tonytan4ever · March 19, 2021 13:04 · tonytan4ever · Mar 19, 2021
diff --git a/Dictation 2021.03.18 b/Dictation 2021.03.18
 This is a film about Stoicism, and why you need more of it in your life, because as people seldom tell you, but we will, quietly,
 (Life is very difficult).

 Stoicism was a philosophy that flourished for 480 years in ancient Greece and Rome, as was popular with everyone from slaves to
 the aristocracy, because unlike so much philosophy, it was helpful, helpful when we panic, want to give up, despair, and rage
 at existence. We still honor this philosophy whenever I think of someone as brave, and without perhaps quite knowing why call
 them "stoic". 

 There were two great philosophers of stoicism. The first is the Roman writer and tutored Niero Seneca. He lived between AD 4 and
 AD 65. That's right, tutor to Nero, the infamous dicator who slept with his own mother, raped young boys, and just because he
 felt like it asked his old tutor -- Seneca -- to commit suicide in front of his own family. 

 And our other guide to Stoicism is the kind and magnanimous Roman Empire Marcus Aurelius AD 121 to 180, who was forced to spent
 most of his reign on the edges of the Empire, fighting off invincible Germanic hordes, but found time to write one of the great-
 -est work of philosophy The Meditations in his tent at night.

 There are two problems Stoicism can help us with in particular. The first is anxiety. When you're feeling anxious about something,
 most people are maddening. They believe it's their duty to cheer you up. However intelligent they might otherwise be, say things
 like, "It'll be Okay", "Don't worry", even "Cheer up!" -- The stoics were appalled. They hated any kind of consolation that aims
 to give the listener hope -- hope is the opium of the emotions, and must be stamped out conclusively for a person to stand any
 chance of inner peace, because hope only lifts you up higher for the eventual fall. 

 The stoics advises to take a different path. To be calm, one has to tell oneself something very dark -- "It will be terrible";
 "I might have to go to prison"; "The lump really could be malign"; "I probably will be fired and humiliated"; "My friends almost
 certainly will succeed"; -- but, a huge consoling stoic but, one must keep in mind, that one will nevertheless be Okay. Okay,
 because in the end, as Marcus Aurelius said, we are each of us "stronger" than we think.

 Prison won't be fun, nor will losing one's job, or being made a laughing stock, but one will get through it. Stoicism emboldens
 us against the worst fate can throw at us. And if you really, really, can't take it, suicide is always an option. The stoics
 mention this repeatedly. Here is Seneca: "Can you no longer see a road to freedom? It's right in front of you. You need only
 turn over your wrists."

 To build up an impression of one's own resilience, the sotics suggested on regularly rehearsed worst case scenarios. For example,
 twice a year, one should take off one's smart clothes, get into some dirty rags, sleep on a rug in a kitchen floor, and eat only
 stale bread and rain water from an animal's bowl, and thereby, you'll make it an amazing discovery, as Marcus Aurelius put it,
 "almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence."

 Another subject of interest to the stoics was anger. Romans were a bad-tempered lot. The stoics wanted to calm them down, but
 they did so by an unusual route: by intellectual argument. They proposed that getting angry isn't something you do by nature,
 because you have a Latin temper or somehow inherently hot-blooded. It's the result of being stupid of having the wrong ideas
 about life. Anger stems when misplaced hope smashes into unforeseen reality. We don't shout everytime something bad happens to
 us -- only when it's bad, and unexpected. 

 For example, you never shout just because it started raining, even though rain can be horrible -- because you've learned to
 expect rain. The same should apply to everything. Don't only expect rain -- expect betrayal, infamy, sadism, theft, humiliation,
 lust, greed, spite -- one will stop being so angry when one learns the true facts of the misery of life.

 The wise person should aim to reach a state, where simply nothing could suddenly disturb their peace of mind. Every tragedy
 should already be priced in. We're gonna leave you with the most beautiful remark that Seneca made just as Nero's guards were
 grabbing him and shoving him into a bathroom where he was meant to take a sharp knife and kill himself. His wife Paulina and 
 two children were panicking, weeping, clinging to his cloaks, but Seneca turned to them, pulled a weary smile at them, and 
 simply said: 
 "What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears."
 We have much to learn from the stoics.
	This is a film about Stoicism, and why you need more of it in your life, because as people seldom tell you, but we will, quietly,
	(Life is very difficult).

