Stoicism Reeks
By: Ethan Hekker
Tags: Stoicism, Pop Culture, Life, Ryan Holiday, Philosophy

Marcus Aurelius chilling

In a seemingly-postmodern world, where the only certainty is uncertainty, and social media, AI, and other technological fluff have dominated our quarantined lives, it only makes sense that the Stoic writings of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus have leaped to the forefront of pop philosophy. Over the past few years, various authors have made themselves known by touting the importance of being calm in the face of a not-so-calm world: Ryan Holiday, probably the most noteworthy of them all, has written multiple bestsellers on how to use Stoic principles in everyday life over the past few years, and maintains a Daily Stoic newsletter with over 250K subscribers.

I’d like to pick on Holiday for a second. I don’t think he’s full of shit or anything. In fact, one of my first interactions with philosophy was actually due to him; my naive 18-year old self, stuck between studying at a community college and working at an overpriced ice cream parlor, didn’t really know what he was supposed to do with himself. So picking up The Obstacle is the Way felt like a pretty enlightening experience. He often drew from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and I immediately picked up Meditations afterwards and found that even more enlightening, considering it was coming from the founding father of Stoicism himself. Holiday isn’t bullshitting you when he tells you story after story, quote after quote from the Stoics he had read — he’s clearly done his studying and really believes in the messages they have to offer. But now, at the wise old age of 20, I think Holiday’s main messages, respectfully, lack self-awareness, and aren’t really up to par with how one should realistically act when confronted by life.

To provide some context as to what Stoicism is, the gist can be broken down into a handful of principles:

“It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them.” — Epictetus

You’re driving your car up to your place when you miss the little shard of glass in the corner of your eye. It pops your tire and you have to get it fixed. This would probably be a shitstain in the undergarments that is your day. Getting your tire replaced costs money, time, and boredom. But at the end of the day, isn’t it just a flat tire? This event means nothing in the long run, and you’re blessed with the ability to own a car that gets flat tires from time to time. “The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don’t.” — Marcus Aurelius

To live means to suffer, whether you feel like you suffer rarely or very often. It’s unavoidable. The only thing you can do about that is to live virtuously, so that you and the people you’re around might suffer a little bit less and make the world a little bit neater. “It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.” — Seneca

There’s only one thing you have absolute control over — your mind. The weather sucks, your professors suck, your neighbors suck. So what? You don’t have to worry about that. The great thing about your mind is that you can choose to focus on what matters to you. If you care about eating healthily, making six figures, moving to a highrise in Seattle, whatever it may be, you can focus on doing that. You have little-to-no control over a lot of things you worry about. So why bother worrying?

While these three principles theoretically seem nice and proper, they fail to fare well under real-life circumstances. This is just my issue with Ryan Holiday and other newfound Stoic authors. Holiday had worked for Tucker Max and Robert Greene, two other bestselling authors, immediately after dropping out of school at 19. He then became the Director of Marketing at American Apparel in his early 20s. I don’t know Holiday’s personal life. I’m sure he worked hard and earned those titles. But it’s fair to say that Holiday’s circumstances were, and are, much better than the average American’s, who live paycheck-to-paycheck. I’m not here to attack Holiday on a personal level, because I respect him; but Stoicism reeks of privilege. Is it fair to tell a man who rations his insulin that his unfortunate circumstances are all about perspective? Is it fair to tell the thousands of families who lost somebody to COVID-19 to simply make the best of what’s out of their control?

Life isn’t fair. We’re all keenly aware of that. America’s richest are the only ones to get richer in this pandemic. Minorities are profiled incessantly. The working class can’t afford an emergency trip in an ambulance, let alone the hospital bill thereafter. I suppose Stoicism isn’t entirely useless — it’s true that we can’t control a lot of what’s going on, and it’s not worth panicking over every tragedy that goes on somewhere in the world. But many people face incredibly-shitty odds, and they have no choice to get past them unless they fight tooth-and-nail for what they deserve — even then, it may not happen. There’s a complete misunderstanding stemming from privileged Stoics when they tell you about Stoicism’s life-changing core principles. Yes, we should make the best of our circumstances. But when those circumstances lead to a dead end, some of us can’t afford the ability to shrug our shoulders and move on.