Something which is immune to attack, question… It is invincible, cannot be violated, inviolable. Should there be such a thing?

Nowadays, Stoicism is a concept which is superficially juxtaposed with some Alpha-Male abstract ideas of changing the vicissitudes of life for the better. While this is true to some extent, more often than not, it is misjudged.

It is most approximately a philosophy, that deals with logic, physics & ethics. In antiquity, there have been many Practitioners (supposedly not masters) of this school of thought, like Epictetus, Seneca, Zeno of Citium & Marcus Aurelius to name a few.

Zeno of Citium is considered to be the founder of the Stoic philosophy. Stoicism comes from the greek word Stoa which means the ‘Painted Porch’, where Zeno & his followers gathered to teach Stoicism.

People often associate Stoicism with the Roman empire but in reality, it has its roots in Ancient Greece.

Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations is one of the most famous and influential works of Stoic philosophy, and today we are going to scratch the surface, understanding some of the core concepts & principles which it has to offer and maybe this will enhance our understanding of what it really means to be a Stoic.

Impractical Bluffing?

It is to be noted that Marcus was born into money, wealth, leisure, i.e, in a powerful household but on the contrary he gave up materialism, wasn’t convinced with the idea of external happiness. He had 13 kids and 7 of them died before reaching adulthood. He knows what he is talking about. To deal with such pain & misery while keeping the empire afloat & putting out its fires, should be a testament to his way of thinking and practices.

Sometimes he is also referred to as, The Man Who Solved The Universe.

One of the most common critiques of Stoicism is that, “Stoics do not care even when they should.”

When you kiss your child goodnight, you should say silently: “Tomorrow, perhaps you will meet your death.”

What in good heavens is this? Yes, I thought the same at first but I guess at the end of this piece, this will kinda make sense.

This philosophy isn’t only concerned with Strength & Resilience, but also about Love & Sentiment with the world.

It offers retreat in yourself. There is nowhere a person can find a more peaceful & trouble-free retreat than his own mind.

Concerning Externals :

Money

No external or extrinsic goods should necessarily sway your life good or bad.

He says, “ Happiness is possible even in a Palace.”

This does not mean that happiness comes from being in a palace. There is a certain number which crushes you, makes you numb, and asserts that more money is not better. He is actually despising the idea of excessive money. The fact about what background and upbringing he comes from, makes this even more impressive. He is talking about sustenance in a mild & subtle way.

It is not impossible to be happy in a palace. Extreme Wealth is hard mode for happiness in the same way extreme poverty is hard mode for happiness.

He preaches about the idea of having great skill and when this is the case, a person can be happy, in both, a palace & a hut.

Personally, I like to leave the question of Money as an external upto the individual since there is not an absolute limit to excess and it can be both, objective & subjective at the same time, and to comment over such a thing would sound rather foolish.

But I’d rather be a proponent to Marcus’ view since it presents a rather strong case.

Health

Beethoven, one of the greatest composers of music, was losing his hearing and almost went completely deaf, but produced masterpieces while having such conditions.

Stephen Hawking, was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease and was given incredibly low odds for surviving for long but we are aware of his rather great career.

Marcus Aurelius, himself had to put up with terrible health. He says even torture does not need to determine your happiness.

Whatever your health maybe, if the person is resilient enough to tackle dire situations and put up with the challenges that health throws at them, then that person can become great in the world, and there are enough examples of such actions.

Philosophy

What are Alexander, Caesar & Pompey when compared to Diogenes, Heraclitus, and Socrates? For the latter, were self determined. As to the former, consider how many cares they had and how many things they were enslaved to.

By philosophy he means the way a person thinks and acts, i.e, he is challenging rigid practices that enslave a person. We shouldn’t be dependent on external doings that make our machinery in life unsustainable.

Plato asks, “Would a man with no sense profit more if he possessed and did much or if he possessed and did little?”

If ignorance controls them, they are greater evils than their opposites, but if good sense and wisdom are in control, they are greater goods. In themselves neither sort is any value.

If u aren’t skilled, you’d rather be poor than rich because you are going to mess up less.

The end goal of Marcus points to the fact that, only knowing a great life isn’t sufficient, living one matters.

