The US Election: How to be Stoic About It
By: David Breeden
Tags: Humanism, Unitarian Universalist, Stoicism, Election 2020

I have to admit right up front that I’m a completely unimaginative practitioner of Stoic meditation. After all, there’s not much of a point in re-inventing a 3000 year old wheel. In addition to that, we have some amazing contemporary practitioners and updaters of Stoicism, including the Humanist Stoic Massimo Pigliucci and the cognitive psychotherapist Donald Robertson. The following is a quick survey of Stoic meditations from Dr. Robertson’s book How to Think Like a Roman Emperor.

The key to practicing Stoicism is simply stated but oh-so difficult to do: Determine what you can change and what you can’t change. Then, do what you can about what you can change and don’t worry about what you can’t change. (Yes, the “Serenity Prayer” is a summary of this central Stoic point, without the “god” part.)

So, how to be a capital-S Stoic about the US election aftermath rather than hysterical or merely little-s stoic?

Donald Robertson outlines the meditation: Premeditation of Adversity, Contemplation of Death, Contemplation of the Whole, and Contemplation of the Sage.

Let’s apply the technique.

To begin: yes, there are people such as ballot counters and lawyers who are at the moment involved in processing the election. But most of us aren’t. I’m not. How about you? If you aren’t one of those people, guess what: you can’t change a thing. Stop worrying about it.

It’s not that simple, huh? Try these techniques:

Premeditation of Adversity. Cant stop doom-scrolling and thinking the worst? I’ll bet you’re actually not thinking the worst, and Stoics say you should: How about bloody civil war that kill hundreds of thousands, destroys the basic infrastructure of the nation, leading to widespread pestilence and famine, and invasion by — oh, let’s see — the Chinese. Compared to that, another several weeks of uncertainty doesn’t seem so bad, does it?

Contemplation of Death. Sure, the US election results will have a huge impact on the future direction of the United States. And, soon enough, you and I will be dead. Seriously. Dead people aren’t worried people. All the smoke and dust of government will mean nothing to us.

Contemplation of the Whole. Imagine a space-station view of earth. The US? Oh, hmmm. Can’t see such a thing on that beautiful green and blue planet, can you? Now, don’t sweat the small stuff. And national politics is small stuff.

Contemplation of the Sage. WWMAD? Think like a sage. What would one of the masters of Stoicism, such as the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, do? Actually, we know what he did do: He spent most of his time as the mightiest human being on the planet in military camps and on horseback fighting people who would eventually overwhelm the Empire anyway. Then, in the face of one of the worst plagues in human history, he put himself in harm’s way to improve the morale of fellow Romans. He died of the disease.

Doing what can be done and now worrying about what can’t be done. It’s simple. And the hardest spiritual practice of them all.

Go ahead: Be Stoic about it.

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