This Is What Living Through History Looks Like

"Perhaps you’re alarmed about the state of the world. Perhaps you’re horrified at the risks and dangers that lurk about. Pandemics, political chaos, riots, people at each other’s throats, unprecedented events—from cancelled NBA seasons to impeachments to a collapse in order in cities all over the world. What did you think living through history was going to be like?"Ryan talks about how we can best deal with the fits and spasms of history 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. This is what living through history looks like. Perhaps you're alarmed about the state of the world. Perhaps you're horrified at the risks and dangers that lurk about: pandemics, political chaos, people at each other's throats, unprecedented events from canceled NBA

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  seasons to impeachments to a massive toilet paper shortage. Well, what did you think that living through history was going to be like? It wasn't fun to live through the Watergate years, or the Six-Day War, or the oil embargo, or the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nobody wanted to experience one of the countless civil wars of the past, or the Reformation, or the Cultural Revolution. It was scary. It was weird. It was confusing. That's what history is. It's only the passage of time that turns down the volume on these things, that reduces them to a passage in a history book. At the time, nobody knew what was happening, where it would go, or what it would mean. And it's strange that we can take comfort

• 1:31Ryan Holiday?

  in this, but we can. Marcus Aurelius wanted us to bear in mind constantly that all of this has happened before, and will happen again. The same plot from beginning to end, the identical staging. Everyone who's ever lived, including you, has lived through history. They experienced the sausage being made, and that's never pretty, realized that's what's going on right now. That's what the Trump presidency is. That's what COVID-19 is. That's what climate change and so many other things are. These are historical events, and you're living through them, not passively, but actively. You have the chance To influence them, you have the opportunity to endure them with proper Stoicism,

• 2:14Ryan Holiday?

  which means not panicking, not betraying your principles. That means acting with courage, moderation, justice, and wisdom. And it's those last four virtues that we have engraved on our newest Daily Stoic Coin, the Four Virtues Coin: wisdom, justice, courage, moderation. These are the virtues that Marcus Aurelius, that Seneca, that all the Stoics who lived through turbulent historical times tried to live by. They're what I hope you try to live by. And if you want a physical manifestation of that, a reminder you can carry in your pocket like I do, you can check that out at dailystoic.com/virtues.