Virtue Is Contagious (and Has Obligations)

The line from Confucius was that “Virtue is never solitary; it always has neighbors.” What he meant by that was that good behavior and good thinking is contagious. In a way, virtue is like the homeowner who moves into a rundown neighborhood and through that investment and the cheerful improvements they make to their own home and the friends and family that follow, the block begins to turn around. It’s become a point of virtue-signaling these days to criticize this as “gentrification,” but of course that’s silly. We should want people to be doing this--not just in housing but in all walks of life. If politics is a snake pit of corruption and avarice, then good people should enter it and improve it, not simply denounce it. If capitalism is too selfish, then the caring should start businesses with better cultures (which, when successful, will steal market share from the bad actors). If a group has extreme or offensive views, it shouldn’t be cut off and isolated for fear of “normalizing it.” It should be normalized--by encouraging normal people to interact with it, correct it and prod these misguided people towards the right path. The silliness of Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged is the premise that the talented, brilliant people leave society to create their own utopia...because they weren’t appreciated enough by everyone else. What childish nonsense. Since Plato’s allegory of the cave, the duty of the philosopher and of the virtuous person is clear: To come back to the group and share one’s knowledge. To resist the urge to be the solitary wiseman and to instead be a good neighbor. Remember that today as you work on your studies. That the point of all this is to make the world--not just yourself--a better place. 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. Virtue is contagious and has obligations. The line from Confucius was that virtue is never solitary, it always has neighbors. What he meant by that was that good behavior and good thinking is contagious. In a way, virtue is like the homeowner who moves into

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  a rundown neighborhood, and through that investment and the cheerful improvements that they make to their own home and the friends and family that follow, the block begins to turn around. It's become a point of virtue signaling these days to criticize this as gentrification. But of course, that's silly. We should want people to be doing this, not just in housing, but in all walks of life. If politics is a snake pit of corruption and avarice, then good people should enter it and improve it, not simply denounce it. If capitalism is too selfish, then the caring should start businesses with better cultures, which, when successful, will steal market share from the bad actors. If a group has

• 1:28Ryan Holiday?

  extreme or offensive views, it shouldn't be cut off or isolated for fear of normalizing it. It should be normalized by encouraging normal people to interact with it, correct it, and prod these misguided people towards the right path. The silliness of Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged is the premise that the talented, brilliant people leave society to create their own utopia, because they weren't appreciated enough by everyone else. What childish nonsense. Since Plato's allegory of the cave, the duty of the philosopher and the virtuous person is clear: to come back to the group and share one's knowledge, to resist the urge to be the solitary wise man and to instead be a good neighbor.

• 2:14Ryan Holiday?

  Remember that today as you work on your studies, that the point of all of this is to make the world, not just yourself, a better place.

• 2:25Ryan Holiday?

  You