Marcus Aurelius
As our Canadian federal election gets closer I find Marcus Aurelius a dependable voice of calm reason in the cacophony of posturing, accusations and empty promises from our politicians local and national. People I talk to seem to feel the same way; cynical and pissed off at all the parties and politicians. And some of us are wondering how we are being manipulated and what is actually there behind all of this noise...
My sister who is a teacher shared these video resources that her class is using to do their own research on the election. Very interesting!!
I think that we can't do much about other people and "bots" spreading fake news and influencing our emotional triggers, but we can use our cynicism and our mind to dig a little and choose to be skeptical of everything until we check it out a little deeper!!
The old adage "Where there's smoke there must be fire" can no longer be trusted now that social media and all media can be manipulated.
and
I am fascinated with Stoicism since reading Ryan Holiday's books: "The Obstacle is the Way" and "Ego is the Enemy".
Today's quote is from https://dailystoic.com
This is the message on this site about todays quote:
Marcus reminded himself to not be upset by the misdeeds of others and to correct them if possible, but if they were stubborn and would not change, to accept it. In reacting to such people, we must never allow our own principles to be violated. Moreover, we should never be surprised by the wicked deeds of others, and avoid wishing that men are not as they are (prone to evil acts) because then we are wishing for the impossible. He believed that people do bad things out of ignorance of what is good and evil, and that we should forgive them for their errors, even when they harm us. Marcus stresses that social animals such as humans are meant to live in harmony.
He likened his relation to bad people to them being different body parts of the same person. Good and bad people are both part of the same universal nature and they are meant to interact and cooperate. Marcus Aurelius—and indeed all the Stoics—believed that we were part of an inner-connected organism. That you couldn’t hurt one person without hurting them all. “What injures the hive, injures the bee,” he said. “The best revenge,” he said, “is not to be like that.” Meaning: When you hurt others, you hurt the group and you hurt yourself.
It is against nature to despise evil people and try to avoid them. When we find ourselves judging others, we ought to consider our own faults first. Then we will find that we are less prone to blaming them. Rather than judge and be disturbed by others, which sets us up for disappointment and distress, we ought to focus on self-improvement. Marcus said,
“It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men’s badness, which is impossible.”
Or as another translation would put it,
“It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.”
And today, in a hyperconnected, information driven world, compared to Marcus’s time, we also know a lot about other people. We know about the comings and goings of celebrities and politicians. We get real time updates on everything our friends do. We see what they say on social media and we get their texts and photos.
There’s no question that this has increased the amount of so-called drama in our lives. We have opinions on whether so-and-so should have done this and we watch the media chatter about it. We get offended when our friends say this or that. Not a day goes by that we don’t hear gossip or speculation about someone we know.
This is a trap. This is a distraction. Even 2,000 years ago Marcus knew this. “Other people’s mistakes?” he reminded himself, should be left to their makers.
Forget what other people are doing, forget what they’re doing wrong. You’ve got enough on your plate. Focus on yourself—focus on what you might be doing wrong. Fix that. Keep an eye fixed on your own life. There’s no need—and frankly, there’s not enough time—to waste a second spying on other people.
Mind your business.
Cheers
He likened his relation to bad people to them being different body parts of the same person. Good and bad people are both part of the same universal nature and they are meant to interact and cooperate. Marcus Aurelius—and indeed all the Stoics—believed that we were part of an inner-connected organism. That you couldn’t hurt one person without hurting them all. “What injures the hive, injures the bee,” he said. “The best revenge,” he said, “is not to be like that.” Meaning: When you hurt others, you hurt the group and you hurt yourself.
It is against nature to despise evil people and try to avoid them. When we find ourselves judging others, we ought to consider our own faults first. Then we will find that we are less prone to blaming them. Rather than judge and be disturbed by others, which sets us up for disappointment and distress, we ought to focus on self-improvement. Marcus said,
“It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men’s badness, which is impossible.”
Or as another translation would put it,
“It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.”
And today, in a hyperconnected, information driven world, compared to Marcus’s time, we also know a lot about other people. We know about the comings and goings of celebrities and politicians. We get real time updates on everything our friends do. We see what they say on social media and we get their texts and photos.
There’s no question that this has increased the amount of so-called drama in our lives. We have opinions on whether so-and-so should have done this and we watch the media chatter about it. We get offended when our friends say this or that. Not a day goes by that we don’t hear gossip or speculation about someone we know.
This is a trap. This is a distraction. Even 2,000 years ago Marcus knew this. “Other people’s mistakes?” he reminded himself, should be left to their makers.
Forget what other people are doing, forget what they’re doing wrong. You’ve got enough on your plate. Focus on yourself—focus on what you might be doing wrong. Fix that. Keep an eye fixed on your own life. There’s no need—and frankly, there’s not enough time—to waste a second spying on other people.
Mind your business.
Cheers
Jeanne
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