The Stoic Vote

The Stoics are hot. The philosophy has never been more popular, and that’s due in large part to a renaissance of the ideas brought about by a cadre of thoughtful social media personalities promulgating the work of Stoics such as Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.

Stoicism, in essence, argues that the practice of virtue is enough to achieve “eudaimonia,” which is basically a well-lived life, or “the good life.” The Stoics identified the path to achieving eudaimonia as a life spent practicing four key virtues — wisdom, courage, temperance (or moderation) and justice. They also advocated living in accordance with nature, which I would call living in harmony with reality.

Now, I like much of Stoicism’s views, especially its advocacy of reason to understand the world and to guide actions. However, I do have differing views on many key points, particularly on the nature of happiness.

For example, the Stoics taught that happiness comes from virtue and aligning oneself with the natural order, and so they often advocated for detaching themselves from external outcomes. In my view, happiness comes via the rational realization of one’s own values and goals through productive achievement, and that happiness should be celebrated and embraced emotionally (the opposite of the detachment of the Stoics).

Yet despite some key differences, I enjoy reading the Stoics and integrating some of their insights into my life, as this has generally been a good supplement to my intellectual diet.

A few days ago, I came across a video by one of those social media Stoics, Ryan Holiday of The Daily Stoic. Holiday’s book of the same name, “The Daily Stoic,” is one I highly recommend as a great read that’s chock full of wisdom. So, what was that video I came across?

Well, it’s election time, so unsurprisingly the video that came up courtesy of the YouTube algorithm had the following provocative title, “Who Would Marcus Aurelius Vote For?”

Of course, I had to watch this video, and I recommend you watch it, too, as I suspect it will make you think in terms of principles about who to elect, and less about the practical policies of each candidate and each party. Here are a few of the highlights from the Daily Stoic video here that I found compelling.

“We can’t go around expecting Plato’s Republic.”

Holiday says that the reason many people don’t vote is because they don’t like either candidate and that they see the election as a choice between two evils. “Welcome to reality,” explains Holiday. “Being an adult means making tough choices between two things that you don’t like.”

I really like this, because it reflects an understanding about the imperfect nature of life and the choices we are given, and that we must make. Realizing that there is no perfect solution, only tradeoffs, to any given problem is a wise approach to existence.

Now, here is where the video gets really good. When contemplating what makes a leader good and what makes one bad, Holiday tells us about Marcus Aurelius’ views. Here he quotes from “Meditations,” reminding us that a good leader possesses qualities such as compassion, persistence, listening to others, the determination to treat people as they deserve, a constant devotion to the needs of the public and the willingness to take responsibility and blame for the outcomes.

As for what makes a leader bad, Holiday tells us the Stoics thought that someone who is not philosophical and not “in command of themselves” has no business in the halls of power. “If a leader does not have good character, does not have command of themselves, is not a virtuous person, not only are they ill-suited to lead, but they are ill-suited to be exposed to so much power.”

Holiday goes on to explain that the Stoics warned of the following: “When you have someone who’s a hypocrite, when you have someone who lies, when you have someone who has character that you would refuse to tolerate in a boss or a co-worker, someone you would never invest money in… you get yourself into trouble.”

Finally, Holiday provides this keen insight from the Stoics: “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how much or how little you agree with someone on certain issues, ultimately character is fate.”

I think this is the biggest takeaway here, and one to keep in mind when you cast your ballot this year — and every year.

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To the Observatory

Into my mind, into the deep
Taking me up to the observatory
See if the moon and the stars agree
To take me out

–The White Buffalo, “The Observatory”

You are your mind. You are your thoughts and your thoughts are you. Fortunately, we have the ability to filter the bad thoughts from the good, and learning to do that is one of the most important skills a person can cultivate. And every once in a while (and by that, I mean every day) we need to look into our minds and take ourselves up to the observatory to see if who and what we are is who and what we want to be.

A more poetic way of saying this is how Jake Smith, aka, “The White Buffalo,” puts it in his song “The Observatory,” when he recommends that we, “See if the moon and the stars agree.” You see, the more your mind is in step with the beat of reality, the better human you will be.

Wisdom about money, investing and life can be found anywhere. If you have a good quote that you’d like me to share with your fellow readers, send it to me, along with any comments, questions and suggestions you have about my newsletters, seminars or anything else. Click here to ask Jim.

In the name of the best within us,

Jim Woods