Marcus Aurelius’ stoicism is a gracious attempt to personally achieve excellence against pain. A personal character code to live by. The common stoic theme is the divine destiny. A fate that can only be meddled with will and ambition. To endure beyond all doubt introspecting to grow stronger. Each of the great stoic teachers varied in their approach based on their upbringing: Epictetus a slave, Seneca an advisor and Aurelius an emperor.
Stoicism relates to a principled endurance. The virtue of life transcended the fated suffering. Satisfaction in emotionless but heartwarming spirit. The goal of consistency and honesty. A growth oriented mindset. Life is a one long roller coaster. One obstacle after another. Each one with a new challenge that causes pain. The pain is overwhelming and destructive. Stoicism seeks to endure. An egocentric yet angelic sensation to the self-centred salvation. The focus on the self is to concentrate on bettering the self. It was not so devilish to the other insofar as the self required introspection to raise ethical standards. The self was responsible for individualistic growth. A model of accountability and insurance of motivation and passion.
Achieving eudaemonia in the self flourishing sense. In their theological motif, they rendered four cardinal virtues to respond to. The ability to reach the eudaemonic state inquired a pathway of constant virtuous expression. Virtue is the centre of their world. Since virtue is quite limited in its own right (prudence, temperance courage and justice). Virtue is the moral framework pertaining to the sole good all else is wrong. The virtuous are qualifiers that benefit the expresser. Virtues that modify behaviour and enlighten the individual. They craft a principled person who seeks brightness and order. Virtues appeal to the natural current and follow the stoic into the bliss of painful tomorrow. The primary natural aspects of knowledge and judgement are manners of personal achievement and regulation.
There is a list of virtues to follow and vices to avoid. Moulding a certain type of character in line with religious archetypes. Less legalism but still sufficient in organising a model of living. Though not one based in instinct or feeling. Emotions are not on the list of stoic appeasement. Indifference is the motto of an empowered life. Not falling prey to externalities. Not being tied down by the non-virtuous aspects. Important elements to life but instead of seeking unbridled connection, keeping a small distance. Able to maintain individuality. It is not in the so-called psychopathic behaviour. To love another is genuine in the stoic oeuvre. Yet to be so hung up in lovey dovey is to mistaken the true principled mentality. Indifference is the acceptance of personal independence before collateral connections.
Indifference is central for the uncountable fate. The virtuous elements are the controllable features. Recognising the limits of control and allowing fate to act against the emboldened self. The self can never defeat fate but it can place in a good situation to defend. Natural disasters are imminent. There is no way of stopping their course. Survival is to bravely defend against their destruction. Building a brick house against the big bad wolf will maintain its structure. Precautions taken to maintain the foundation are done to the best of abilities. Sometimes it is not good enough. An unprecedented gust strikes right through the brick house breeching its protective shield. Accepting its providence and rebuilding. The act of destruction or success is a part of life. Externalities come and go, virtues stay to the end. Principles are the core of the self’s being and expressive duty that is transcendent to the temporal aspects surrounding one’s lifestyle.
What is discernible is the educational guide set out by Aurelius and Epictetus. Both emerged from varied households. One with externalities and one without. Both came to the same conclusion that the externalities were vain to the growth of humanity. The former withdrew to escape his treasure chests and the latter feigned to elude his master’s jewels. The dialectical engagement shows the ironic similarities between the prince and the pauper. Two great men from various fates agreeing on the core nature of human progress. A recognition of one’s place in the world is measured by their self progress in that fate. How the quarterback calls the shots under the coaches’s scheme. The coach presents the situation but the quarterback recognising the defensive shift audibles, sending his tight end in motion drops back and hits his receiver cutting to the sidelines. He could not change the line up nor falsify the defensive plan. The chess board was set up and it was his virtuous response that moved the ball down the field.
The stoic mentality is thriving within the bounds of the fated existence. Variables have been set and it on the self to navigate those encounters. No one chooses their parents but it is on the self to cultivate a relationship or to walk away. It is not about directing an instruction manual but living according to an honour code. If the parental relationship is toxic find a way to mend that meshes with principles or find a peaceful way out. Endurance is the highlight but is pushing to fix these issues that is elementary. Dealing with the problem is not passivity but action. Though stoicism does not say deal with the problem but accepting the devil if it can be usurped. Eudaemonia is possible for those whose virtue exceeds their externalities. Reframing the issue to mend it correctly. To an extent there is a limit. In the bad parenting situation, reframing to positively spin the circumstances is not the same as leaving home freely at the chosen destiny.
