Beware This Madness

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1:51welcome to the daily stoic podcast where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength insight and wisdom everyday life each one of these passages is based on the 2 000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women for more you can visit us dailystoic.com

2:19Beware this madness. What we do while in the sway of anger, we almost always come to regret. Whether it was the yelling or the impulsive decision to quit, whether it was the cruel words or the quiet revenge, with the passage of time, we come to see how we were possessed by something, by our temper, and how it took us somewhere we should not have gone. The Stoics wrote often of being wary of the passion of temper, but there are other passions to beware of too. The philosopher Democritus once referred to sex as a mild madness, how our urges overcome us and then afterwards we wonder what possessed us.

2:54Epictetus talked about people who were slaves to their ambition. Wysonius Rufus spoke about how when we do something shameful in the pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures. When we feel the rush of emotion, a temptation to do something, whether it is getting upset or gorging ourselves, we should think about how we're going to feel about those actions after. The overwhelming logic of the moment, the green lights our mind is flashing us, we can't trust that. We have to stop and think. We have to practice a little self-discipline. We have to be able to look for off-ramps.

3:30We can see Marcus Aurelius talking to himself about this throughout meditations. He tries to remind himself what sex really is. He tries to practice empathy for people who have attacked him or let him down. He tries to remind himself that the things he sometimes longs for, power or fame or reputation, they don't last and they're not truly in his control. And he was occasionally possessed by the same madness we are all vulnerable to, but he did a pretty good job, especially when compared to other emperors and not making big or permanent decisions while in that thrall. This is a lifelong pursuit.

4:04We won't always get it right, but we have to keep trying. The first third of discipline is destiny is about physical discipline. The second half is about sort of emotional or temperamental discipline, not accepting the provocation, not going down the rabbit hole of resentment or bitterness or rage, not doing something in the urgency or the heat of the moment. Having the discipline to step back, to think about who you want to be, to think about the consequences of your actions, that may be the most important form of discipline. I use Queen Elizabeth as an example. She's not as powerful as Marcus Aurelius, but her job is basically 70 years of not responding emotionally to things, keeping her opinions to herself, restraining herself.

4:53And she did a remarkable and I think very dignified job. Anyways, it was one of my favorite sections of the book to write. If you haven't checked out Discipline is Destiny, it's available everywhere books are sold. We've got signed copies in the Daily Stoic store. You can check out as well. And as always, we've got them here at the Painted Porch if you're ever in Austin, Texas.

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