this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2025
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This is a funny comic, but I dislike how it perpetuates a common misunderstanding of stoicism that it’s about suppressing or ignoring your feelings, when it’s actually about engaging with your feelings as deeply, mindfully, and intentionally as possible. It’s about trying to understand why you feel the way you do, and also trying to understand how your feelings can lead you to acting in a manner which contradicts your values. A stoic master wouldn’t ignore their anger, especially if their anger is the result of witnessing their own teachings being misrepresented and used to further injustice. They would just be careful not to let their anger lead them to acting rashly and doing something which will ultimately undermine the virtues they want to cultivate in themselves and in the world.
Yeah.
But part of the problem was how Epictetus presented it himself.
Epictetus: Every time you look at your wife, imagine her already dead.
Marcus Aurelius: Treasure every moment you have with your wife, knowing that you have no control over whether you will still have her tomorrow.
They say the same thing, maybe? I don't know what was going on in Epictetus' head. But Epictetus was pretty brutal about his presentation. The difference being, probably, that one was an ex-slave, and the other an Emperor.
Also: it's common to attribute stoicism to Epictetus, but stoicism predates him by several hundred years. If there was any founder, it was Zeno. This always rustles my jimmies a little.
Oh, and, although not a stoic:
Diogenes: who needs a wife?
Yeah this is the problem with many things. Almost all philosophies have some merit but there are always many interpretations and thats were a lot of crap can come in.
I get this, but all the comic really says is that the artist either misunderstands stoicism or wishes to parody the typical understanding of it (or lack there of)