My husband sent me an email called “The New Stoics” by David Galland for Casy Daily Express.
David Galland researched the philosophy of stoicism following his encounters with the director, who retired but with less income than he had hoped for, and with the 14-year-old genius Laura Deming, who was 17 before MIT. His father John shared with David that he had studied the Stoic philosophers and was now living a somewhat more balanced life. How is this? A more comfortable and less struggling retirement would benefit from the current equipment of life. Most of us; Too many of us are likely to struggle for years to come with the financial woes of our world today.
Simply Stoic: For Stoics, in the simplest terms, people are by their very nature to react to external forces or look to shame or social disgrace. The Stoics believe that we are not ashamed of what is in our power. Through the dictionary, they control the feeling and forgetfulness of pleasure or pain. alas! Not me. It pleases you to respond to pleasure, and I took years not to be afraid; What would I want to control my feelings? Of course I rely on logic to make decisions most of the time, rather than react, but I don’t want to be a clone of a given robotic Star Trek character.
Emotions and Obama: Forbes contributor Kare Anderson recently wrote that Bill Clinton deliberately in a speech to tell, so to speak, openly that President Obama seems calm on the outside but passionate about America on the inside. Hum. Could it be Stoic? I seriously doubt it, but they are arrogant and obtuse and a fortress of abstinence, and these are some of the impressions they have of the Stoics. It’s clear when Clinton tells us that the people in the White House were worried about Obama’s door. Obama’s main policy is against the social world and the social network, where “Thank you partners” is a good thing. Do you want my feelings diluted?
Interpreting Stoic Movements: So if President Obama could be perceived as a Stoic, why does David Galland not do anything in his article about the Stoics? Of course, the Stoic “believes that the interpretation of right or wrong, good or bad, is a completely internal matter” and to accept things that we cannot change and “go with the flow”. David adds that the Stoics live in the moment, not in the untamed future. They tend to live in the moment, so maybe that part covered me. New. Stoics enjoy themselves and their things while they have them, and now they want less, being content now. A Stoic cares less about his own affairs. For most of us who tend to control-freaks”>control-freaks”>at least to some extent, this is a pipe dream. Or is it?
Galland advises us to stop chasing material goods that are fluff and stick to more necessary things. My husband and I lived in a large home in NC and it went down dramatically when we moved to FL. Rest assured, we had a lot of leftover fluff. After selling, donating and stuffing the possessions, we still have a surplus or fluff, but it is more manageable and we are satisfied. Our philosophy now while we live in a square foot house is “if something goes in, something needs to go out the door” . We shop a lot less, and yet there seems to be luck in the food, and there is less cleaning. Less cleaning; so much for me Am I stoic? Perhaps, but then again I believe in free will, fate and fate, and showing off emotions.
Getting a driver’s license in Florida was an exercise in stoic behavior. We had to go back 5 times with various documents before we finally became official Florida drivers. Some liked it, others less, but no one, not one, could do anything but read and read the same precepts. Frustrated, angry, great. We were a tad nervous while we were still friends, but we also knew how to get our licenses, and this was a solitary purpose, since we ourselves had been driven down the road by a red engine quite out of our control. Perhaps we were somewhat stoic about the road and the goal, because they scoffed at the food as we ran along the road. We waited for the people to help us lead, and they did. What would happen if they did not reach their goal? I would not hold any familiarity with Stoicism; I would have been assertive, perhaps aggressive, looking for new solutions to reach the desired goal, with much less patience, no doubt. Any brick wall I had against the world would have been me rather than accepting behavior and things beyond my control. I lost my stoic composure.
Philosophy of Stoicism In ancient times the philosophy was Stoicism; as some are probably religious. In today’s world, being stoic suggests immunity or indifference to emotions, such as joy and sadness, even pain. The Stoic today suppresses external affections and centers in extreme patience; The Stoic today shows a certain strength of character, even of courage. Most people today do not seem to have the philosophy of life and place in the world all consuming did the ancient literati in Hellenistic times. Without a strict philosophy of life to guide our thinking, we are more susceptible to the actions of others than we are.
So in an economy of breathing that goes down too fast, stoicism can become more of a way of life that we take less and less for granted. Stoicism helps us find happiness in chaos and loss. Perhaps this philosophy will have merit, at least for some.
Report:
- www.forbes .com/sites/kareanderson/2012/09/28/five-reasons-why stoicism-matters-today/
- puffin.creighton.edu/phil/stephens/rebirth_of_stoicism.htm< /a>
- boingboing.net/2010/11/ 01/twenty-first century-4.html