The Stripping Method

Now this is exciting. This provides with a intuitive way of how to not let external factors affect your happiness.

When you have roast meat and such delicacy is in front of you, form the impression that this is the corpse of a fish, and that this is the corpse of a bird or a pig, and again that the wine is grape juice and the purple robe is lambs wool dipped in shellfish blood. How good are these impressions at getting to the heart of things in themselves and penetrating them, so you can see what they really are.

We should use this method whenever things seem most worthy of our trust, show them naked, and see how cheap they are.

Pride is clever at cheating by false reasoning, and it is when you are most convinced that you are engaged in worthwhile matters that you are most deceived.

Virtue

Virtue is unassailable. Virtue determines our happiness. It always should.

In laymen terms it means, if u do something following right & apt reason, with determination, courage & righteousness & you are satisfied that your present action is in accordance with natural laws, you will lead a good life and there is no one that can stop this.

Stoics believe, that a rule of Only Virtue should be followed in one’s life. Virtue should be ubiquitous in every situation in one’s heart.

Lucky vs Unlucky Sage

This is a classical thought experiment which lays down the perspective of what exactly the Stoic Ideal is.

Imagine two sages, both them are absolutely & equally virtuous.

Unlucky Sage : Everything that can go wrong in his life goes wrong. He is met with personal losses and grave situations. Everything falls apart always in his life. He obviously is unlucky to a great degree. Dies at 50
Lucky Sage : Lives a lucky & happy life. Dies at 120.

Now to understand the principles better lets look at this from a Aristotelian lens,

He won't call the unlucky sage miserable because he is virtuous, his soul is pure, but he won't call this man happy due to his situation. Even if we want to call him happy, we must concede that he was a bit less happy than the lucky age.

Stoic view,

The unlucky sage is just as happy as the lucky sage. There is nothing better in the Lucky sage’s life than the former.

I know this doesn’t sound satisfactory but let us understand further.

We should remember that it isn't about us being happy in the unlucky sage’s life, i.e, it is about the perspective of this sage which is so different to ours.

Essential Concept of Indifferents

This is the fascinating concept & mantra as to why the Stoics are so resilient.

For eg, if i am greatly fond of table tennis & some day my parents take away my equipments and say no table tennis for the rest of my life. Well, obviously I enjoyed it, but my life wouldn’t stop without it, in any way or form. This exactly what Indifferents is.

The way my parents taking away my TT equipments doesn’t matter to my happiness, same way all the misfortunes happening in the Sage’s life don’t determine his happiness.

The sage is someone who treats everything in his life as Indifferents

But if so, then why does the Stoic Sage even do anything, and maybe becoming a Cynic like Diogenes would be apt? No

Because some externals are preferred indifferents

The Sage is more likely to be virtuous in preferred rather than dispreferred circumstances.

• Healthy — preferred indifferent

• Sick — dispreferred indifferent

The sage prefers health, but does not panic or lose virtue if sick.

Happiness is NOT DEPENDENT on Wealth, Beauty, Health, etc, but rather on Virtue, which is in turn is DEPENDENT on Aiming for those Preferred Indifferents.

*Heavily inspired by Jonathan Bi on Youtube.

Niccolò Machiavelli was a Florentine political thinker, diplomat, and philosopher from the Renaissance.He was well known from his works based upon Political Action,War Strategy,Philosophy & much more.

I request the readers to apply parallelism with these concepts, wherever complementary in their day to day life since Machiavelli has the setting of Renaissance Italy in his mind.

Double Edged Human Nature :

We’ve often asked “What are Leaders like?”. They oscillate over a varied spectrum hence there is no absolute way to answer this. More virtuous people are not a result of some intrinsic or innate advantage they had but rather the education given to them by the state. If a leader wants to see success, they have to work massively into educating its elements, not only concerning hard facts but with virtues and morals too.

One crucial human propensity that thorns the side of every leader is Ambition.

More often than not people desire in excess of what they have, and this ambition if left unchecked will bring down the state. Desires are ubiquitous. The state should be set up keeping in mind that the people are increasingly greedy and desire power. No matter the education, some people won’t stop at anything for personal gain, albeit the cost. A leader should act as if the ambitions of the populace are not under any regulation. A skilled leader should disregard his own rules if he has a contextually powerful reason of doing so. In a world full of political action more than making complex decisions, making decisions in sudden, precise and unbalanced conditions matters.

