Is That Still Allowed?

0:05Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic inspired meditation designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2 ,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women, to help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit dailystoic.com.

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2:29Is that still allowed? Maybe it's a bit of a stretch. Maybe he would have hated it. But in telling this story of Agrippinus in Lives of the Stoics, which you can grab at the Painted Porch, I'll link to it in today's show notes, I couldn't help but quote one of my favorite Alice in Chains lyrics. If I can't be my own, I'd feel better dead. Agrippinus had inherited from his father, we're told by Tacitus, an almost genetic hatred of tyrants. He refused to kneel to Nero or even attend his parties. When someone asked him why he didn't keep a lower profile, given the environment of informers and enforcers, Agrippinus explained that he was like the red thread in an otherwise plain garment, that he stood out in order to make things more beautiful.

3:19In other words, Agrippinus was his own man, even at great cost. He would be sent into exile for it. He would be nearly killed for it. But to be anything else, to compromise, to mute his colors, well, he wouldn't even think of it because there are some things worse than death. What a wonderful lesson for our conformist times. What a powerful example in these days of political fealty and cancel culture. Be your own person. Be who you are. Stand out. Stand up. It's what makes life beautiful and worth living.

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