fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
President Releases “List Of People I Will Pardon Just To Piss Off Pelosi, Progressives, And Pandemic Pussies”
By: Allan Ishac
Tags: Funny, Satire, Prison, Politics, Humor

President Releases “List Of People I Will Pardon Just To Piss Off Pelosi, Progressives, And Pandemic Pussies”

“The felons are coming to fuck up America, thank you very much.” (Credit: https://www.wsj.com)

Intent on doing as much damage to the country as possible before he is escorted from office, Donald Trump released an extensive list of, what he called, “People I Will Pardon Just To Piss Off Pelosi, Progressives, And Pandemic Pussies.”

Here are the names of some of the thieves, sex offenders, felons, mass murderers, GOP gangsters, terrorists, unscrupulous politicians, and other deplorable villains pulled from the list:

Paul Manafort: “Because he still has some of my Russia cash stashed in a foreign bank account somewhere, I EXONERATE HIM.” Son Of Sam: “I’m going to release that crazy Jew, Berkowitz, send him back to New York City, and get him to shoot coastal elites on Fifth Avenue for me.” Don Jr. and Eric: “I call this a pre-pardon. Just thinking ahead.” Phil Spector: “Murdering your own girlfriend isn’t really murder. Sometimes rough sex just gets out of hand. Plus he produced some great fucking songs. I think. Anyway, case dismissed!” Richard Nixon: “Yeah, I know he’s dead, but I’m going to pardon him again just to get under the skin of those liberal dickheads Woodward and Bernstein.” Harvey Weinstein: “He’s like a brother to me. Plus he says he still has some hotties he can introduce for some abuse. So, to the MeToo movement, I say #MeFreeHarvey! Haha.” Johann Robert Riss: “You gotta love a real Nazi who wipes out 184 wop civilians then dodges the law for, like, forever and lives to be in his nineties! Amazing survivor. Even though he’s in prison in Germany, I can still pardon him, so I will. And by the way…World War II…good people on both sides.” Sirhan Sirhan: “Fuck the Kennedys, this guy deserves to be back in the kitchen shouting Muslim shit.” Jared Fogle: “Come on, honestly, who hasn’t peeked at a little child porn? Besides the guy lost all that weight at Subways. That should count for something. Verdict? Free the kiddie freak!” Bill Maher: “Give me a day. I’m planning to have him arrested tomorrow to totally freak out Mr. Funny Man. After he shits his pants, I’ll release him and make him do community service in a Christian Bible camp. Son of an orangutan my ass, Maher. Fuck you.” Donald J. Trump: “I forgive me for everything. In addition to this pardon, I award me the largest severance package in history (winner!), the country of Greenland, and 72 virgin maidens. Now, I will return to the Fox Network, from whence I came.”

****

See more of my daily satirical posts here.

And here’s some more Donald Chump mockery while we wait for him to vacate. Check it out.
Gladiator School: Stories from Inside California’s Most Violent Juvenile Prison “Fifty-five fights”
By: David William Reeve
Tags: Social Justice, Prison, Photojournalism, Photo Essay, Photography

“Fifty-five fights”

Something has been on my mind. This episode of my life is all behind me. I live a different life now, and I don’t want to in any way glorify my past or this lifestyle. I want to share what I went through. This is not the person I am now. I value life now.

I remember coming to Los Angeles on a rainy, cold day when I was 14. My family had broken up, and I started a new life with my mother, brother, and sister. I was coming from a different country, and most of the time, I was alone at the house; my mom was working. I was always lonely. I never fit in.

I was a weakling, afraid of fights. I was scared to confront people, always quiet, and avoiding trouble. People would bully me, try to get over on me at school, make fun of me. I never stood up to them, never.

At junior high school in South Central Los Angeles, I met these guys who were gang members. I liked the way they dressed, the way they’d hang around; they would back each other up. Later in high school, I met the guys from 38th Street Gang, and I started hanging out. The gang was feared for the frequent homicides they committed; several of its members were already behind bars for murder. But they seemed okay, nice. They would treat me okay and back me up if there was any trouble. They made me feel safe, and I wanted to be part of it. I asked them what needed to be done to become part of the 38th Street gang.

They told me three guys would beat me up for 38 seconds.

I was scared, but I really wanted to be part of it.

“Well, I’m right here. Let’s do it.”

I was getting beat down and could hear the guy counting in the background, “1…2…3…4” he reached 30 and started counting backward. “29…28…” adding more seconds. It was alright with me. Even though I was hurting, I was so glad to be part of it. They introduced me to the older guys from the gang, who everyone seemed to look up to. Being with them, I felt protected.

I started looking for ways to be like them, not being the one who gets protection but protecting someone else. I got involved in drugs because I thought that would make me be like them.
Thanksgiving Freedom Feast
By: Famm Foundation
Tags: Thanksgiving, Famm, Prison, Holidays, Criminal Justice Reform

By Lynn Reece

Earlier this year, Lynn Reece was released from prison through compassionate release after 25 years behind bars. Before his incarceration, he ran a successful restaurant in Houston, The Real Meal, specializing in home-cooked food. FAMM asked Lynn, 71, to describe a Thanksgiving meal behind bars, and the meal he plans to cook this year. For his first Thanksgiving in freedom, he’s pulling out all the stops.

