Take What’s Good, Ignore The Rest

One of Seneca’s most powerful strategies comes from his time as a Senator. Speaking again of a thought from Epicurus, with which he only partly agrees, Seneca explains that he is so readily able to draw from the teachings of a rival school for his writing because of a trick he learned in the Roman senate. Whenever a fellow senator introduced a motion with which he was not in full agreement, he would ask the Senator to break the motion up into two parts, thus allowing other Senators to vote for the part they approved of and ignore or vote against the other part. It was this strategy that Seneca applied to Epicurus and, indeed, that all good politicians use to do their job—it’s called finding common ground. It’s focusing on where there is agreement rather than on where there is conflict. We could all use a little bit more of this in our lives. Philosophically, it’s fascinating how much Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism and Stoicism all have in common. We could spend a whole lifetime studying and learning from where these schools overlap...but that’s harder to do than holing up inside the school we were raised in and then locking the gates and slapping a label on anyone left on the outside. They are the other. We do this instinctively with our politics. Democrat or Republican. Liberal or Conservative. Globalist or Nationalist. We continually define ourselves in opposition to the other. And yet, with the exception of a small minority at the fringes of both ends of the spectrum, pretty much everyone agrees on the very big ideas about what makes a good life or what a good country looks like. Every parent wants the best for their child, just as every nation wants the best for its people. These are basic truths so deeply ingrained that we’ve begun to take them for granted and instead we have chosen to focus our attention only on what makes us different. Life would be better if we could rely on Seneca’s wisdom more often. We need to look for common ground and use it. We need to see the good in other people and in other ideas and ignore the rest, whenever possible. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a great line about how in marriage, it helps to be a little deaf. So too in the world of ideas and in living next to your fellow humans, does it pay to be able to turn a deaf ear or a blind eye every once in awhile. Most things are not in perpetual conflict with each other. And even when they are, there is still plenty of common ground. Let’s commit to focusing a bit more on that, on breaking things up into their constituent parts—like Seneca with so many pieces of a complicated motion—and accepting those parts wherever we can. See 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. Take what's good, ignore the rest. One of Seneca's most powerful strategies comes from his time as a senator. Speaking again of a thought from Epicurus, with which he only partly agrees, Seneca explains that he is so readily able to draw from the teachings of a rival school for his writings because of a trick he learned in the Roman Senate.

• 0:51Ryan Holiday?

  Whenever a fellow senator introduced a motion with which he was not in full agreement, he would ask the senator to break the motion up into two parts, thus allowing other senators to vote for the part they approved and ignore or vote against the other part. It was this strategy that Seneca applied to Epicurus, and indeed that all good politicians use to do their job. It's called finding common ground. It's focusing on where there is agreement rather than on where there is conflict. We could all use a little bit more of this in our lives. Philosophically, it's fascinating how much Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism and Stoicism all have in common. We could spend a whole lifetime studying and learning

• 1:35Ryan Holiday?

  from where these schools overlap, but that's harder to do than holding up inside the school where we were raised in and then locking the gates and slapping the label on anyone left on the outside, on making them an other. We do this instinctively with our politics, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, globalist or nationalist. We continually define ourselves in opposition to the other. And yet, with the exception of a small minority at the fringes of both sides of the spectrum, pretty much everyone agrees on the very big ideas about what makes a good life or what a good country looks like. Every parent wants the best for their child, just as every nation wants the best for its people. These are

• 2:16Ryan Holiday?

  basic truths so deeply ingrained that we've begun to take them for granted, and instead we have chosen to focus our attention only on what makes us different. Life would be better if we could rely on Seneca's wisdom more often. We need to look for the common ground and use it. We need to look for the good in other people and in other ideas and ignore the rest whenever possible. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a great line about how in marriage it helps to be a little deaf. So too in the world of ideas and in living next to your fellow humans, does it pay to be able to turn a deaf ear or a blind eye every once in a while? Most things are not in perpetual conflict with each other, and even when they are, there is still plenty of common ground.

• 2:59Ryan Holiday?

  Let's commit to focusing a bit more on that, on breaking things up into their constituent parts, like Seneca did with so many pieces of a complicated motion, and accepting those parts wherever we can.

• 3:13Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, just a heads up, we are running another Daily Stoic Challenge. This one is a 10-day Spring Forward Challenge. Spring is here, I hope you get ready, I hope you seize this opportunity. Our 10-day challenge is filled with all sorts of actionable stuff, more than 15,000 words of original content, custom video messages from me, challenges every day that'll help you simplify your life, gain control of your time, face your fears, expand your point of view, ban in harmful habits, do more with this existence you've been getting. Marcus Aurelius's line was, "You could be good today, instead you choose tomorrow." Well, choose today. Sign up for the 10-day Spring Forward Daily Stoic Challenge at dailystoic.com/challenge.