You Always Have The Power To Resist

"When one considers the notion of 'resignation and the principle of 'amor fati,' it might not seem like the Stoics and the idea of political resistance would go together. But this modern misconception would come as a surprise to the many tyrants and oppressors that found themselves in conflict with the Stoics over the centuries."Learn how a Stoic handles the presence of injustice in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanholidayInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholiday/Facebook: http://facebook.com/ryanholidayYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  You always have the power to resist. When one considers the notion of resignation and the principle of amor fati, it might not seem like the Stoics and the idea of political resistance would go together. But this modern impression would be a surprise to the many tyrants and oppressors that found themselves in conflict with the Stoics over the centuries. Caesar thought that Cato would roll over like every other opponent and obstacle that he had faced. That turned out very much not to be the case. Portia and her husband Brutus collaborated ultimately to assassinate Caesar in an attempt to restore the Republic. Agrippinus and Thracea and their obstinate resistance of Nero's tyranny

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  was a constant, exhausting drain on his rule. Indeed, it eventually killed him. The British thought they could roll over those Stoic-inspired revolutionaries in the colonies in 1776 and found that it was not that easy. Stockdale's captors assumed they could break him, but instead endured seven long years of his constant, almost inhuman resistance in that POW camp. The point being, a Stoic refuses to accept injustice and refuses to be intimidated. They resist any and all attempts to force them to do otherwise. In a famous speech to American suffragettes, the British civil rights activist Imaline Pankhurst expressed the sentiment perfectly, "Not just for women, but for all

• 1:57Ryan Holiday?

  forms of resistance. As long as women consent to be unjustly governed, they can be," she said. "But directly, women say, we withhold our consent. We will not be governed any longer, so long as..." That government is unjust. Not by the forces of civil war can you govern the very weakest woman. You can kill that woman, but she escapes you then. You cannot govern her. No power on earth can govern a human being, however feeble, who withholds his or her consent. You know what the title of that speech was? Freedom or Death? And where does that phrase come to us from? From Addison's famous play about Cato, which so inspired the founders of America that

• 2:39Ryan Holiday?

  they quoted it and remixed it for all posterity as, "Give me liberty or give me death." Let those words, let those examples burn themselves into your memory, into your soul where they belong. A stoic doesn't go quietly into that good night. A stoic fights tooth and nail for what is right. A stoic can't be broken. A stoic doesn't consent to injustice or tyranny. They fight, they give everything. They would rather die than submit. And when pushed, they've proven that. Thankfully, it's unlikely to come to that today, but that doesn't mean we can't take up their spirit and fight in our own way. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

• 3:24Ryan Holiday?

  And if you don't get the Daily Stoic email, go to dailystoic.com/email.