

Two consists of remaining Stoic while participating in festivities. As Seneca says, "it shows greater self-control to refuse to withdraw oneself and to do what the crowd does, but in a different way.' If a Stoic is above being swayed by the crowd, what danger is the crowd to them? This is the tactic that we see recorded by the Roman author Gellius.

“We were spending the Saturnalia at Athens quite pleasantly and modestly. We did not, however, let our minds go lax—for, Musonius says, “to let one’s mind go lax is, in effect, to lose it”— but we did take it easy and loosen them up a little with the pleasant and honest delights of conversation.”

— Gellius 18.2.1

Here are some real Stoics at a party! They're enjoying themselves. They're drinking wine, but not bottles of it. They're talking with their friends and they'll remember it tomorrow. They're living out what I like to think of as sustainable merry-making; avoiding burning the candle at both ends, but definitely lighting the candle.

As I'm writing this my wife and I are sharing a wonderfully boozy homemade eggnog. After I save and publish we'll enjoy the light of the Christmas tree as well as each other's company. Later in the week I'll take part in local San Diego festivities. Later still we will fly halfway across the country to have Christmas with my family. At all these moments I can live stoically, fully participate, and enjoy life.

Merry Christmas and Io, Saturnalia!

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I realize that Seneca is speaking of mass festivals and not so much the at home gatherings many of us will soon be attending. For anyone that needs Stoic council concerning the emotions that come up during these smaller gatherings, might I suggest 9 Ways to Stop Being Upset by Others?