The Wise Fool

But it is impossible to move some of the men of to-day, so that I think that I know now what I did not know before, the meaning of the familiar saying, 'A fool is not to be persuaded nor broken of his folly.' May it never be my lot to have for friend a wise fool: nothing is more difficult to handle.

Discourses of Epictetus

Book 2, Chapter 15

Ahh, the wise fool. How often in our daily lives--personally and through various media--do we encounter that person who thinks they are the guardians of the truth. We can see they are intelligent, well spoken, well read even, but they press their belief in some false idea that has been tested and found false over and over again. 

In a video, Slavoj Žižek quotes a communist commissar insisting that communism failed in the Soviet Union because it was never really implemented, that it had been corrupted by Stalin. And with the same reasoning, a staunch capitalist is shown offering the same logic following yet another massive economic collapse. He insists the failure of capitalism was a result of it being corrupted by too much government interference; that pure capitalism, like pure communism, has never really been tried. Both people represent the wise fool--men of great intellect who continue to cling to false ideas. 

These are world changing ideas that millions still cling to, which brings up the greater point: what ideas do we, as individuals, have that are false, that are damaging to our ability to lead good, meaningful lives. Do we overvalue the opinion of others? Do we give meaning to things rather than to people? Do we try to make ourselves "better" by buying some consumer product rather than working on the only thing that can make us better: our minds. Are we valuing the wrong things perhaps making false connections: money leading to love, or travel to enlightenment, or thinness to happiness. I'm not providing any answers here, but rather offering up the idea that we should examine our fool's wisdom.

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

John Maynard Keynes

Actions

That is why philosophers enjoin upon us 'not to be content with learning only, but to add practice as well and then training.'

Discourses of Epictetus

Just as an apple on a shelf means nothing to your body until it has been eaten, philosophy means nothing until it results in a change in our habits, in our ways of perceiving the world and the actions that result from that perception. I have a bookshelf of unread books that are merely stacks of paper until they are read and produce some change in my mind. That is not to say that knowledge for its own sake is not a good, but that philosophy should be like the food we eat, it should become a part of our lives and lead to a change in how we perceive the world and take action. The eaten apple becomes a part of our bone and blood so should the philosophy we take on as a guide change the way we perceive the world and alter the actions we take.

What you store away you have at hand and can show to others at will, but it does you no good except for the mere name of having it.

Discourses of Epictetus 

If I am to call myself a Stoic, I should keep it to myself and allow my actions to represent who I am rather than the spewing of words about this or that writing by some ancient. Firstly, I don't know all the words, and can only put forth here what I have spread before me in an open book with the words underlined. Do those underlined words mean anything if they are not reflected in my daily actions and thoughts. That's important. For as much as our way of interacting with the world should drive towards right action, our thoughts should be directed by our rational mind, our will. It is the way we filter the world to draw false conclusions that really get us into trouble. We draw conclusions that are not supported by the facts, by reality as it exists.

Poorly treated things tend to break.

Yesterday, for example, I put up some Christmas lights and ran into a few problems that resulted in an outpouring of expletives and threats of violence against the retail industry, lighting manufacturers, incompetent engineers, and the very concept of Christmas. But if I think logically, and look at the facts around my treatment of that string of lights, I am to blame. Did I not bundle them up without any thought for the delicate wires that connect the lights together? Did I not throw them into the corner of the garage with no consideration of their future use? Is it any wonder that their delicate wires would break and stop working? So with many things: careers, marriages, friendships, family, etc. We have to take care of those things we want to continue functioning. All of them are delicate things with connections that must be maintained and you can't just go to the hardware store to replace what no longer works. 

So we have to put our reading and thinking into action in activities both trivial and essential. When things go wrong, more often than not it is some action we did not take. Keep well.

Wasting Time

Yes, do just that, dear Lucilius: liberate yourself, and gather and save up time which until now was being taken from you by force or stealth or simply slipping away unnoticed. Convince yourself that the situation is as I describe it; some periods of time are snatched from us, some are stolen, and some simply seep away. Yet the most shameful loss is the loss due to carelessness. Indeed, if you consider things attentively, the greatest part of life slips away in failure, a great part in futility, and all of it in distraction. 

Selected Letters

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

What a tragedy it is to go through life and at the end, when there is little left, start to see how precious it is. It's like winning a lottery, and then when there is only $10,000 left starting to be thrifty. It's too late. We only have one precious life to live, but how much of our time is wasted in shopping, trivial entertainments, and other meaningless activities? Do we really have so much life that we can spend an entire day binge watching some mediocre television show? Since our lives are time, time should be that most precious thing we preserve and consume in the pursuit of meaningful activities? So then the bigger question becomes: What is a meaningful activity? One that makes you a better person, one that takes you closer to leading a good life of virtue. Watching 5 seasons of Breaking Bad in a week is not going to move anyone towards that goal. Spending three nights a week in a pub drinking with your "drinking buddies" is not going to help. 

How is it some have, with the same amount of time or even much less, produced so much? It is as if they lived a dozen lives compared to the little I have done. I suspect, through an act of pure will, they made a decision to use their time wisely, to dedicate it to activities that would amount to something meaningful. I don't mean making money or achieving great power, but rather being engaged in something that is good, that adds up to something. So there is the bigger question: What constitutes a meaningful life? That's a big one! 

We should look at our time as our most valuable resource to not be wasted. And each of us knows when we are wasting our time, when we are engaged in something that, in the end, adds nothing to our lives but a cloudy head with no real memories. Live well. 

Confession: Given the lack of entries on this blog over the past few weeks, as well as no meaningful updates to www.stoicfreedom.com, it's obvious I have been wasting my time. Yes, I did spend time on completing another painting, and starting a third one, but other than that the past few weeks have been a blur. Time to sort out what are meaningful activities and what are meaningless. Don't "kill time" use it to some good purpose. Since one way of measuring progress is to show results, and I have offered up the idea that painting is a meaningful activity, here is the second painting I have completed. Keep well.

The Road (24" x 30")