Prison Thanksgiving: Because so many prisoners are allergic to so many foods and seasonings, prison meals are bland, flat, and not really seasoned. Next, because of the quantity of people to be fed, in conjunction with a struggling budget for a very overcrowded system, the quality of the food is poor because there is an attempt to stretch food supply. Next, the prison cooks are rarely real cooks with experience. Now, consolidate all of the aforementioned and incorporate it into some processed turkey slices, processed ham slices, canned green beans, cornbread dressing blandly seasoned, regular mix-and-stir white or brown gravy, candied yams with no cinnamon, canned greens, cranberry sauce, and a biscuit, institutional pre-frozen pies and cake, maybe or maybe not a beverage, and no condiments — that’s your prison Thanksgiving meal.

Lynn’s Freedom Thanksgiving: Everything fresh, well-seasoned, and from scratch! Butterflied turkey stuffed with fresh seasoning and veggies, and baked in a cooking bag to preserve the flavor and moisture. Honey-baked ham with pineapple-sauce glaze. Beef pot roast with celery, onions, potatoes, and carrots. Fresh yeast rolls, candied yams with marshmallow topping, steamed broccoli, fresh green beans, mashed potatoes, my special cornbread dressing consisting of mushroom soup and yellow squash with sage, celery, and the traditional seasonings, giblets, gravy, pecan pie, coconut cake, sweet potato pie, and banana pudding. Cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, sweet pickles, olives, a wide array of condiments, and lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salads. Lemonade and iced tea.

Now, that’s what a compassionate release Thanksgiving dinner — after 25 years — looks like! Oh, and by the way, I am the cook, purchasing nothing pre-made! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

This Thanksgiving, FAMM is grateful for returning citizens like Lynn Reece, who are home thanks to reforms hard-fought and long in the works. We’re also thinking of all the people still behind bars serving unjust time made even more wrenching with the threat of COVID, now spreading rapidly through prisons. Like Lynn, we are grateful for freedom, and the chance to fight for others.

You can read more about Lynn Reece here.
You may be a criminal under U.S.
By: April M. Hamm, She They
Tags: Mental Health, Prison Industrial Complex, Prison Reform, Prison, Criminal Justice Reform

You may be a criminal under U.S. law, but as far as I’m concerned, solving a business problem for an untapped market is not a crime.

Failing to report income is a crime, but you strike me as someone who would report and deduct accordingly were your clients not ostracized and criminalized by society.

A real “criminal” with your intelligence would have found a way to simply cut in the right people on the deal to avoid getting caught and prevent lockup. (I’m assuming you didn’t spend enough time inside for that to be insulting).

As you pointed out, the prison-industrial-complex takes advantage of a vulnerable population (i.e. imprisoned people) and forces them into indentured servitude while making no provisions for healing and rehabilitation. (We can’t really call it slavery since you were paid something, but indentured servitude in this context is no better. It’s criminal, really).

You’re lucky to have survived and to not have succombed to depression, substance use, murder, and/or suicide yourself. What kept you going? Was it knowing that your time would be relatively short-lived? Was it having something relatively interesting to do? Making a friend? The sadistic hilarity of it all?

(Tbh, your experience reminds me of my time as a psych practitioner turned psych patient. I definitely needed the medication, but the rest of it was a joke and more like a prison than a hospital. Why law enforcement was and remains involved is beyond me. It wasn’t healing or rehabilitating at all).

Anyway, I’m glad you maintained a healthy skepticism and found ways to use your education and wits to make the best of a horrible situation.

I do hope, however, that you will find ways to “give back” to the imprisoned communities whose voices and stories would otherwise never reach the light of day (e.g. donate to mental health research, fight to end the school-to-prison-pipeline, advocate for prison reform, support mental health reform, etc).

Shining a light on the injustices of “criminal justice” in our country is a great first step and redeems you of any wrongdoing (perceived or otherwise) in my book.

But please do consider the ways in which you might use your education, finances, and other privileges to do more.

And finally, congratulations! Medium may take some time to master, but I know your book will be a wild success. I wish you all the best.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you think of any way I can help support your endeavors along the way.
Aunt Becky Goes to Prison
By: Michael A Wells - Infp Personality Type
Tags: Aunt Becky, Life Trauma, Prison, Lori Loughlin, College Scandal

Photo by Klemens Köpfle on Unsplash

By now you’ve likely heard that Aunt Becky went to prison. That would be Lori Anne Loughlin of Little House fame.

It seems that Ms. Loughlin and her husband got caught up in a college admissions cheating scandal. The idea was to buy their two daughters way into a prestigious college based on the premise that their admission was as athletic recruits. The girls in fact had little or no athletic abilities for which they were supposedly recruited.

The court case was strung out over what seemed to be an ungodly period of time. Whatever happened to the right to a speedy trial? Actually, it was likely more a product of defense motions and on-again-off-again suggestions they might plead, even though they maintained their innocence.

