It’s A Series Of High Water Marks

“There’s a beautiful scene in Hunter S. Thompson’s dark memoir, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He talks about how just outside Las Vegas, in the shadow of the lights of the strip and the noise of the casinos, it’s possible to just barely discern the high water mark of the idealism of the 60s, which had by then, given way to the indulgences and selfishness of the 70s.”Ryan discusses how we can look at history as a constancy of peaks and valleys, and how we can use this perspective to guide the present, on 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 Daily Stoic: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.

• 0:05Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday 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, dailystoic.com.

• 0:26Ryan Holiday?

  It's a series of high watermarks. There's a beautiful scene in Hunter S. Thompson's dark memoir, Fear and Loathing, in Las Vegas. He talks about how "just outside Las Vegas, in the shadow of the lights of the Strip and the noise of the casinos, it's possible to just barely discern the high watermark of the idealism of the 60s, which had by then given way to the indulgences and the selfishness of the 70s." This is an interesting way to look at history, instead of some march of progress, as a kind of series of peaks and valleys, crests and crashes. For instance, historians often date the Antonine Age, the time of Marcus Aurelius, as the high watermark of the empire. What followed was the decline

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  and fall of Rome, and eventually, the Dark Ages. The Renaissance, where a lot of ancient philosophy was rediscovered, was a kind of high watermark. Conversely, the four years of the Confederacy, from 1861 to 1865, was the high watermark of slave power and white supremacy and oligarchy in the United States. The Nazi regime was a high watermark of evil which crested with the Holocaust. The question today, the thing we have some control over with our own choices and actions, is what kind of wave we're in. Will 2020 be the high watermark of incompetence and dysfunction, which eventually breaks, giving way to a new era of collectivism and collaboration? Or are we, in fact, in the middle of a receding

• 1:56Ryan Holiday?

  tide now, the decline of the post-war world order, and the prosperity that emerged after World War II, and was confirmed after the collapse of communism? Well, it all depends. It depends on you. It depends on us. Remember, the Stoics thought that history was the same thing happening over and over again. Marcus tried to get perspective by zooming out, by connecting to the rhythm of timeless events. At the same time, he did see it as his duty to try to lead the country in the right direction, tried to make a difference. He wanted his reign, his life, to contribute to a moment of goodness, knowing it would still eventually be punctuated by reaction and regression. So what will it be today? What will you do?

• 2:40Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Again, if you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. Just go to dailystoic.com/email. So check it out, dailystoic.com/email.