Whatever You Call It, Steer Clear | Ask DS

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1:31Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. Well, on Thursdays, we not only read the daily meditation, but we answer some questions from listeners and fellow Stoics. We're trying to apply this philosophy just as you are. Some of these come from my talks. Some of these come from Zoom sessions that we do with Daily Stoic Life members or as part of the challenges. Some of them are from interactions I have on the street when there happened to be someone there recording. But thank you for listening, and we hope this is of use to you.

2:13Steer clear. Marcus Aurelius called it a few different things. His translators varied even more in their interpretations. Gregory Hayes used the word imperialization. Robin Waterfield called it becoming Caesarified and dyed in purple. Pierre Hadeau has it becoming Caesarified. George Long translates it as, take care that thou art not made into a Caesar, that you art not died with this dye. And in the Daily Stoic, we have Marcus express his worry at being stained purple. Okay, but what is he actually talking about? He's talking about being corrupted by power, changed by the position and fame that he has.

2:52And we know this was a lifelong concern of his. One story has Marcus Reulius breaking down in tears when he's told that he will someday be emperor. Not because he's sad, but because his study of history had taught him how few people had managed to leave the job unscathed, let alone unchanged. While none of us will wear the purple cloak of the emperor, that's what Marcus Aurelius was referring to when he talked about being died, hopefully we will be successful. Hopefully we will earn positions of influence and power and respect. What will this reveal about us? What might it corrupt or corrode. It is a timeless battle, a timeless temptation.

3:28And Stoicism is here to help us with that. Meditations specifically is one of the only books ever written by a person with that much power. And it's about how to remain good and decent and virtuous when there is every excuse and opportunity not to. And it's funny, there's all the different translations, but I do think Hayes is the most beautiful. Imperialization, right? The imperial power of the emperor becoming and integrated with them, corrupting them, changing them, right? That's the translation we use in the leather-bound meditations that we sell at Daily Stoic, the one I have with me right now.

4:03It's, I think, the most beautiful, long-lasting edition you can get out there. You can check that out at store.dailystoic.com. I'll link to it in today's show notes. Makes a great gift for the holidays, for somebody who's going through something. If you know someone who's a fan of the podcast, you want to get them something to help them celebrate it. Well, you can check out the leather edition of meditations at store.dailystoic.com.

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6:17It's funny, you know, people go, I want to support independent retailers. I want to support some big multinational conglomerate like Amazon. But the truth is, most bookstores just buy their books from publishers, which are multi-billion dollar conglomerates, and distributors like Ingram, which are multinational conglomerates. And so we just decided, like, let's dispense with all the pretense of that. And let's just actually carry books that we like. Right. Like the first thing that happens when you start a bookstore is they go, here's the suggested list of books that you should order from us. And it just seemed like, what's the point?

6:59Right. If people want access to any book, they should go to a library or all books. They should go on Amazon. on. But if you want to be recommended something that maybe you wouldn't have otherwise thought of a lot of the books, the painful part about owning the bookstore is like we get books that the publishers aren't prioritizing because they don't sell thousands of copies a year. We have to wait for them, ask for reprints of them. But if you want a book that like we have actually read and that I think could change your life like that, that's the idea like I want to carry books that have the potential to change your life or be one of those books you go this is one of the best books that I that I ever read.

7:41If a public library could have an innovation what would your preference be and what do you see as the observable strengths of a public library as it currently exists? I'll start with the second part I mean if I'm thinking about what strengths public libraries have. It's the space, right? It's the land. This is some of the most valuable real estate in Austin. This is some of the most beautiful architecture in Austin. It's the space. And as stuff increasingly becomes digital, physical space has a premium in a different way. And that's one of the things we thought about in opening the bookstore too, which is, again, if you're looking for a specific book, you're probably just going to grab it on the internet.

8:23that if you want to explore, if you want to be exposed, this is the place to do it. One of my favorite novelists is John Fonte. This book called Ask the Dust, which is maybe the greatest novel ever written about Los Angeles. And that novel, I wrote a story about this a few years ago. That novel came out, it was published by a small publisher, and then it was lost to obscurity for somewhat strange reasons. It was lost to obscurity because his publisher also simultaneously in 1933, in the 1934th month, publishes an English translation of Mein Kampf. And Hitler sues them for copyright infringement and wins in U.S.

9:06federal court and bankruptcy publisher. And the book loses its marketing budget. The publisher basically goes under, and the book is lost to history. except there is one copy in the Los Angeles Public Library and Charles Bukowski is wandering around there one day and finds it and says it's like finding gold in the city dump and this is the height of Bukowski's fame. He brings the book back. John Fonte enjoys this resurgence in the last couple of years of his life. The book sells millions of copies. It's made into a very mediocre movie with Colin Farrell But it's a book that never would have had this second life were it not for a library and the physical space of the library and what connections and events and discoveries can happen inside a library.

10:01And to me, that's the magical thing about these places.

