Stoicism isn’t just about learning how to live but about learning how to die. It is about knowing how to make the right decisions for everyone considered; knowing what to stand up for, and what to risk our popularity, safety, and lives for.

Dichotomy of control is the beginning, not the end

Do we truly understand that virtue is the only good? That vice is the only evil? That nothing else has moral value? Or are we looking merely for repackaged theories on the ‘dichotomy of control’ and the passions? Because knowing what’s in our control (and what isn’t) is for beginners: It’s the first sentence in the Handbook, not the last.

Unfortunately, the Stoics’ most profound lessons, about virtue, cosmopolitanism, and the equality of errors (that cruelly kicking a stork’s nest is every bit as bad as burning down the Capitol or as making a mistake in logic) gets very little ink, if any.

Stoic ethics vs. Stoic hacks

For many of us, Stoic ethics is too much work when a list of life hacks “will do”. Using ancient writings to be able to handle life when a barista screws up our order doesn’t make us Stoics. It doesn’t even make us intelligent. If it’s merely a life “free from disturbance” we want, we can read Epicurus and live in our isolated Garden, because that’s not Stoic either.

Nietzsche once wrote, “Oh, you noble Stoics, what fraud of words!” While he was referring to their basing their ethics on Nature, this would better instruct those of us who ignore the Ancients’ austere discipline and self-sacrifice, and yet think ourselves worthy to claim a spot beside Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus on the Painted Porch!

The earliest Stoics didn’t call themselves Stoics. Marcus’ Meditations references the term ‘Stoics’ only once, and refers to them as “the Stoics,” not “we Stoics” (Meditations 5.10.1). Epictetus doesn’t even call himself a philosopher, let alone a Stoic. He notes how posers take on the cloak and beard but not the philosopher’s discipline, and tells his students:

If I were a philosopher, would you be required to be crippled too? - Epictetus, Discourses, 1.8.14)

A Stoic recruit, like a soldier or athlete, must submit to the “winter’s training,” and prepare to sweat, bleed, tear muscles, and dig trenches (maybe even our graves) (Discourses, 1.2.32; 3.24.31-33).

We must risk freezing to death on guard duty rather than abandon our posts. As Epictetus states, weightlifters must show us their shoulders and thighs, not their dumbbells (Discourses, 1.4.13-14). Misusing Stoic teachings is like a novice weightlifter misusing the equipment or a recruit mishandling a rifle: They should put it down and move on to something else before they hurt someone or themselves. Merely calling ourselves “Stoics,” like calling ourselves “warriors” or “bodybuilders,” doesn’t impress anyone.

Leaning to live, learning to die

Stoicism isn’t just about learning how to live but about learning how to die. It is about knowing how to make the right decisions for everyone considered; knowing what to stand up for, and what to risk our popularity, safety, and lives for.

Merely using the ‘dichotomy of control’ and the tempering of passions to deal with rejection in the workplace is a waste of the Stoics’ time. It is not enough to remain unperturbed at the climate crisis, the vast inequality of resources, and the cruel way we treat farm animals: Stoics today must do their part to change it.

The Ancients stood up to injustice and took care of those in their circles – even the furthest foreigners – because they were wholly involved in their communities: both the small one and the greatest one of the cosmos. So, if we claim to be Stoics, we should ask ourselves, what have we done for the cosmopolis lately?

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