Ms. Laughlin was on my phone constantly (snippets of articles that popped up telling us how distraught she was. My laptop gave me ongoing updates. There were also reports of the children’s embarrassment and their strained relationship followed by make-ups and tears for Aunt Becky, er mommy. The girls are actually old enough to be in college so they are more like young women than children.

Ms. Laughlin, for her part in the scandal, was sentenced to two months in a minimum-security prison. I’m pretty certain the picture above is far worse than the setting she is in.

Still, we have continued to hear reports of how frightened she is by this whole thing. But please, she got to select her own prison that offers yoga, crochet, ceramics, and guitar theory.

There were numerous wealthy parents that bought into the scheme including other prominent names. I mean, I am sympathetic up to s point for the girls. I’m not certain how much they actually had to do with the plan to defraud the university. I find I can muster some compassion for Aunt Becky, et.al. but only in a limited amount.

Is anyone else out there finding her reports over the months leading up to reporting to prison, just a wee bit melodramatic? I fully recognize that this is likely a big change in her lifestyle. But two months?

I hope she is holding up. I hope she has made some new friends. I hope my vision of her sitting in the corner of a cell with a sharpie making hast tags on the wall as the days go by is simply my imagination going wild. I guess we won’t really know till she gets out and tells the world what it was like. I see a book deal here. Diary of Aunt Becky Down on the Farm. Maybe she can gain back proceeds to cover some of their fines that go with the prison term.
2. ASSAULT:. 2.1 Causing serious physical injury to…
By: Lex Sectator
Tags: Crime, Prison, Law, Prisoners, True Crime

2.1 Causing serious physical injury to another either with or without a weapon, or through the use of any substance, instrument or device which can cause physical injury.

2.2 Causing a person to come into contact with or throwing/projecting feces or body fluids, i.e., urine, blood, saliva, etc.

2.3 Subjecting an employee to physical contact by kissing or touching the sexual parts.

So the good news is you’re not on the hook for murder.

The most obvious way to violate rule 2.1 is to stab someone. Stabbing someone definitely, one hundred percent of the time is considered to have caused serious physical injury. If it was sharp, you were holding it, and you tried to put it into someone, you’re on the hook for violating rule 2.1.

Under state law you could in theory get up to a life sentence for this, but in practice as long as you stabbed another inmate they just give you anywhere from five to ten years and run it concurrent with what you’re already serving. If your sentence is long, it’s just something awkward to explain to a parole board whenever you become parole-eligible. (You will want to avoid saying “he had it coming”.) If your sentence is shorter than five or ten years you should not be stabbing people. Learn to box, or take anger management, or go to protective custody.

For some reason I always missed these. Stabbings aren’t extremely common, but they’re common enough that they happened in my general vicinity a dozen-odd times and I was always somewhere else when they actually went down. I went to dinner too late, or too early, or was in a different building, or something, every time.

Generally speaking, if you meant to kill someone with a knife you could’ve. (Neck, kidneys, or just keep stabbing.) Maybe you didn’t wanna deal with the Rule 1.1 and corresponding death penalty case, maybe you’re just not mad enough to want them dead, but for one reason or another you probably chose to wound them, not kill them.

This isn’t that common, but it’s a lot more common than actually killing someone. If you want to make someone pay or set an example so nobody wants to pick on you or screw you out of money? Well, a stabbing will probably do the trick.
Charles- I loved this.
By: The Crazy Chronicles
Tags: Overcoming Obstacles, Prison, Life Lessons, Positive Thinking

Charles- I loved this. I just made it off parole. I often say, since my release from prison, that it was a blessing in disguise. I needed the time for me, something needed to give in my life.

Every inmate has a personal journey you can let it beat you, or choose the time to reflect and make it into something positive. I share your philosophy, I think you nailed it in working through your own journey to the other side. We use to say, “ trust the process.”

Congratulations on your freedom, giving back (another thing I also try to do as well, helping someone truly trying to turn their life around. ) I met some very good people in prison, not everyone is a career criminal. We made a mistake, and I hope for anyone to own it, the first step to making a change. The world is full of possibilities, and we can come out better for it or let it take you down. I share my story too, your story was very cool, wisdom for anyone in life to overcome and succeed.

Thanks for a great story.
Thanks, Jennifer.
By: More Than Our Crimes
Tags: Prison, Justice

Thanks, Jennifer. Rob has been moved to a high-security penitentiary in Florida now, making it even harder for him to communicate and for us to collaborate. (This is Pam.) The USPC has a dismal track record, but YES, we are hoping for his parole!
“Correction Time”
Tags: Prison, Crime, Corrections

“Correction Time”

A lot of people dread the idea of being in a correctional facility talk less of actually being in one. Some say they would rather die than experience it. However, the justice system created prisons and sentences for an effective purpose which has advantages and disadvantages to both the victim of circumstance and the society.

Some disadvantages include:

Loss of freedom

Lack of quality meal

Exposure to violent environment

Lack or limited use of user friendly appliances (TV, mobile phones, computers and more)

Absence of loved ones (victim and society)

Increased labour

Mixture of people with dangerous habits

These disadvantages are dreadful but when compared to some crimes one might describe it as blissful. Other than punishing criminals for laws broken and to grant justice to the affected ones, the essence of creating these facilities is to free the world of as much criminals as possible thereby reducing crime rate relatively.