Epictetus was in a position to seek indifference as a slave. He summoned a logos that formulated along the lines of his position. His virtuous life was focused on the slavish possible. Yet this applies to the master too. The relic is not of some metaphysical layout but selfhood. What is true to you, the materialistic excess or the inbred principles. What drives the notion of self determination and ambition. Accepting fate is a step in the correct direction. The metaphysical layout seeks to overcome the improper inequality to rise up instead of accepting the detriment of this reality. A proper stance is to live according to the reality at large. Some are born rich and some poor but drive cannot be measured. Heart cannot be taught only earned. Many things are given in life but for those unfortunate the self preservation is in the strong-willed perseverance. Working hard and pushing forward despite the challenges ahead.
Nietzsche’s stoic relationship does accord with this wilful behaviour. The power of the self to determine the next course of action. No deity nor feeble urge will undermine the self’s quest for serenity. Aurelius’ message is parentally educational. Even as an emperor he resisted dotting on the people. He was a man of integrity. He did not let his riches fool him. Solomonic wisdom intact certified his spiritual virtues. Demonstrating a lineage to preserve the continuity of human development. The self’s desire for moral attainment. Indifferent to material but preoccupied with education. Principle hailed as the facet of his strong critique of symbolic finitude. With all the riches and power, they were nothing to the principled life. Caught up in the social media frenzy and fancy cars with girls flocking to take videos undermines the self’s introspective task. Focused instead on what others think instead of what you think of yourself. A desire to please instead of achieve.
Stoicism does find some escapism present its philosophy, a cowardly vice but the slightly adverted matrix is the reflective aura of personal growth. While the classist society is mitigated there is still a symbolic motif that is greatly denied in the democratic world. Freedom is the illusory symptom of a constitutional enterprise. Markets cultivate winners and losers but many losers were losers to begin with. Stoic principles arguably further the deterministic enterprise not the apparent self-help billionaire 101 tactics but in the recognition that systems are bred and fate is determined even if the societal picture is a two hundred year social construct. Racism in America is a byproduct of slavery a recent longstanding event in history immortalised in one race unlike other national diversified serfs. Can virtues overcome the systemic obstacles suspending and suppressing any innovation? Can the individual excellence bring change to the world?
A classist society had no hope. Freedom was not an illusion. It was not a possibility. The social construct was held firm by legal avenues. Dogmas hurled themselves into the wedges of the steel gates. The current social order is held together by ignorance and static. Freedom is the hallmark of the constitutional effort. While it has not stood up absolutely for all and many attempt to reduce its prowess, strides have been implemented. Freedom becomes implemented adequately when activists inherit that spark that leads the legal voices. Holding the institutional words accountable. If all men are created equal then they better be treated equal. The stoic imbibes virtue but others must also comply. The virtuous society already condemned to the social frame may not overturn the deeply flawed model. A possible retribution but not entirely damning in its innovative clause.
The veil of freedom in the deterministic picture does not mean that change cannot occur. Paupers can become princes but not everyone can. There is not a simple way to graph this oscillation. Some are lucky but the pathway is existent. Traffic has cleared but many are still trying to get their cars straight. The paradoxical nature confuses the citizenry. Especially the better off who struggle to understand the difficulty of achievement. They see a pathway but they do not see the barricades a mile behind them. Yet at the same time the efforts to liberalise do come at a price of excessive autonomy. No rules or regulations. A jargonist scheme of idiotic self imprisonment. Freedom to choose is an escape to liberate from the formally binary dogma. A new social age that liquidates the rigidity of old.
The stoic mentality does not care for such chaotic belligerence. it may take determinism a little too far. Synchronising a genuine coping mechanism with the drought of innovation. Yet the virtuous in numbers are a powerful adversary. This is not an issue by issue basis. Instead it is a principled model of doing what is right and genuine reflection. Not playing along with social cues because that is what is demanded. While the effort to cope does little to actually fix the issue, the lessons attained are to express not harbour ill. Virtues are the base for proper expression. Enduring is a basis for the difficult trials lying ahead. Indifference to the dubious elements finds serenity in the heart. Cowardice is frowned upon. To make a difference is to be indifferent to the nagging disgust. Live by one’s own terms to reach the eudaemonic sensation deconstructing one symbolic order for a substitute with new rules.
The social construct is control of change, as is much of life. Change is evolutionary and will eventually lead to a form of change till perfectionism. Such perfection is implausible in the ultimate historicism. It is a crashing wave waiting to happen. The wave will splash recede and then return as a new problem. Principles will not change though. Reflection will forever be an undeniable necessity for human progress. It is not a shot at the ailing mismeasures in society. There are a great deal of troubles but these are all temporal. They will move on and something devious will replace. It comes down to the principles that mark a difference. Instilling them will benefit and potentially provide potent education to alter a generational mentality. Focusing on being is necessary to the thriving nature that focuses on character. Concentrating on essentials rather than assets.
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