There’s a Bad Moon Rising

"The global economy was strong for over a decade. All sorts of wondrous new technology is cheaper than ever before. You might think this is cause for major celebration, and indeed, for many people, it was."Ryan talks about how we must always be ready for the future, good or bad, 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/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: 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. There's a bad moon rising. The global economy was strong for over a decade. There have been no major wars since the 1950s. There have been no nuclear bombs dropped in anger since 1945. All sorts of wondrous new technology is cheaper than ever before. You might think

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  that this is cause for major celebration, and indeed, for many people, it has been. Yet, for all the positivity of the last 12 months or so, you would have also heard, when you talk to smart people in politics and in finance, a growing and general sense of unease. For months, they had begun to think that setbacks or a reset were not just likely, but inevitable. Maybe it would be a war, maybe another recession, maybe it would be something related to climate change. Nobody was sure, but the experts all seemed to share a mood not unlike the lyrics to the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song. "I see a bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightning. I see

• 1:29Ryan Holiday?

  bad times today." While this might be a little depressing, it is, in fact, a very stoic exercise. Actually, it's quite close to one of the rules that Seneca swore by, as he wrote, "Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always to take full note of fortune's habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything it is in her power to do." A stoic is suspicious of a party that goes on too long or too much uninterrupted success. They know that what goes up must come down. It's not that they're afraid, it's just that they're ready. They enjoy good times like everyone else. But unlike everyone else, they don't get too comfortable while these times roll.

• 2:15Ryan Holiday?

  Indeed, would you believe that the original draft of this email, written way back in late 2019, actually contained lines about how there had been no truly deadly pandemics like those that had ravaged the world for most of human history? And it spoke of political unrest that spreads throughout the world. "Life is unpredictable. Fortune is fickle. Don't take good times for granted. Use them to prepare. Use them to grow strong and resilient, not fat and entitled. This way, you can thrive no matter what the state of the world is. It's important that you don't just speculate about these things, but plan for them. What would happen if things suddenly shifted? Would you be okay? Or would you be caught flat-footed?

• 2:59Ryan Holiday?

  What preparations have you made for far less peaceful times? What would you do if you lost your job or your income went down by half? Could you make do with less household help? Could you survive on your own? Because as scary and as bad as things are right now, or as unscathed as you might think you have been, they can still get worse. The moon may still be rising. More trouble may be on the way." Thanks for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. If you could leave us a review in iTunes, it helps a great deal. And of course, if you know anyone who would benefit from these messages, please spread the word. Thanks.