Time in a correctional facility is allocated by the judge preceding over a case based on the weight of the law the individual has been found guilty of breaking. The guilty party is to stay in the facility, abide by its rules, do the duties assigned until the duration of his penalty is served out. Sometimes the release is made earlier than supposed due to certain factors like approval due to good behaviour or cooperation, breakout and others.

The correctional facility and time spent in it has been testified by some to be productive. Some facilities endeavour to provide its inmates with development programs, books and recreational activities to keep them occupied and progressive. The most frequently mentioned advantage happens to be less distraction and more alone time to meditate and organise thoughts. Apparently being locked in forces one to learn to live without the usual habits and distraction that they may find hard to avoid on a normal day in the regular world and with so much time to do almost nothing some lost souls do some searching and discovering, evaluating and prioritizing, controlling and disciplining.

Good or bad, right or wrong has always been man’s daily deliberation since the beginning of time. The result you get most times depends on the choice you make. In prison some go in good come out bad, some go in bad come out worse but some go in bad and come out rehabilitated.
7 Thought-Provoking Excerpts from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
By: Aushaf Widisto
Tags: Stoicism, Advice, Philosophy, Marcus Aurelius, History

IV.

“To change your mind and defer to correction is not to sacrifice your independence; for such an act is your own, in pursuance of your own impulse, your own judgment, and your own thinking.” — Meditations 8:16

There’s a fine line between resolution and stubbornness.

Both involve a firm determination to do or not do something, but there’s a slight difference: Resolution is based on reason, and stubbornness is based on sheer will. Resolution is “determination after careful consideration,” and stubbornness is “determination just for the sake of it.”

Stubbornness, in particular, has a higher chance to cause logical errors. One example is the sunk-cost fallacy, where someone proceeds with a bad decision even when they know it’s wrong, simply because they’ve “already put too much” into that decision and refuse to change their mind.

But how could, and why would, someone be so stubborn?

Maybe it’s because we all want to be right. So much so that we’d be willing to lie to ourselves about it. Sometimes our preference becomes so skewed, it matters more to feel right than to actually be right.

Beneath that desire, lie notions of free-will and self-sovereignty. Perhaps, what we really want is not the “rightness” itself, but the ability to “think for ourselves” and to “not bow down to another’s words.” More than we want to be right, we want to be more right than others. We want to feel like we have the agency and independence to live in our own truth.

The thing is, that’s neither agency nor independence. That’s just us being enslaved by our primal impulses. In this case, “changing your mind” is not a submissive act. You’re not sacrificing your freedom. It is, in fact, the most rational and self-sovereign thing you can do.

A wise man is firm in his belief. A wiser man knows when to shift it.
About The Stoic Within
By: D.A. Digerolamo
Tags: Stoicism, Philosophy, Stoic, Mission, Stoic Philosophy

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Our Mission

Our mission at The Stoic Within is to help spread the history and application of the ancient philosophy so that individuals of today can live their best lives and handle the adversities that come with it.

Each week, we provide new content dedicated to the current day application of Stoicism through articles posted here as well as through our email newsletter and social media channels (@stoicwithin).

Monday Meditations

Every Monday morning we send our Monday Meditations, a short, action-filled email designed to help teach the philosophy in bite-sized chunks and immediately apply those teachings to life.

If interested, click here and subscribe.

By signing up, we’ll send you our most popular posts as well as grant you access to our private Facebook group to discuss the meditation.

We hope to see and speak with you soon. (We respond to all who reply to our Monday Meditations).

Write for Us

We welcome article submissions.

To submit an article, please contact us at stoicwithin[at]gmail.com. (You’ll need to create a Medium account if you do not have one). We will then add you as a writer to the publication so that you can submit articles. NOTE: Do not hit “publish” but instead add the draft to the publication and hit “submit”.

We’re looking for original content that helps individuals better themselves through the philosophy of Stoicism. We accept both short and longform articles.

All submissions should have a title and subtitle.

Article must include a picture and must credit the individual to whom it belongs. Medium offers writers the ability to quickly add pictures to the platform. When the + icon appears for a paragraph, click it and that will reveal a magnifying glass. Click the magnifying glass and search for a photo.

Submissions should have relevant keywords in the title and subtitle as well as throughout the article.

Articles should be at least 900 words in length.

We work with writers to refine their piece. We retain the right for final edit on the piece but will include the writer in the final version prior to publishing the article. The writer retains the right to remove their article from the publication if they so choose.

Do not submit articles that have been published elsewhere on Medium. If you previously published them outside of Medium, please feel free to submit to this publication.

Please read and follow Medium’s Best Practices.

Disclosure

The Stoic Within participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to Amazon. In other words, if you buy a book through one of our links, we earn a nominal commission.
Simple Stoic Advice
By: D.A. Digerolamo
Tags: Principles, Stoicism, Philosophy, Simple Stoic Advice, Stoic Philosophy

Simple Stoic Advice

Photo by Aleksandra Zelena on Unsplash

The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.

Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV.2:

Quote

“No random actions, none not based on underlying principles.”

Advice

The Stoics believed that everything in life was guided by Nature, or underlying principles. The Stoics in a sense tried to replicate this by making sure that each and every action taken had a reason behind it. This entry can be viewed as Marcus reminding himself that everything he did needed to be supported by a belief or rational. As Donald Robertson once explained, at an early age, Marcus was placed under the watchful eye of Hadrian, the emperor. During this time, the palace where Marcus lived was filled with people spying and lying on one another to get ahead. From this, Marcus probably attempted to find transparency as a way to combat these lies and spies that surrounded him. This is also why Stoicism was one of his favorite philosophies, it is built upon wisdom and transparency, getting to the heart of a matter.

Remember: If you are going to act, make sure that that action is supported by reason and an underlying principle which guides your life.
Five Books to Read in These Trying Times
By: Max. Speicher
Tags: Reading, Stoicism, Books, Reflections, Positivity

Life in the time of Covid-19 can be challenging — for some much more than for others. However, it’s also an excellent opportunity to reflect and read more — if you can afford the luxury of reading, that is. For those who can, in this article I want to recommend five books that I believe are essentials in trying times like these. If you also want to support those who can’t, please consider donating to an organization that promotes literacy, so that they can enjoy these wonderful pieces of literature as well sometime.

So, to cut to the chase, if you’re annoyed and frustrated by having to cover your mouth and nose with a piece of cloth, by those who constantly complain about that, or simply by the whole pandemic situation in general, I can highly recommend reading the following five books. They provide a great deal of positivity and help to reflect and put things in perspective. Or, at least they did for me, and I hope they can do the same for you.
Quote of the Day
By: D.A. Digerolamo
Tags: Stoicism, Philosophy, Stoic, Quote Of The Day, Stoic Philosophy

Learning to live a virtuous life through the fundamental teachings of the Stoics.
5 Stoic Strategies that Every Entrepreneur Should Know
By: João V Souza
Tags: Stoicism, Philosophy, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Business

1. Stop worrying about what you can’t control

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” —Epictetus

When I started my first company with three more partners in an office, I was a much more stressed person. One of the things that stressed me was that one of my partners usually got late to the office.

We didn’t have a specific time to start, but it was nice when we worked together in the office. Most of the time, he worked alone later than the rest of us, and because of that, couldn’t wake up early the next day. That stressed me a lot.

All of this stress didn’t allow me to work well. I was unproductive and made many mistakes. How many times did you notice yourself angry and not being able to get work done because of that? Is it worth all of this madness? Are you worried about what you can’t control?

We can’t control the world around us, external events, other people, nature, genetics, or the past. My partner wasn’t getting later than me to stress me. He was working later to help the company make money. I was working earlier in the morning for that.

I was unhappy and unproductive because of an assumption that I had about everyone being at the same time working together. I could have talked to him about its importance and how I felt when we didn’t do it. Stress wasn’t a wise choice.
15 Menit Bibir Ini Untuk Marcus Aurelius
By: Just Call Me Biey
Tags: Stoicism, Stoisisme, Marcus Aurelius

18 | currently a lawstud at UPNV Jakarta, and (blessing) be part of zeno’s student in stoicism
This is a funny take on the glass half full argument.
By: Drew Schillinger
Tags: Stoicism, Perserverance, Gratitude

This is a funny take on the glass half full argument. And Jessica Wildfire makes a valid point about expectation vs reality.

As much truth and humor Jessica displays, there is ample room to improve this outlook: tactical pessimism in the form of gratitude.

Gratitude for where we are vs where we are not.

I’m not sure if Jessica is aware that she makes a strong Stoic case. Replace the word “pessimist" with the phrase “at this present moment with our present knowledge" and you have the basis of Meditations.

Once one is able to reflect on this, is able to understand that this pandemic has been hard on some and devastating on others, and can value the parts of our lives we’ve been able to hold onto, one could then add hope to the mix.

Hope, in a Stoic or Buddhist sense — hope in a sense that either the external pressures will ease up or our internal fortifications will continue to rise to the challenges.

Moving forward in the face of challenge and loss is challenging and often feels (at the time) unrewarding.

However, looking back at what challenges we’ve been able to overcome — understanding that because we are able to have survived the problems of our past we are able to adapt and learn what works — that we have the tools we need to keep moving forward.

Once we’re able to appreciate what we’ve learned, gained, and held onto despite our personal and ongoing adversities, we gain something stronger and more tangible than baseless hope — we gain gratitude.
Not So Stoic
By: Terry Mansfield
Tags: Stoicism, Life, Poetry, Humor, Self

Hi! I’m Terry Mansfield and I Specialize in Eclecticism

Here are some things about me you probably don’t know (and maybe don’t even care to know; sorry about that).
Good article.
By: Angela Volkov
Tags: Stoicism, Social Anxiety

Good article.

Not advice directed at the author, but some people may find Stoicism helpful. Think about everything that could potentially go wrong and develop strategies accordingly. Most suffering is imagined rather than experienced etc. (One such strategy is keeping expectations so low you’re guaranteed exactly the pain and disappointment you anticipated… but no more than that.)

