The latest rendition of an old theme: How to cope as an individual with daily life under capitalism while contributing to a flourishing motivational coaching industry. “We’re flooded with Stoic books”, writes Mark Athiikais, " it’s arguably America’s leading nonreligious doctrine.”
------------------------------------------- > > https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/03/28/stoicism-ryan-holiday-mark-tuitert/ > > Stoicism is more popular than ever. Too bad it’s so incoherent now. > > A wave of gurus has mined the philosophy’s humble precepts for generic > motivational material > By Mark Athitakis Washington Post March 28 2024 > In the mid-’90s, not long after I graduated from college, a friend insisted I > read “The Manual <https://amzn.to/4cwKGEt>,” by the Roman Stoic philosopher > Epictetus. For an ungainly introvert like myself, the book’s premise was > irresistible: Epictetus had written a how-to-adult handbook — a literal > manual for being a human! — in sentences rebarred with moral certainty. “Of > things some are in our power, and others are not,” he contends in the first > line. “Wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a > tranquil flow of life.” Epictetus didn’t make the world more sensible and > ordered, exactly, but suggested that our responses to it could be. > > Back then, getting hold of “The Manual” meant crate-digging in used > bookstores, where I found a vintage paperback from the 1960s that included a > few more of Stoicism’s greatest hits by Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. > > Now, we’re flooded with Stoic books; it’s arguably America’s leading > nonreligious doctrine. Ryan Holiday, a former marketer and journalist, has > built a cottage industry around Stoicism that includes podcasts, newsletters, > Instagram feeds, YouTube videos and a shelf of books that have sold a > reported 6 million copies — his latest, “Right Thing, Right Now > <https://amzn.to/3xcRK97>,” comes out in June. (He also sells gewgaws like > “memento mori” coins, a reminder of the very Stoic notion that death comes > for us all.) Dutch Olympic speed skater Mark Tuitert has entered the field > with a forthcoming manual of his own, “The Stoic Mindset: Living the Ten > Principles of Stoicism <https://amzn.to/4adY4f5>.” The media company School > of Life, which popularizes philosophy on YouTube and elsewhere, produced a > Stoicism card deck <https://amzn.to/4cAAmez> last fall in a stark > black-and-white box that promises the contents will help you “find serenity > and strength in a difficult world.” > > But perhaps the clearest evidence that Stoicism has gone fully mainstream is > that “The Manual” itself has a manual: January marked the arrival of > “Stoicism for Dummies <https://amzn.to/3TVrGs2>,” by Tom Morris and Gregory > Bassham. The two ably run through Stoic history, from Zeno’s development of > the philosophy circa 300 B.C. after he coolly survived a shipwreck and lost > his possessions (very Stoic, that) to its current explosion in popularity > thanks to writers like Holiday, Massimo Pigliucci and Donald J. Robertson, > who’s written a stack of books on the subject, the latest of which is “Marcus > Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor <https://amzn.to/3VDmzxP>.” > > It’s not hard to see the appeal. As a philosophy, Stoicism favors real-world > action over Wittgensteinian woolgathering. It delivers its advice in > meme-ready chunks; Holiday’s @dailystoic Instagram feed has more than 3 > million followers. As the school of thought is a product of dead > civilizations, you can be an adherent without being accused of being an > arriviste, convert or cultural appropriator. I recently reimmersed myself in > the Stoics, hoping to recover a little bit of that certainty I was chasing in > my 20s. I’m past 50, laboring in a troubled industry, raising a teenager and > generally living in America in 2024; emotional equipoise is at a premium. But > the dispiriting thing about contemporary Stoicism is how slippery it has > become, toothless practically to the point of meaninglessness. > > Part of the problem is that contemporary Stoicism dearly wishes to escape its > founders’ most severe dictates. Aurelius and company insisted that we be cool > in the face of death, be it our own or a child’s. They tended to see matters > of love and affection as a distraction. (Seneca: “Friendship is always > helpful, yet too often love causes harm.”) Robertson attempts to sell its > virtues by connecting it to modern cognitive behavioral therapy, while the > Dummies authors try to reframe the love-starved idea by asserting its > practical uses in friendship. Still, this amounts to a lot of tut-tutting > about squishy emotions — that we must keep even loved ones at arm’s length: > Epictetus wrote that in the same way we should see a jug as a thing that can > break, when we kiss our child or spouse we should tell ourselves that we’re > “kissing a human being because then you won’t get upset when they die.” > > My capacity for emotional balance stops at the point where I must liken my > wife to earthenware. But fear not: The Dummies authors note that I can be > flexible. “In the end you’ll have to decide whether to go all the way with > the Stoics, or just adopt some of their perspectives from the whole package > of conclusions they offer.” This is fine; all religions have reform versions > and adherents who push against orthodoxy. But cafeteria Stoicism has become > diluted into the language of go-get-’em motivational speech. Most of > Holiday’s books are published by Portfolio, Penguin Random House’s business > imprint, and to a remarkable extent his series on the Stoic virtues doesn’t > deal with Stoicism as such. It features inspirational stories about Florence > Nightingale or Frank Serpico or the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or Harry S. > Truman. Tuitert’s workbook is more about the mind-set for high achievement — > go for the gold! — and wouldn’t be out of place in a Tony Robbins seminar. > > Moreover, modern Stoicism drifts toward hypermasculine patter that at times > devolves into macho preening. To demonstrate the importance of the Stoic > concept of “arete,” or moral excellence, the Dummies book includes a picture > of a man who has tattooed the word on his forearm, flexed tight, veins > bulging. In his book “Courage Is Calling <https://amzn.to/49egwDc>” (2021), > Holiday celebrates the tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s lawsuits against Gawker > as evidence of the same fear-conquering agency that drove Nightingale and — > let’s see here — Napoleon. “It’s quite reasonable to be alarmed at the secret > lawsuits he filed,” he writes, but “agency for its own sake matters very > little — what matters are the ends to which we assert ourselves and our > power.” > > And so modern Stoicism finds itself somehow settling into Successories-style > aphorisms, screw-your-feelings machismo and the ends justifying the means. > This is many things, but it’s not a coherent moral philosophy. > > The ancient Stoics had critics in their own time: Robertson quotes one writer > who said its adherents were destined to “grow old in the torpor of a sluggish > and, as it were, nerveless life.” I’m still interested in the ideas Epictetus > and company suggest; there’s a lot to be said for cultivating poise and > keeping stressors in proportion. But the philosophy in its current iteration > doesn’t offer much beyond affirmations with a veneer of wisdom from the > ancients. Bumper-sticker philosophy has its limits, and the Stoics had a > warning about that: Quintus Sextius wrote, “Never be keen to please the > crowd.” > > Mark Athitakis is a critic in Phoenix and the author of “The New Midwest > <https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B07JNRFKQ7&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_VDYQA1YJRY8HGT1TCBBJ&tag=thewaspos09-20>.” -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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