You will do a lot better by treating people as if they have unlimited ambition than as if they do not.

The Philosophy of Virtù :

The word Virtù doesn’t necessarily directly correspond to Virtue, but contextually means political competence and power to shape reality. Machiavelli often separates morals from politics and emphasises on how Good People Make Terrible Leaders. In his view often what makes someone a good person, doesn’t necessarily make them a great ruler/leader. This is a grey concept and is often misinterpreted. Machiavelli says rulers must deal with Fortuna (luck, chance, fate).
Fortuna = unpredictable events
Virtù = the leader’s ability to control or overcome Fortuna

I’m mesmerised by his answer to “Whether it is better to be loved or feared?”

A ruler mustn’t worry about being labelled cruel when its a question of keeping his subjects loyal & unified. He will prove to be more compassionate than the leader whose excessive compassion leads to public disorder.

It may sound contradictory, but the seemingly the evil thing to do may serve the people.

He is criticising the archetype of a persona/leader who is concerned with the status of their souls purity & morale over public benefit. The issue with being merely motivated by compassion is that it is often myopic & narrowly focused.

Public Perception & Reality :

Public appearance is often just as important as the reality, both for the individual ruler & state as a whole. He is willing to put up with dishonesty & deception, provided it is being done in service and benefits of the state & its people.

Rulers should market themselves & ensure that they are seen as generous, powerful & just. The crowd is won over by appearances and final results. This perception is good for stability and supposed strength of the nation by outward forces. On the other hand he also opposes the kind of dishonesty that weakens the nation. This shouldn’t be a guide to being deceptive or getting away with murder, rather it should be seen as a backhanded approach to sincerely guard the stability of the state. It is necessary for the elements of society to have total confidence in their reference which in turn exponentially integrates efficiency and totality in the smooth working of the nation. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Being Dangerously Proactive :

It is much better to be prepared for conflict & disorder, and for this to have turned out to be unnecessary, than to be unprepared for violence to then come knocking at your door.

Either make your enemies your friends, so they support you or make it so that they will never have the chance to bite you back in the future. The middle— soft, secure path where you punish your enemies, just enough, they resent you, but leave them with the ability to gather their strength and punish you for it should be avoided at all costs. He proponents with the idea of gaining the advantage of attacking first in a calculated way which more often than not, increases our chips in a figurative & subjective battle.

Talking Points :

People often see Machiavelli’s style of politics as evil, rather it comes down to his willingness to abandon absolute moral principles and remain pragmatic in this judgements, even if that pragmatism is ultimately in service to the greater good of the people. One thing he emphasises over and over again in his writings is the importance of contextual factors to decision-making.

Nothing is sacred, and if the situation is dire enough, every single ethical law can, and will be broken.

He is something of a practical pessimist, and always advises us to plan for the worst possible scenarios. His works shouldn't serve as a guide for practising absolute authoritarian or dictator behaviour, rather it should serve as a mild way of pessimistic, unorthodox approach of charismatic leadership which promotes the wellbeing of a state and or a nation. Sure times have changed occasionally, but the fundamentals and basics remain the same. He ensures whether we question our moral principles, and actually if they achieve of what we claim they do, and whether we should leave them aside occasionally to accomplish some greater good. In some way I like his way of explaining ideas, since he does not shy away from picking up the baton and putting up heretic and undogmatic ideas which people often refrain from doing.Simply put, he craves practical approaches as opposed to dogmatic & standard concepts which down the lane, become redundant & futile.

Conclusion :

Leadership is a unique & grey trait in itself and, if applied appropriately and contextually, it helps the person transcend reality and let the actions do the talking. It isn’t some Main Character Syndrome which we always ought to imagine. If we apply the right Machiavellian principles in respective contexts & situations, then we really know for ourselves that we’re working towards the greater good, always choosing the Lesser of the Devils in the eyes of the scholar.

*The ideas explored in this article are inspired by Unsolicited Advice on Youtube and are informed by the political philosophy articulated in Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince.