Also, self-awareness is key, if the discomfort of interacting with friends is viewed as too onerous, then one might not consider this a priority. Many people feel their needs are met by their immediate family, so ultimately interactions outside of that aren’t worth the effort/anxiety that everyone feels to a degree. And that’s OK too, and may be the real root cause others are accurately picking up on.
Quote of the Day
By: D.A. Digerolamo
Tags: Viktor Frankl, Stoicism, Logotherapy, Mans Search For Meaning, Psychology

Learning to live a virtuous life through the fundamental teachings of the Stoics.
The Stoic Journal — I started a daily newsletter
By: Timmu Tõke
Tags: Self Improvement, Stoicism, Mental Health, Philosophy, Newsletter

The Stoic Journal — I started a daily newsletter

This is my Marcus Aurelius tattoo

Marcus Aurelius wrote the “Meditations” to paint his soul with the color of his thoughts. He wrote it to examine his life, enforce his principles. He wrote it to move one step closer to becoming the ideal version of himself every day.

“Your soul is painted with the colour of your thoughts” — Marcus Aurelius

This is also the idea that ultimately brought me to journaling. My goal is to paint my soul with the principles and thoughts of my ideal self. I want to have the right mindset for a healthy, wealthy, and happy life.

But what’s the right color?

I want to be productive. I want to be happy. I want to be successful. I want to do the right thing. I haven’t found a better framework for achieving the above than Stoicism.

Want to be productive? Focus on the task at hand, do it the best you can, and don’t worry about the past or the future. Live in the present, do your best work here and now. Understand that today might be the last day you have on this planet. Make it count.

Want to be happy? Don’t worry about the externals, don’t think about the things you don’t control. Create the right mindset and value-judgments about things in life. Focus on the only part you control — your thoughts and your actions in the present. Love your destiny and play its cards like they are your own. Enjoy the ride.

Want to be successful? This is an interesting one. It’s something we control and at the same time something we don’t. No doubt you have to work hard and have some talent if you want to be successful. And then you also need some luck. Understand the things that contribute to increasing the chances of your success and focus on improving them as much as you possibly can. Leave the rest for the universe to play out.

Want to do the right thing? Be a social animal. Do good acts, act according to nature, and leave the world in a slightly better condition than when you entered it.

Now what?

I’ve been an avid learner of Stoicism for around 5 years and I am yet to find a principle that doesn’t help me live a better life. This is why I have decided to enforce Stoic principles in myself.

My daily Stoic newsletter is me doing just that — enforcing the principles and painting my soul with the color of my thoughts. To become the ideal version of myself.

I write almost daily, whenever I have the time and the inspiration to do so.

Welcome to the journey, I hope you find this helpful.

Get it here:

The Stoic Journal
Using AWS Neptune to Visualise Ancient Philosophy
By: Oli Rowlands
Tags: Stoicism, AWS, Lambda, Neptune

The Inner Citadel

The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot is a thorough analysis of The Meditations, the book goes a long way to identifying the relationships that exist between Marcus’s hypomnemata and the dogma of Stoic philosophy. These rules, the three rules of life as Hadot refers to them “correspond to the three activities of the soul: judgment, desire, and impulse; and to the three domains of reality: our individual faculty of judgment, universal Nature, and human nature.”

For Marcus, these rules were a phronetic/ethical process and there is marked similarity between this method of analysis, perspective management, and action and OODA, a more modern decision-making framework.

The table above shows the taxonomy or model that a number of the Meditations can be seen aligning to and the first cut of our dataset will bring these relationships to light and show which meditations apply to which domain.

This dataset alone wouldn’t warrant a graph db but there are further relationships that are interesting to model on top of these, they include the alignment of other author works to the taxonomy (e.g. Epictetus, Seneca to start), and the mapping of relationships that exist between author, dogma, and practices intended to achieve real-world outcomes e.g. “the view from above”. Further, over time methods that originated before Stoicism and can be found after will add another dimension e.g. the Scrum retrospective, the Pythagoreans liked a good retro as did the Stoics, and so on and so forth. Fundamentally ancient philosophies were holistic systems of thought and action and are the cornerstones of much of today’s life, to some extent I believe this can be modeled and so can the synthesis of this knowledge over time.

So the overall vision of this project is to copy someone else’s architecture and use it to visualize a bunch of older dudes’ thought processes and to see how those cornerstones of wisdom synthesized over time. Maybe, we’ll see.

https://aws.amazon.com/neptune/
The Stoic Within Interviews
By: D.A. Digerolamo
Tags: Stoic Phiosophy, Stoicism, Philosophy, Books, Interview

The Stoic Within Interviews

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Below is a list with links to interviews we have had with some of the foremost thinkers on the topic of Stoicism. This list is updated periodically.

Donald Robertson (Author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor)
Quote of the Day
By: D.A. Digerolamo
Tags: Stoicism, Growth, Philosophy, Marcus Aurelius, Quote Of The Day

Quote of the Day

“Don’t pay attention to other people’s minds. Look straight ahead where nature is leading you.”
When you can’t change your situation, change your thoughts
By: Rob Arthur
Tags: Self-awareness, Mindfulness, Stoicism, Introspection, Adversity

It’s easy to think that if our situation changed, we’d be happier.

