As long as nothing satisfies you, you yourself will not be able to satisfy others. “The more we value things that are out of our control, the less control we have.” “Always run the shortest path, and the shortest is the one that runs in accordance with nature.” These three phrases that seem taken from a self-help manual for stressed executives written by some Silicon Valley influencer were actually stated in the 1st and 2nd centuries by Seneca, Epictetus and the emperor Marcus Aurelius, respectively. And the fact is that nowadays it is almost easier to find them precisely in the books in the self-help section than in those on Philosophy. Stoicism, the philosophical current to which the three aforementioned thinkers belonged, is in fashion. Or at least a pop version of it, which has been embraced as a life model by people like tycoons Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Books with titles like 'Be Happy Stoically', 'Stoics in the Office', 'Keys to Stoic Motherhood' or 'The Art of Living Like a Stoic' fill the shelves, which would probably surprise Marcus Aurelius, who wrote his now so popular 'Meditations' only for himself, as reflected in its original title in Greek ('Things for Himself'), and now it turns out that they are a 'best-seller'.
The Stoic was a philosophical school founded in Athens at the beginning of the 3rd century BC by the Cypriot philosopher Zeno of Citium, of whose teachings only a few fragments collected by other thinkers are preserved. The Stoicism in fashion now is a recycled and updated version based, above all, on the so-called new Stoicism or later Roman Stoicism, and whose main representatives are the three mentioned at the beginning of this article along with Musonius Rufus and Sextus of Chaeronea. .
This is how Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca tweet
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Do not get confused. Don't digress. Don't be passive or aggressive. “Do not dedicate yourself only to business” (Marcus Aurelius)
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“Misfortune tests the brave” (Seneca)
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“If you want to improve, be content with appearing clueless or stupid” (Epictetus).
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“Sometimes even living is an act of bravery” (Seneca)
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“Welcome events in whatever way they occur: this is the path to peace” (Epictetus)
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“If it is humanly possible, you can do it too” (Marcus Aurelius)
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“Focus on what is under your control, let the rest go” (Epictetus)
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“If a man does not know to which port he is sailing, no wind is favorable to him” (Seneca)
Simplifying greatly, the Stoics thought that human beings cannot control what happens around us but we can develop the ability to control what we think or feel about what happens to us. «They were realistic about our limits. “They warned that even if you want to try to persuade others to do what you want them to do, or act how you want them to act, this is ultimately beyond your self-control,” writes Brigid Delaney, Guardian journalist and author. from 'How to stop worrying: being stoic in chaotic times' (ed. Paidós).
Troubled times
Delaney remembers that Zeno and his followers lived in turbulent times, as much or more than ours, and knew how to face them by developing a system of thought based on the mastery of passions and suffering, the ability to accept inevitable circumstances as they present themselves. , the cultivation of virtues and “being in agreement with nature.” “I found Stoicism incredibly useful and surprisingly practical,” says Delaney.
Marcus Aurelius and company lived in Antiquity “but in many ways they are so similar to us, and their worries and anxieties are so modern that I feel they are just a breath away,” adds the author. “I turn around and I can see them.”
This and the fact that their reasoning is simple and their statements easy to decontextualize without excessively altering their meaning, facilitates the relevance of the ancient Stoics. Many of Marco Aurelio's 'Meditations' are ideally sent by WhatsApp or Telegram and fit perfectly in a tweet, as well known, for example, the administrators of X profiles such as Daily Stoic (@dailystoic), almost 600,000 followers, who resort to them almost daily. Which is still surprising if you take into account that these are the thoughts of the last of those known as the 'five good emperors' of Rome, someone who had a quarter of humanity under his power and who, among others, 'little problems', he faced war conflicts in Gaul, Germany and Asia.
«The most distinctive feature of Stoicism is its practicality: it began under the guise of a search for a happy and meaningful life. That is why it is not surprising that his fundamental texts are examples of clarity,” insists the biologist and philosopher Massimo Pigliucci, author of 'How to Be a Stoic' (Ed. Ariel). “Epictetus, Seneca, Musonius Rufus and Marcus Aurelius speak to us in simple language.” Although, as Pigliucci warns in his book, “Stoicism, like any philosophy of life, may not be attractive or work for everyone.”
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