10:07Anyone else? Go for it. Do you ever read out loud? To my children, yes. I read out loud all the time. I think it's wonderful and fun. And then I read my own audiobooks, which is not so wonderful and fun. And that generally makes me feel like a batting idiot by the end of it. and I am reminded talking about, you know, finding things you could use. I am constantly reminded as I read my own audiobooks how few words I myself have ever heard out loud and thus have no idea how to pronounce them. I learned them reading and have to look them up on YouTube or whatever to be able to pronounce them. But I love reading out loud.

10:55It's, you know, such a great sort of family connection. I don't like listening to books as much. So I prefer to sort of quietly read alone by myself. So, well, first I just want to say I really appreciate your books. They've really helped me a lot in my life. And modernizing stoicism, I think, is amazing and wonderful. As someone who works here, I was curious to see if you had any ideas for how we could incorporate, like, stoic philosophy and these things that could really benefit a lot of people's lives into programming or events or things that the community can get involved in. That's a great question.

11:36I mean, obviously, I think all the time about how do you take philosophy, which most people think they don't need or are not smart enough for, and then how do you take stoic philosophy, which has this negative connotation of being an emotionless, invulnerable robot, and how do you make that practical to people? My first book, On Stoicism, The Obstacle of the Way, I probably say the word stoic or mention stoic philosophy like all of three or four times because I was very conscious of the fact that it had this sort of headwind. And so I wanted to present philosophy as a solution to somebody's problems as opposed to an academic discipline or an intellectual thing.

12:26So I think one of the best ways we can popularize stoicism is not by talking about stoicism itself, but talk about great examples of people acting in accordance with the philosophy or showing that philosophy is this accessible, usable thing. so I tried to do a kids book these two kids books on stoicism for that idea like they don't need to know the names of these people or the historical facts or any of that they just need to see that like actually hey yeah when your brother steals your toys from you you don't control that but you control how you respond to that and so I've tried to think more about the substance the actions of stoicism and demonstrating it that way but I guess I would try to start there and then you know I think Gladiator is a great movie and I think like finding ways into these I think the reason when someone said hey you should read Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus the reason I went and picked up Marcus Aurelius first is that I remember him as the old guy in the movie Gladiator and so I I try not to judge.

13:41I try to go where people are and try not to judge what their entry point to those things is. And so with Daily Stoke, we spend a lot of time, you know, posting inspirational quotes on Instagram and making YouTube videos and wheels and stuff on TikTok. Because, like, I love books. And when I want to learn about something, I think I should go read a book about that. That is not how the vast majority of people think about things. They think about Wikipedia or they think about social media. They think about videos. But that can be the entry point to that thing. And I know that because I talk to so many people who go, you know, Mark Surinus was the first book of philosophy I've ever read.

14:21They'll tell me that one of my books was the first book that they have read since high school. And I love that. I think our job should be getting people into the ideas by whatever means necessary and whatever country point you know is as accessible to them as possible but i love that you're thinking about that and however it would help just let me know should we do one more anyone else um i know what you mean about you can't step into the same river twice and how that relates to books um but the first time i read confederacy of dunces i thought it laugh out loud funny and I would recommend it to people and then like 10 years later I read it I thought it was the saddest thing because I think it kind of relates to like and I think about that a lot and I like I and I I haven't been ready to read it again because I was just like what am I going to think of this yeah you know it's funny um because Ignatius Riley is a loser and it's funny because he's not aware that he's a loser.

15:26And it kind of depends on how, do you relate to him as a loser? Do you relate to him as someone who's better than all of you? I think it depends on where you are. But I was actually just thinking of this the other day because as we sort of see downtown Baskerville be revitalized, little new things are happening. And a guy started a hot dog cart on the corner. And I was getting a hot dog one day and I was like, you know what's there? Here, I have a book for you. And I went and I got him the Confederacy of Dunces, which I was so excited to be because like you, I thought it was the funniest and then as I was handing it to him, I was like, I hope he's not insulted.

15:58Like, I hope he's not. And it is interesting, like these books operate in different contexts and depending on where you are in your life at that moment, you get something totally different out of them, which is also why I think this idea of banning books that make us uncomfortable or challenge us or are controversial or inappropriate or whatever is so dangerous because what you see in it might be radically different than what somebody else sees in it. And once you start that process, that's what Fahrenheit 451 is. He has this very politically incorrect passage in the book that I won't repeat, but he goes, we banned these books because this minority group was offended.

16:40And we banned these books because this minority group was offended. And da, da, da, da, da. And the result is there was no reason to read anymore after they got rid of all those books. And so we never step in the same river twice. And then also everyone else is always stepping into their own river and their own version of the river and coming to it at a different time. And I think we have to have a lot of empathy and openness and patience with that. But I do think, I still think Confederacy of Tunsets holds up pretty well. It's pretty fucking funny. Thank you guys very much.

17:32Thanks so much for listening. If you could rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes, that would mean so much to us and it would really help the show. We appreciate it. And I'll see you next episode.

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