Would It Really Be Different? | How Do I Know If Ego Is Winning?
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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Would it really be different? If you were in their position, if you had their power, if the decision fell to you, you'd do it right. You would not be such a coward, you would not be so weak, you would not be driven to excess, you would not be selfish, you would do it right. Sitting on the outside, this is all easy to think, but as the lyrics to the song A Satisfied Mind go, if I had money, I would do things my way.
The problem is that we know how it actually goes. Power corrupts, wealth entitles, success distracts, people make excuses, people fall prey to the same traps, the ones that have existed since the days of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, and indeed for all time. We must understand that success, as the great Tennessee Williams put it, is a kind of catastrophe. It's something to be looked at suspiciously, something that will screw up your compass. The Stoics believe that we had to train in virtue to prepare for adversity, sure, but also for the fortunate situations in which we get our way, because this is precisely when we are most tempted and most under strain.
All of a sudden those ideals have a big price tag attached, all of a sudden there are fewer constraints upon us. And just like in adversity, we will find in these moments that our training is being put to the test. Did we really mean what we said? Are these values really important to us? Do we have the strength that Marx Realis did, for instance, to remain good when we don't actually have to be?
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