Some Folks You Just Can’t Reach

"It’d be wonderful if everyone could agree on some very basic things. Like, you can’t use racial slurs. And no, you shouldn’t judge a person for their gender or their sexual orientation. It’d be wonderful if nobody littered, if people didn’t blast music at 2 AM, if we observed some standard rules of civility for behavior in public. It’d be wonderful if everyone wore a mask and socially distanced as much as possible until we kicked the ass of this pandemic that is killing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Obviously we’re not there. Not everyone can agree on these things, apparently. The line from Cool Hand Luke stands eternal: Some men you just can’t reach."Ryan describes how to deal with frustrating people 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 @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. Some folks you just can't reach. It would be wonderful if everyone could agree on basic stuff, like, no, you can't use racial slurs. No, you can't judge a person for their gender or their orientation. It'd be wonderful if nobody littered, if they didn't blast music at 2:00 a.m., if we observed some standard rules about what was acceptable

• 0:51Ryan Holiday?

  as far as behavior in public went. It'd be wonderful if everyone wore a mask and socially distanced as much as possible until we kicked the ass of this pandemic that is killing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. But obviously, we are not there. Obviously, not everyone can agree on these things. The line from Cool Hand Luke stands eternal: "Some men you just can't reach." It doesn't matter how eloquent you are, how many times you explain it, how right you are, it's true. As Marcus Aurelius writes, "You can talk until you're blue in the face, but they'll just keep on doing it." Because a world without selfish or ignorant or unreachable people is impossible, and from time to time,

• 1:33Ryan Holiday?

  we are going to bump into these people. Can you come to terms with that, or are you going to let it drive you crazy? Is it going to make you better? Or can you be happy reaching the people you can reach, happy standing on the common ground with the decent folks who are willing to gather with you there? And who knows, maybe eventually, belatedly, the others will come around, and it's not in your control if they do or don't, so you can't worry about it. 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.