{"id":10604,"date":"2020-04-26T16:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T23:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=10604"},"modified":"2020-04-27T16:14:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T23:14:20","slug":"return-of-the-stoics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2020\/04\/26\/return-of-the-stoics\/","title":{"rendered":"Return of The Stoics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from The Guardian<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stoicism in a time of pandemic: how Marcus Aurelius can help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Donald Robertson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A bust of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Photograph: DEA\/G DAagli Orti\/De Agostini via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Meditations, by a Roman emperor who died in a plague named after him, has much to say about how to face fear, pain, anxiety and loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was the last famous Stoic philosopher of antiquity. During the last 14 years of his life he faced one of the worst plagues in European history. The Antonine Plague, named after him, was probably caused by a strain of the smallpox virus. It\u2019s estimated to have killed up to 5 million people, possibly including Marcus himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From AD166 to around AD180, repeated outbreaks occurred throughout the known world. Roman historians describe the legions being devastated, and entire towns and villages being depopulated and going to ruin. Rome itself was particularly badly affected, carts leaving the city each day piled high with dead bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the middle of this plague, Marcus wrote a book, known as The Meditations, which records the moral and psychological advice he gave himself at this time. He frequently applies Stoic philosophy to the challenges of coping with pain, illness, anxiety and loss. It\u2019s no stretch of the imagination to view The Meditations as a manual for developing precisely the mental resilience skills required to cope with a pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, because Stoics believe that our true good resides in our own character and actions, they would frequently remind themselves to distinguish between what\u2019s \u201cup to us\u201d and what isn\u2019t. Modern Stoics tend to call this \u201cthe dichotomy of control\u201d and many people find this distinction alone helpful in alleviating stress. What happens to me is never directly under my control, never\u00a0completely<\/em>\u00a0up to me, but my own thoughts and actions are \u2013 at least the\u00a0voluntary<\/em>\u00a0ones. The pandemic isn\u2019t really under my control but the way I behave in response to it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at The Guardian<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from The Guardian Stoicism in a time of pandemic: how Marcus Aurelius can help by Donald Robertson The Meditations, by a Roman emperor who died in a plague named after him, has much to say about how to face fear, pain, anxiety and loss. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was the last famous Stoic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}