It’s All In How You See It

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1:21Ryan Holiday: It's all in how you see it. You might have noticed that we contradicted ourselves in the last two emails and episodes. First, we celebrated what seems like the golden age that was the classical world. The past has never looked brighter, we said, compared to the darkness and weakness of today. We're a long ways from that era of philosopher kings. But then we pointed out just how vicious and corrupt in that world was too. In fact, we argued that this is probably the best time to live in human history. So which is it? The answer is that it's all in how you look at it. And is this not the keystone of Stoicism?

2:05Ryan Holiday: Epictetus talked about how every situation has two handles. You can grab the handle that says everything is broken, that we live in uniquely terrible times, especially compared to the idealist past, or you can look for the good. That doesn't mean pretending everything is fine. It just means refusing to let the bad erase the good that is right in front of you. Although there's so much to be admired about antiquity, we should also apply Marcus Aurelius' practice of stripping things of the legend that encrusts them. We should see them for what they are, objectively, even with a kind of deliberate contempt or cynicism.

2:45Ryan Holiday: This way we're not blinded by propaganda or nostalgia. The Stoics understood that perspective is everything, that we have a lot of control over our perceptions and we have to wield them properly to see things as they actually are, to resist both despair about the present and nostalgia for the past. We must see clearly, then act accordingly.