The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
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The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
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Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#2In this post and the comic it links to there is an awful lot of beating around the bush about who precisely the people are that are grifting stoicism in the variety of ways presented. Why not name names? Does anyone know who they are talking about?
I looked up the "bomber pilot in Vietnam who kept a copy of Epictetus in the plane" and it appears to be James Stockdale who was apparently a prisoner of war on Vietnam for many years -- which actually does sound like a situation Stoic philosophy would be useful in. Very different than the strawman presented in the comic: "I always carry a copy of Epictetus's work while I'm bombing villages, so I can use his wisdom to make their screams not affect me".
Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#3It's definitely the case these days that Stoicism is being adopted in a consumer self-help context, and shorthanded to "masculine virtue", i.e. tough guys and winners are Stoics. And this favors putting Meditations on your shelf for show and ignoring the other Stoic writers, so as to center Stoicism as a "philosophy of kings." The last time I visited a Barnes and Noble, they had six different printings of Meditations, and one of Enchiridion.
But that's not really a bad thing. The point isn't to read all the writers and think "now I am a Stoic". To actually apply virtue ethics you always have to do some meditations of your own and construct a right way of acting for the time and place. Simply saying to others "I followed the book" like it's a homework assignment doesn't cause that kind of change, and that's going to be the majority of people anywhere, anytime in history.
Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#4In this post and the comic it links to there is an awful lot of beating around the bush about who precisely the people are that are grifting stoicism in the variety of ways presented. Why not name names? Does anyone know who they are talking about? I looked up the "bomber pilot in Vietnam who kept a copy of Epictetus in the plane" and it appears to be James Stockdale who was apparently a prisoner of war on Vietnam fo…
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Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#5In this post and the comic it links to there is an awful lot of beating around the bush about who precisely the people are that are grifting stoicism in the variety of ways presented. Why not name names? Does anyone know who they are talking about? I looked up the "bomber pilot in Vietnam who kept a copy of Epictetus in the plane" and it appears to be James Stockdale who was apparently a prisoner of war on Vietnam fo…
He is named in the text, and the reason as to why he is justly criticized (he witnessed the USA's false flag operation that started the Vietnam War, yet kept silent and participated in the hostilities) is also spelled out.
Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#6This too shall pass. It’s the latest diet. Won’t work with everyone and critical thinking is still king. You shouldn’t believe everything you read/see/hear, even this very comment.
Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#7This too shall pass. It’s the latest diet. Won’t work with everyone and critical thinking is still king. You shouldn’t believe everything you read/see/hear, even this very comment.
I’d argue stoicism is seeing a resurgence at least in the English speaking world that I’m familiar with due to rather grimdark economic conditions. So I expect stoicism still has quite a bit of steam.
Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#8In this post and the comic it links to there is an awful lot of beating around the bush about who precisely the people are that are grifting stoicism in the variety of ways presented. Why not name names? Does anyone know who they are talking about? I looked up the "bomber pilot in Vietnam who kept a copy of Epictetus in the plane" and it appears to be James Stockdale who was apparently a prisoner of war on Vietnam fo…
This is kind of addressed in the article. The specific difference between using stoic techniques/mindsets to do something, versus actually adhering to stoic philosophy.
I think the "strawman" hits the nail on the head in that regard.
The article discusses the capture/torture/etc in some significant detail. Search for "unjust war".
Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#9In this post and the comic it links to there is an awful lot of beating around the bush about who precisely the people are that are grifting stoicism in the variety of ways presented. Why not name names? Does anyone know who they are talking about? I looked up the "bomber pilot in Vietnam who kept a copy of Epictetus in the plane" and it appears to be James Stockdale who was apparently a prisoner of war on Vietnam fo…
This is discussed at length including immediately naming Stockdale direcly below that cartoon image.
Re: The Varieties of Bad Stoicism
#10Stoicism is very different to what became Christian machoism in the Euro Atlantic