If we could save more for retirement.

Had stronger friendships.

Found a more satisfying job.

Improved our health.

There’s nearly always room for improvement in these areas.

Yet, we often overlook that things could be much worse.

That there are those whose situations we might envy who are just as unhappy as we are.

And those whose situations we see as worse than our own who are much happier.

The difference lies in how each of us view our own situations.

What we expect of ourselves and the world.

How our experiences align with those expectations.

Much of our unhappiness is rooted in a difference between the two.

Your happiness is not dependent on your situation.

It’s dependent on your thoughts about your situation.

Not what’s going on around you.

But what you think about what’s going on around you.

When you can’t change your situation, change your thoughts.

What’s keeping you from being happy?

What can you do about it?

If nothing, how can you think about it differently?

Explore ways to view it as an opportunity?

Search for potential benefits from the experience?

Or even simply work to accept it?

Do what you can.

That’s all you can do.

And that’s enough.

You’re enough.

You’ve got this.
How To Be Happier Right Now
By: Johannes Thor
Tags: Self Improvement, Mindfulness, Stoicism, Happiness, Personal Development

How To Be Happier Right Now

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” - Abraham Lincoln

You are unhappy, or not as happy as you should be, right? You don’t feel appreciated. Or perhaps you keep fighting with the people close to you. Maybe you’re afraid. Or maybe there’s nothing wrong, you’re just unhappy. But you can be happier right now with one simple question.

Photo by Nathan Cowley on Pexels.com

I hate the quote above by Lincoln. Because it holds me accountable. When I’m unhappy, I don’t like to take the blame. I prefer to place it somewhere else. I’ve paid good money to have a professional tell me as much.

So, how do you become happier?

I can teach you to be happier. Not deliriously happy, mind you, just happier than you are right now. I’m not a wizard.

In my bag of tricks are several simple methods to relieve myself of pain. This is not a productive way to be happy, but it can be useful to break a negativity cycle dead in its tracks. A few examples are

Drink a cup of hot chocolate Listen to your favorite song Read a book

But that’s not what I want to teach you.

The question you need to ask yourself to become happier right now

What I want to teach you is a method that has the ability to free you of worries in the moment, no matter the circumstances.

Start by thinking about what it is that’s troubling you. Whatever it is, I want you to think very specifically about it. Picture the source of worry vividly in your mind. Let the anxiety start bubbling up. Can you feel it?

Now, ask yourself this question:

Does this affect me right now?

Let the question sit for a moment.

You will start by answering “Yes, it troubles me right now.” But ask yourself again, does it really affect you right now?

You will find that most of your worries are about things that affect us in the future at some point. Most of the things I worry about will never happen, I just make things up that might.

That question can and will make you happier, right now, if you can learn to accept the reality that right now, what you’re anxious about isn’t affecting you.
6 Stoic Quotes That Got Me Through the Year
By: Owen Lloyd
Tags: Self Improvement, Stoicism, Life, Life Lessons, Philosophy

6 Stoic Quotes That Got Me Through the Year

Photo by Alex Voulgaris on Unsplash

I have always been a fan of the stoics.

Like many, I find their philosophy to be extremely simple and applicable to our everyday lives. While many philosophers tend to ramble through overly convoluted, barely comprehensible monologues, the stoics put a focus on creating a practical philosophy, one than somebody could pick up and start to follow in a matter of an hour to two if they were so inclined.

The year 2020 has been a good one to be a stoic. In fact, there are times when it has been absolutely necessary in order to keep ourselves sane.

While traversing a long period of illness due to long-haul COVID, I had to stay grounded. Stoicism allowed me to get through the worst days of my illness and come out of it stronger.

I tried to stick to the philosophy as a whole and incorporate the teachings of all the great stoics. However, there were some specific quotes that stuck with me, ones I kept coming back to when I felt as though I was at the end of my tether.

The words of the stoics always give me such a boost, and remind me to keep going.
A unique opportunity
By: Martin Síbulo Ocanto
Tags: Stoic Phiosophy, Thoughts, Stoicism, Philosophy, Stoic

Every day, is an opportunity to discover beauty in the nature around us, not only connecting with other people but also, renewing the bonds with our loved ones; to discover beauty connecting with ourselves introspectively; every day itself is a unique opportunity to find our inner voice. And a fundamental part of it, is to realize that we don’t need to change the world to do that, we need to change the way we perceive the world, thus changing our inner landscape. Doing so, we might become a beacon for other people’s lives, and maybe then, transforming a bit of the world we see around us.
Product Feature: DailyStoic Exercises
By: Shivangi Saxena
Tags: Stoicism, Product Management, Application, India, Productivity

DailyStoic Exercises is a mobile app with stoic exercises. I installed it but honestly it doesn’t do anything for user retention.

There are some exercises such as the ones mentioned below:

Some of the features that I would have loved to see:

Action Tracking

Without the action tracking, this app can be reduced to a PDF. There has to be an element of implementation and gamified version to make it stick.

