Don’t Let It Turn You Upside Down | Suspend Your Opinions

0:28Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. to it.

0:42Don't let it turn you upside down. There was corruption everywhere. Dishonesty was endemic. Excess and venality were widely accepted. Cato's Rome was a messed up place and so was Marcus Aurelius's. Then, like now, it would have been disorienting and disillusioning. People who cheated, people who lied, people who did horrible things to get ahead were, well, getting ahead. It was enough to make one question, maybe I'm the one who is thinking and doing this all wrong. David Brooks, writing of Our Moment, recently talked about the moral inversion of contemporary politics. Instead of scandals ending someone's career in today's world, it's almost a badge of honor.

1:24Lawsuits, convictions, divorces, affairs, sexual harassment, damning, on-the-record comments, these things swirl around our public figures who shamelessly shrug them off. Not just in politics, but business and tech and entertainment all have their share of unrepentant cheaters and monsters. Is this what it takes to get ahead these days? We have to remind ourselves, as Marcus Aurelius did, that no matter what other people do or what other people get away with, our job is to be good. Our job is to resist this moral inversion, to not fall prey to what psychologists have called the what-the-hell effect.

2:00Like Cato, we might be living in the dregs of Romulus, but we don't have to be bottom feeders. We don't have to be corrupted or degraded by the moment we're living in. Marcus Aurelius didn't. He rose above it. He shone through it. And so must we. I'm recording this on a Monday, and Monday is our grocery store day. and our family. I usually pick my kids up from school and we go over to Whole Foods, get all our groceries for the week. Although here very shortly, we're going to go over there to get our Thanksgiving turkey because they've got a bunch of great options. Turkeys start at $1.49 a pound if you have Prime with Organic Birds at$2.99 a pound.

2:40And they only carry no antibiotic ever turkeys that will bring quality to your table at a great price. Whole Foods has great everyday prices on all your Thanksgiving essentials, whether you celebrate with a massive family or just a few close friends. Everything they sell has high standards to help you shop with confidence. Enjoy so many ways to save on your Thanksgiving spread at Whole Foods Market.

3:10Suspend your opinions. And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living. by yours truly and my co-writer and translator, Stephen Hanselman. I actually do this journal every single day. There's a question in the morning, a question in the afternoon, then there's these sort of weekly meditations. As Epictetus says, every day and night, we keep thoughts like this at hand, write them, read them aloud, and talk to yourself and others about them. You can check out the Daily Stoic Journal anywhere books are sold. You can also get a signed personalized copy from me in the Daily Stoic store at store.dailystoic.com.

3:47Epictetus would teach that opinions were the cause of a troubled mind, opinions about the way we think things should be or need to be. One of the Stoic words for opinion is dogma, and the practice of Stoicism begins with a relentless attempt to suspend this dogmatic way of living, a cessation of the belief that you can force your opinions and expectations onto the world. We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and not let it upset Our state of mind for things have no natural power to shape our judgments. It's Marcus Aurelius in meditations. Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush wasn't from outside me, but in my own assumptions.

4:28It's Marcus Aurelius in meditations. There are two things that must be rooted out in human beings, arrogant opinion and mistrust. Arrogant opinion expects that there is nothing further needed, and mistrust assumes under the torrent of circumstances there can be no happiness. That's Epictetus' discourses. Throw out your conceited opinions, for it is impossible for a person to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows from Epictetus. This idea of having no opinion is, man, it's so powerful. Epictetus also talks about, you know, can you be content to be seen as clueless or stupid about some things?

5:03I mean, look, I don't think ignorance is admirable, but I do think that we often sort of track in real time a whole bunch of information we don't need. We have too many thoughts or judgments about other people's personal lives, the things our neighbors are doing. You know, life is better when you have fewer opinions because then it just is. You have fewer expectations, so you're not disappointed. You also don't take things for granted. And so I think for the Stokes, it's about getting to kind of a Zen-like place where you just see things as they are and you don't need them to be different. You don't need them to be otherwise.

5:37You didn't expect them to be this way or that way. You just went with the flow of it. I think this is obviously what social media is designed to make us not do, right? Facebook says, what's on your mind? What are you thinking about? What's going on in your life? Twitter says the same thing. Snapchat and Instagram say, take a video of this, share it, let other people know, give your thoughts, react to this. Do you ever feel that much better doing that? Or does it just create new problems for you? Now, did anyone like it? Do people agree? Why is this idiot responding in the comments? Why aren't people understanding?

6:07Why aren't they appreciating? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You have the power to have no opinion. That's such a beautiful, freeing idea from Marcus Aurelius. And look, he's not saying don't have an opinion about injustice, don't be involved civically. Of course, that's not what the Stoics think. Their whole lives are a testament to the contrary. But I guess they're just saying it's like, look, if somebody you know is having an affair, that can eat you up inside. It can bother you. Why are they doing this? Why do people do this? Why, you know, be disappointed in your fellow humans? And it's like, it's none of your business, man.

6:36It's not up to you. You're not doing it. You know why you're not doing it. let them do them. They will face the consequences for that. You don't need to get involved. You got enough to focus on with you. You got enough that's in your control that you're not focusing on. And so going through life in a dogmatic way, trying to project, enforce your opinions on other people is a miserable way to live. It's also a tyrannical way to live. And so we've got to practice this sort of, I don't want to call it detachment, but it's looking inward instead of outward. And I think that creates a happier life that creates a better flowing life.

7:10It also gives people the freedom to make their mistakes, to learn their own lessons, to do their own things. Something I'm learning about with my kids as well is like, look, you do you, man. And I'm here if you need me. And I think that's a good way to live. And so let's focus on having fewer opinions today. Let's focus on the things that are up to us. Let's leave the things that are not up to us, to the other people, to the makers, to the people they are up to. And I think that'll all help us get along, certainly be happier and certainly have more tranquility. So just have no opinion. Move on.

7:40I don't have an opinion about your opinion. And that's exactly how it should be. All right. Have a good week, everyone.

7:49Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple of years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you.

8:28Look, ads are annoying. They are to be avoided, if at all possible. I understand as a content creator, why they need to exist. That's why I don't begrudge them when they appear on the shows that I listen to. But again, as a person who has to pay a podcast producer and has to pay for equipment and for the studio and the building that the studio is in, it's a lot to keep something like The Daily Stoic going. So if you want to support a show but not listen to ads, well, We have partnered with Supercast to bring you a ad-free version of Daily Stoic. We're calling it Daily Stoic Premium. And with Premium, you can listen to every episode of the Daily Stoic podcast completely ad-free.

9:16No interruptions, just the ideas, just the messages, just the conversations you came here for. And you can also get early access to episodes before they're available to the public. And we're going to have a bunch of exclusive bonus content and extended interviews in there. just for Daily Stoic Premium members as well. If you want to remove distractions, go deeper into stoicism and support the work we do here. Well, it takes less than a minute to sign up for Daily Stoic Premium, and we are offering a limited time discount of 20 % off your first year. Just go to dailystoic.com slash premium to sign up right now or click the link in the show descriptions to make those ads go away.