The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived… | Some Simple Rules

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1:03Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic, my book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stoics with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works.

1:44The smallest man who ever lived. They had hoped he would grow into the job. They hoped a tutor like Seneca would teach the boy some wisdom and gravitas. Instead, Nero seemed to get worse as he grew up and gained power. He tried multiple times to kill his own mother, eventually succeeding. He banished a poet for being too talented. He forced Roman crowds to listen to him perform. He eliminated potential successors. He exiled philosophers. Even when this all came crashing down and he was driven to suicide to escape the consequences of his mismanagement and his enemies, he had to ask a secretary, Epictetus' owner, as it happens, to do the deed for him.

2:26Nero was, to paraphrase the song lyrics, the smallest man who ever lived. He might have possessed a great kingdom, but he did not command himself or his urges or his ego. He was vain and cowardly, petty and vindictive, murderous and untalented. He was rust on a sparkling empire. The question is, as we've talked about before, is how did Seneca get so mixed up in it? What was he doing writing speeches for this guy, advising him, supporting him when he was so obviously unsuited for power in every conceivable way? James Rahm's fascinating biography, Dying Every Day, along with Emily Wilson's The Greatest Empire, offers several answers.

3:05Seneca was greedy. Seneca was hypocritical. Seneca was a martyr. He thought he was the adult in the room, saving Rome from worse. Seneca was weak and then became strong when Nero finally turned on him. In truth, Seneca was a lot like us, probably. He knew what he should do, but he made excuses. He had trouble seeing what his salary and his status depended on him not seeing. He hoped that he could do things through Nero. He told himself it was not as bad as everyone said it was. He told himself he was waiting for the right moment. Well, we're in an election year here, not just in America, but across the world.

3:39Let us learn from Seneca. Let us be reminded what happens when you let a man-child run a country, when ego and incompetence run amok.

3:59Hey, it's Ryan. Got the July 12th entry here, The Daily Stoic. 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living. You know, there's no like 10 commandments for the Stoics. There's no like, this is what a Stoic does. This is who a Stoic is. There's not like hard and fast rules, right? But we can see in meditations, Marcus Rios writing some rules for himself. At one point he does, he has his epithets for the self. He has like little reminders, but you can kind of combine them or you can take little paragraphs here and there and go, look, that's a really good, clear prescription of what Stoicism is and who a Stoic is supposed to be.

4:38And that's what we have today. This is a short entry in the book, some simple rules. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 8-5-1. In your actions, don't procrastinate. In your conversations, don't confuse. In your thoughts, don't wander. In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive. In your life, don't be all about business. And you know, I was thinking, because this is a short one, why don't I grab the Waterfield translation here and let's see what he says on 8-5-1, because maybe you can give us a little more perspective on these rules. He says,

5:28And then actually this other quote that follows, I think is really interesting. He says, they can kill you, butcher you, hound you with curses. But does this stop you? Does it stop you from doing those things? Does it stop you from preserving the purity, lucidity, moderation, and justice of your mind? I love that. Okay. So in the Daily Stoic, what I had to say about this was I said, look, and this kind of goes to what we were just talking about on the 7.5 entry. Simple is rarely easy. But now that you have these rules, make it your duty to put them into practice. Make it the first item on your to-do list.

6:04Do it with the first conversation you have today with your soul. And of course, with the life you make for yourself, not just today, but every day, write this on the blackboard and don't forget it. And your actions don't procrastinate and your conversations don't confuse and your thoughts don't wander in your soul. Don't be passive or aggressive in your life. Don't be all about business. I think that last one, And I've thought about quite a bit since I first read it. Because Marcus, in other passages, he's like, people who love what they do wear themselves down doing. It's obviously intense. But he is saying, look, philosophy is kind of this thing that balances you out.

6:39He's saying be a well-rounded person. Don't be all about success. Don't be all about responsibility. And I think that's important because that's maybe not exactly what we think of when we think about the Stoics. And I do think Marcus clearly struggled with this. Again, he wouldn't have reminded himself of it if he mastered it, but clearly he was, as I think a lot of talented people are, a little bit off balance, a little bit too much about business. He was more comfortable there. It was clearer. It was cleaner. It was more in his control, but you're not supposed to do what's easy. You're supposed to do what's hard and you're supposed to do that work.

7:17Anyways, that's today's entry. I hope all of you are having a nice summer. It is extremely hot here in Texas, but I'm chugging away on the next book. And thank you to everyone who bought the Justice book. That's really cool. I hope many of you have started to read it. I hope you like it. I hope it stands up next to the other books. But I'm trying to be heads down on the Wisdom book. I'm about, say, two-thirds of the way there. It's still very, very raw, but I'm chugging away, and I'm happy with it. And I hope to bring that one to you soon, probably next year sometime. Be well, everyone. And as Marcus said, don't be all about business.

7:53Don't let your mind wander. Don't procrastinate. Don't be passive aggressive or passive aggressive. Don't be muddled. Be clear. Be good. Talk to you all soon. I'm heading over to Australia in a couple of weeks. I'm going to be in Sydney on July 31st. I'm going to be in Melbourne on August 1st. Then in November, I'm doing Vancouver and Toronto, London, Dublin, Rotterdam, all awesome cities. I'm really excited to go to. If you want to come to those talks, they're open to the public, and you can grab those tickets at ryanholiday.net slash tour.

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