2. PUSH Notifications

Although, the notifications are never an answer but in this case they are. Engaging the user to complete an exercise a day can be gamechanger.
Other Articles on Stoicism
By: D.A. Digerolamo
Tags: Writing, Stoicism, Philosophy, Articles, Stoic

Other Articles on Stoicism

Photo by Ehud Neuhaus on Unsplash

Throughout the years, we have written for other publications. Below is a list of those publications and the stories on their publications.

Stoicism — Philosophy as a Way of Life

Managed and edited by Donald Robertson, author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor.

The Stoic Dichotomy of Control

Based upon Epictetus’s Dichotomy of Control, this article discusses the basic understanding of the tenet.

The First Principles of Marcus Aurelius

This articles discusses how to break events into their most basic form to better understand them.

How to be Virtuous

Virtue living through the Stoics.

Accept Death as Ever Present

Accepting death is hard. Understanding that it is ever present provides us with a better understanding of the time we have on earth.

The Art of Being Indifferent

How do we handle things? What value-judgments do we apply to every day life? The Stoics teach us how to be indifferent.

Accepting One’s Fate

Who controls their fate? Is it determined by the actions we take or by an all seeing god?

How to Stay Present

How to focus on the here and now.

Stoicism and Facing Change

Life is a continuous series of changes. How can we accept this and embrace it?

7 Key Stoic Strategies to Win the Day

Seven Stoic exercises to immediately add into your daily routine.

You’re Alive, Now What?

A sample of our Monday Meditations. Deals with Stoic exercises to live more in the moment.

Don’t Let it Break You

A sample of our Monday Meditations. Deals with ways to overcome adversity.
What if you spent less time dwelling and more time doing?
By: Rob Arthur
Tags: Self Love, Self-awareness, Stoicism, Motivation, Inspiration

We’ve all got circumstances holding us back.

Mistakes we’ve made.

Opportunities we’ve missed.

How others have treated us.

Being in the right place at the right time.

Even our genetics.

Many of us dwell on these circumstances.

Letting them replay over and over again in our heads.

Feeling like a victim.

Telling ourselves, and perhaps others, that life isn’t fair.

That we’re unlucky.

This may be true.

But what are you going to do about it?

You may have been wronged.

You may have made mistakes.

You may have had fewer opportunities.

You may face plenty of legitimate obstacles.

Dwelling on them won’t make your life any better.

Only action will do that.

What if you spent less time dwelling and more time doing?

You might not overcome every obstacle you face.

You might make irreconcilable mistakes.

You might miss opportunities.

That’s okay.

Do what you can.

That’s all you can do.

One step at a time.

What step can you take today?

You’ve got this.
The Weekly 3, 2, One (3 Tiny Things, 2 Quotes, and One Last Thought)
By: Marc W. Crayton
Tags: Stoicism, Movement, Wisdom

3 Tiny Movement Things

Simply walking on a regular basis may help improve:

Immune function; Mood; Lower stress.

2 Quotes

“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.”-Publilius Syrus

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”-Robert Louis Stevenson

One Last Thought

You can choose to allow negative thoughts and feedback to break you down, or you can choose to use those negative thoughts and feedback as fuel to build you up.
Book recommendations for the budding Stoic #1
By: Enda Harte
Tags: Stoicism, Book Recommendations, Philosophy, Mindset, Stoic

Hello Comrades! It can be convenient and certainly appropriate to get caught up in online learning and reading articles. However, there’s something liberating and almost magical about picking up a physical book in today’s world where digital services dominate, and rightly so, wouldn’t you agree?

When running my community page “World of Stoics” for the last month (give or take a week) I’ve been asked by my fellow comrades for a list of books that would be useful for someone who is new to the philosophy and it’s core concepts: So here they are 👇

The Stoic Guide to a Happy Life by Massimo Pigliucci

Book 1: The Stoic Guide to a Happy Life

I’d call this one a modern-day (Enchiridion) handbook that you can dip in and out of, or digest in one sitting. Massimo Pigliucci is a professor of Philosophy in N.Y.C and a practicing Stoic. This book is key for any budding Stoic as it covers “Epictetean Philosophy” in a nutshell and offers guidance on how to deal with various situations you may face in modern life, as well as a conceptual map of Epictetus’ Enchiridion and Massimo’s modernised guide.
Shane’s Take — Lives of the Stoics
By: Shane J. Orr
Tags: Books, Stoicism, Philosophy, Book Review

I’m a huge fan of stoic philosophy. In fact, I’d consider myself a stoic. I’m also a big fan of Ryan Holiday. Without his book recommendations, I wouldn’t have found some of the great books that I’ve read over the past few years. Given the title of the book, I was hoping to get more of the “art of living”. Instead, this book focuses heavily on the “lives of the stoics”. In fact, it’s a collection of mini-biographies of stoic philosophers in chronological order. There are some examples of how stoic beliefs shaped the decisions and lives of these followers, but it skews more historical than philosophical most of the time. I do appreciate that some of the lesser-known stoics were covered, but I don’t think that was quite enough to put the content on my favorite list.

I give this a *** out of *****