Stoic

Stoicism holds special appeal for the military.  When a shipmate tells me to "suck it up," I know she means this command, not as reprimand but encouragement, a reminder that the way through hardship or difficult circumstance begins with self-discipline.  "No man is free who is not a master of himself," said Epictetus, the Roman slave-turned-Stoic teacher.  Whether confronting a determined enemy on the battlefield, completing an arduous course in jungle warfare, or even preparing for a long separation from family, Stoicism encourages servicemen and women to harden themselves, mentally and physically, against inevitable suffering.

But do these books hold lessons for a modern peacetime audience, too? Enter Ryan Holiday. 

Beginning with the release of The Obstacle is the Way in 2014, Holiday has published no fewer than five books inspired by Stoics in the last seven years, each one drawing on ancient philosophy to reveal new insights into how we understand ourselves amid the challenges and disorientation of a hyper-digital, self-absorbed modern life.  Holiday's books are clear and focused, not on maintaining composure under fire or withstanding torture, but on everyday life, and readers have taken notice.  Professional athletes, venture capitalists, celebrities, and government executives are learning from Holiday what young George Washington likely learned from Fairfax: you don't control the world, you only control how you respond.

Sounds simple enough.  Perhaps so simple you'll forget the lesson as soon as you turn that final page and close the book.  Fortunately, Holiday has a plan to help make reading a "practice," something you can return to each day, incrementally building the habits needed to convert book learning into bone knowledge.  In The Daily Stoic, published in 2016, Holiday turns philosophy into a secular daily devotional, organizing selections and quotations from Stoic philosophers into 365 meditations on "wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living."  Now, he returns with a new title to help us apply the lessons of the ancient Stoics to our own business and personal lives, drafting mini-biographies of Zeno, Epictetus, Marcus, and others to illustrate timeless principles.  Below is an edited transcript of our recent telephone conversation about the new book, combat, and making time to cultivate an inner life.       

The new book is me taking a look at the biographies and profiles of the Stoics and doing this to say who the stoics are and what we can learn from them.

Because I've been reading and thinking about these books my whole life, too, the wisdom that has worked for me, well, my books hopefully make that a bit more accessible to people who should be reading Stoicism.

Basically, yes.  I try to take philosophically beautiful ideas and illustrate them in a way that is accessible, visual, and can become a ritual for people.  Most people read a book one time and are done with it, but I want to make reading a habit, a practice.  Earlier, you brought up that story about Mattis carrying a copy of Meditations in his rucksack.  I think that's a great illustration of what I'm talking about, but people don't need to carry the books around in their backpacks because they can keep this philosophy on their iPod, computers, or iPhones.  Mattis likely carried the Stoics with him because he needed 10-15 minutes of quiet time and reflection, even as bombs were going off or other things were happening. People don’t read the Stoics because they don’t take 10-15 minutes to themselves, and I try to make that easier.

I like the quote, "that which doesn't transmit creates its own darkness."  That’s an Aurelius quote on openness and acceptance. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. You need to create a mind as a vessel for wisdom.  The practice of a daily Stoic meditation makes it easier to cultivate the habits of self-discipline, control, and others.  People will criticize me as someone who is trying to get rich, but I can tell you from experience-- 

Right, like, writing a book on ancient philosophy is not the way to get it done.  

Julian the Apostate said to his critics that he spent far more time with the dead than the living.  To answer your question, 'yes,' I do.  Although I am not a veteran and would not want to over-represent the martial aspects of things I never experienced firsthand, unlike you, I know the oracle does say that you will become wise when you have conversations with the dead.  Over the last 15 years, I have come to live with these figures, and it is an immersive world to live with Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius -- it becomes almost real.  It’s a strange and insane but also a beautiful experience to become immersed.

That’s very kind.  Aurelius described history as the same thing happening over and over again, the idea of eternal recurrence.  You have experiences in war or philosophy or life, whatever a person is doing when a person experiences something and then goes and reads about it, you are struck by how similar everything is, and there is a realization that we have always essentially done things the same ways.  It’s beautiful but also humbling to see this repetitiousness.

I don't think so.

I do not admire the Cynics or the Zen Buddhists because Stoicism is a balance between a philosophical life and an active life.  I was introduced to Stoicism before I had my career, and I did not understand the ideas at the first read.  When I pivoted from my marketing life to my writing life, I realized that things were not going in the direction I wanted.  Just because you’re good at something doesn't mean you have to do it for the rest of your life.  I can say confidently that Stoicism helped me break the chain of recurrence, at least in that phase of life.  

Joseph Brodsky wrote an essay about walking through Rome, and I don’t know exactly what it means, but he walks by the Marcus Aurelius statue.  "If Aurelius is antiquity, then we are the ruins," he says. We may not be modern at all, in fact.  So, 'no,' I do not see myself that way.

Writing.  The Epicureans said, let’s retreat to our garden and avoid pain and enjoy pleasures, but the Stoics said that’s all well and good, but who is supposed to be in charge if everyone does that?  It’s not a strategy for all.  At least not if you want the Nation to head in the right direction, and Seneca is saying that man should and will be involved in public life and politics unless not possible.  Writing is my profession, and I have a career outside of writing books, but my obligation to public life is through my books and writing.

Combination. 

I very much relate to what you are talking about.  There are very few people that have managed to do enough in life that they do not look around and wonder, “how did they get that?”  This has to do with getting comfortable with yourself and taking care of a few people close to you in your life.  When we are younger, we associate success with the things we have in comparison to what others have, and that breeds jealousy.  But all the energy spent being jealous or criticizing others is energy that you cannot spend on what is inside your control, and it takes your focus away from whatever is right in front of you.  My book Ego is the Enemy came out in the fall of 2016 and it sold well, somewhere in the range of 600,000 - 700,000 copies, but I had breakfast with Steven Pressfield one time in Los Angeles, and his book Gates of Fire had sold a couple of million copies.  I wanted to know what that was like.  Steven said something to the effect of, "well, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand sold, like, 10 million copies."  So I understand how envy is evolutionarily productive, but then I remind myself that Epictetus says life comes down to what we can control and what we cannot control. We have the choice to begrudge someone’s success or to celebrate their success. 

Right.  Bottom line: there is a call for self-examination in Stoicism and, if you do that, you should reach a conclusion that "I did the best I could," and maybe it takes age to embrace that.  My point is that philosophy is not an abstract or theoretical thing, and though it seems to have no application to boot camp or military life, I suspect that it can.  For example, through reading, I know that Socrates was a hoplite infantryman, and on one occasion he had to make a retreat from battle, I think it was the Battle of--

That's right, the Battle of Delium.  Accounts of this retreat give proof that even during this trying and dangerous moment, Socrates was the picture of self-discipline and control, making an orderly retreat when others around him maybe were not so composed.  This shows that although Socrates was a soldier, he was also a philosopher; he had a calm mind, honed through reading and reflection, that enabled him to comprehend a complex situation.  Back then, philosophers were not turtleneck-wearing professors but artists, soldiers, politicians, and statesmen.  They did all these things, and so I think 'modern' people engaged in the business of work or military combat can reap some of these same benefits in their own lives by taking the time to read Stoic philosophy, by making it a practice to read and reflect.

Able Magwitch is a U.S. government employee. His views are his own and not representative of the U.S. government or its agencies.