Dissecting the problem-

Let’s zoom out and see this in a third person point of view.Our minds have been fogged with utter brainless crap and fake content which leads to an Anxious mind.This type of mind is then followed to by inspiring it with uninspiring ideas.Simply, the reason we are not able to escape this cage is because these companies appeal to our anxious minds.Every single red dot, notifications, messages etc is a way of deceiving the human psyche into believing that we are missing out(FOMO) when in reality WE ARE THE ONES IN CONTROL.

We’ve often noticed patterns like we aren’t able to sit down and commit to a single task, our patience levels have decreased, we fall for satisfying our pleasures far effortlessly than we used to, or that we are often dependent on people/objects for making decisions which affect or motivate us in any shape or form.Most of us are diagnosed with the Shiny Toy Syndrome and this is also the reason why in today’s world, we find ourselves in really uninspiring moments and feelings of absolute void.We aren’t interested in the ideas of consistency, failure, discipline but on the contrary we find ourselves with concepts related to Fast Sprints, Overnight Success and Instant Gratification bombarding our Dopamine levels.

Why does it matter?

In the movie, The Usual Suspects, Verbal Kint says,"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” This statement is a microcosm of the problem we are talking about.Fixing our Attention Spans helps us in unimaginable aspects of our life.In the Bible, Lord Christ is said to be the ‘Shepherd of the People’.According to the Hadiths, before receiving revelation Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) worked as a Shepherd, tending his sheep in the mountains of Mecca, far away from the city.

Notice how both of them are attached to a common theme.This is because Shepherds have to maintain practices of absolute mindfulness and focus to guide their flock, in both a objective & figurative way.Now for all the atheists & agnostics, look at Albert Einstein who dedicated time for his idea of ‘Creating Attentional Space’.

People who have altered the history of this world have often had absolute & sustained attention/concentration spans in the lens of having control over their minds.Even if the world is advancing at variable speed, we are infinitely intellectually regressing.Our imaginations and creativity are rotting away.These examples would sound extremists but we can think of them in small, isolated examples of our lives.

Causal Causation-

What are the abstract forces at work for causing this? It may not be as black & white but I suspect the Dawn of the Printing Press,Television,Vehicles & personal technology, primarily mobile phones.

All these things not only give out the illusion of instant rewards but also in reality provide them in respective contexts, which is detrimental.I am not denying their benefits but I also think more often then not their negative aura and talking points are suppressed to a far greater extent.We obviously are part of the problem.In the midst of this we ourselves are victims of Consumerism which is a influential backing force of these ideas.I always wonder if we are actually aware of if “We are aware, there is a footpath besides the road on which we are traversing(I know it sounds cynical, food for thought?).Vehicles often tend to eliminate most empirically possible destinations in terms of human effort.

Solutions-

Lets talk how we can inculcate some ideologies and practices in our daily, periodically oscillating lives.

• Easy Attempts
  Watch a long, intimidating, challenging, slow burn movie which requires your concentration without picking up your phone.Fills your craving for watching a movie as well as has a considerable net positive affect on your appetite for attention.
  While doomscrolling(hello darkness, my old friend), even if you aren’t able to stop it as a whole, think of it as some guilt(something is taking a toll on you) which can be put as a minute version of self denial.It acts as a gradual antidote to cut the slack.

• Challenging Attempts
  Chase away complacency & comfort in anything/everything you do.What I mean by this is challenge every idea the brain puts forward in situations.For eg, even if the mind persuades you not to, sit on the seat facing the most people on the bus, go for a 2km walk while buying groceries which you’d rather be dependent on your vehicle for, climb 15 floors to get to your apartment.These would sound as nonsensical statements but after a period of time the brain would stop putting forward complacent ideas in situations and you’d be in control of it.Keep exposing yourself to discomfort, this is the way.

“Your capacity to endure boredom and discomfort is directly proportional to the life you build for yourself.”

Maybe the whole of this article would sound absolutist & reductive, and maybe you don’t agree on everything I say but since you have genuinely come to this point, reading such mundane letters without any graphics & images, I believe you are the on the better side of the spectrum, enduring boredom and discomfort, and I am grateful for that.

Cheers.