	Stoicism was a philosophy that flourished for 480 years in ancient Greece and Rome, as was popular with everyone from slaves to
	the aristocracy, because unlike so much philosophy, it was helpful, helpful when we panic, want to give up, despair, and rage
	at existence. We still honor this philosophy whenever I think of someone as brave, and without perhaps quite knowing why call
	them "stoic".

	There were two great philosophers of stoicism. The first is the Roman writer and tutored Niero Seneca. He lived between AD 4 and
	AD 65. That's right, tutor to Nero, the infamous dicator who slept with his own mother, raped young boys, and just because he
	felt like it asked his old tutor -- Seneca -- to commit suicide in front of his own family.

	And our other guide to Stoicism is the kind and magnanimous Roman Empire Marcus Aurelius AD 121 to 180, who was forced to spent
	most of his reign on the edges of the Empire, fighting off invincible Germanic hordes, but found time to write one of the great-
	-est work of philosophy The Meditations in his tent at night.

	There are two problems Stoicism can help us with in particular. The first is anxiety. When you're feeling anxious about something,
	most people are maddening. They believe it's their duty to cheer you up. However intelligent they might otherwise be, say things
	like, "It'll be Okay", "Don't worry", even "Cheer up!" -- The stoics were appalled. They hated any kind of consolation that aims
	to give the listener hope -- hope is the opium of the emotions, and must be stamped out conclusively for a person to stand any
	chance of inner peace, because hope only lifts you up higher for the eventual fall.

	The stoics advises to take a different path. To be calm, one has to tell oneself something very dark -- "It will be terrible";
	"I might have to go to prison"; "The lump really could be malign"; "I probably will be fired and humiliated"; "My friends almost
	certainly will succeed"; -- but, a huge consoling stoic but, one must keep in mind, that one will nevertheless be Okay. Okay,
	because in the end, as Marcus Aurelius said, we are each of us "stronger" than we think.

	Prison won't be fun, nor will losing one's job, or being made a laughing stock, but one will get through it. Stoicism emboldens
	us against the worst fate can throw at us. And if you really, really, can't take it, suicide is always an option. The stoics
	mention this repeatedly. Here is Seneca: "Can you no longer see a road to freedom? It's right in front of you. You need only
	turn over your wrists."

	To build up an impression of one's own resilience, the sotics suggested on regularly rehearsed worst case scenarios. For example,
	twice a year, one should take off one's smart clothes, get into some dirty rags, sleep on a rug in a kitchen floor, and eat only
	stale bread and rain water from an animal's bowl, and thereby, you'll make it an amazing discovery, as Marcus Aurelius put it,
	"almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence."

	Another subject of interest to the stoics was anger. Romans were a bad-tempered lot. The stoics wanted to calm them down, but
	they did so by an unusual route: by intellectual argument. They proposed that getting angry isn't something you do by nature,
	because you have a Latin temper or somehow inherently hot-blooded. It's the result of being stupid of having the wrong ideas
	about life. Anger stems when misplaced hope smashes into unforeseen reality. We don't shout everytime something bad happens to
	us -- only when it's bad, and unexpected.

	For example, you never shout just because it started raining, even though rain can be horrible -- because you've learned to
	expect rain. The same should apply to everything. Don't only expect rain -- expect betrayal, infamy, sadism, theft, humiliation,
	lust, greed, spite -- one will stop being so angry when one learns the true facts of the misery of life.

	The wise person should aim to reach a state, where simply nothing could suddenly disturb their peace of mind. Every tragedy
	should already be priced in. We're gonna leave you with the most beautiful remark that Seneca made just as Nero's guards were
	grabbing him and shoving him into a bathroom where he was meant to take a sharp knife and kill himself. His wife Paulina and
	two children were panicking, weeping, clinging to his cloaks, but Seneca turned to them, pulled a weary smile at them, and
	simply said:
	"What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears."
	We have much to learn from the stoics.