One reason I like Stoicism

More posts are on the way. But, for now, a quick one.

I was thinking about one of my favorite quotes from the Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, when something occurred to me. I wonder if it'll occur to you too.

Marcus says:

"Say to yourself every morning, I shall meet with meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, churlish men. All these things happen to them because they are ignorant of good and evil. But I, who have seen that the nature of the good is beautiful, and of the bad is ugly, and that the nature of him who does wrong is akin to me, not only because we are of the same blood or seed, but because we participate in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsmen, nor hate them. For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and acting against one another is to be vexed and to turn away."


Here are some very minor modifications to that quote that occurred to me. There is nothing particularly systematic or rigorously philosophical here -- just a fanciful play with the quote, but one that conveys a very different religious and philosophical tone.

"Say to yourself every morning, I am a meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, churlish man. All these things happen to me because I am ignorant of good and evil. But you, who has seen that the nature of the good is beautiful, and of the bad is ugly, and that the nature of him who does wrong is akin to you, not only because you are of the same blood or seed, but because you participate in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, you can neither be injured by me, for no one can fix on you what is ugly, nor can you be angry with me or my kinsmen, nor hate us. For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against you then is contrary to nature; and acting against you is to be vexed and to turn away."

Now, when I considered the quote after doing this pronoun replacement, its Christianity completely caught me off-guard. It sounds to me like it could be a very profound and orthodox Christian prayer. Maybe this little play is completely silly and pointless, but it struck me also that this is precisely why I prefer Stoicism as a way of life to a religion like Christianity. Christianity would acknowledge all of the same power and ability, but consider it belonging to someone else -- to someone who one must prostrate before, and in some sense, beg from. Stoicism, in contrast, seems directly and enormously empowering -- you have all of these wonderful faculties, and you can and must choose daily to exercise them. I should note no specific anti-Christian bias here. Judaism, for example, seems not too far away from Christianity in advocating this sort of humble, prostrating, enervating kind of approach to daily life.