As always, thanks for your thought-provoking article. You have spurred some thoughts of my own..
Some things in our lives really are like Sisyphus' boulder. The boulders are unchosen duties/responsibilities or a life circumstance that we truly cannot change. For the boulders in our lives, yes, mentally struggling against the thing you have to do will only cause more suffering. The heroic choice is also the rational one.
My sense is that in the society that gave birth to Stoicism, there was very little personal freedom for most people. I imagine it was a much more rigidly hierarchical society where, based on the circumstance of their birth, people were simply expected to pursue those activities appropriate to their station in life. Since you were unlikely to be able to change your circumstances or influence society, you might as well get on with it and start pushing your boulder up the hill! Don't spend time worrying about the justice or morality of it, you can't change it - that's just Nature, so start pushing!
Maybe I'm just projecting my own issues here (ahem... yes!), but it seems like the bigger problem we have in modern life is dealing with the problem of freedom. For more affluent and liberal societies, the range of options for most people has expanded exponentially. Yes, there are still boulders, but for many people wishing to pursue virtue the great source of anxiety is how to choose among the many possible good directions in life? What tasks to purse? Which social problems to try to influence? What ways to try to make society better?
Stoicism wisely says we should let go of the things that are out of our control - and embrace the tasks that are required of us. But the freedom and possibilities for the individual in modern life demand an additional kind of wisdom and discernment -- how to choose which between good activities to pursue (and to what extent) and how to let go of all the rest. There were obvious natural limits of individual influence in ancient times, but today the challenge is to identify and make peace with our own limits.
Does Stoicism have anything to say on this problem? Virtue can be pursued in just about any arena... how do we choose which arenas to play in? Which problem to work on? Is there a hierarchy of responsibilities we have? How might we weight those? How do we choose?
As we have seen many people have relinquished their command center and behave mindlessly. It seems they have many choices but in reality their impressions and beliefs drive the bus. Their freedom is very limited.
As you say, though, with some degree of mindfulness, we do have many choices. To be spread too thin with no discernment is to sap our effectiveness.
I have been considering books by Cal Newport for MIndset Shifts U. Cal is a computer science professor who has done great work in helping answer some of your questions.
Perfect timing Barry. In the middle of pushing that boulder up the mountain with a friend and client. This was a very helpful reminder to keep on keeping on. The process is the substance that nourishes in the present
Well this article, if I am open to listen, provides the very answer to my question in the comments on the previous about everything having happened before and without fail happening again. I like the thought of the reset every day at the bottom of the hill being a source of happiness. To lock you into a process in which the task is laid out before you and you attend to it with wholehearted attention and devotion. That is something actually that Jordan Peterson talks about - that in order to be free one needs boundaries and that endless freedom represents a prison in one's mind, not freedom. That much of the anxiety of the day is related to the seemingly boundless possibilities but an inability to form those boundaries for yourself and set yourself to that task. What a lovely and refreshing thought that represents but how much harder it is to do than it sounds. To lock yourself into your duty, to build those boundaries that will provide your mind with the freedom is so desires rather than to run from selecting a path. The Fear of Missing Out which is really the Fear of Failure. If I choose the path and I choose wrong I only have myself to blame.
As always, thanks for your thought-provoking article. You have spurred some thoughts of my own..
Some things in our lives really are like Sisyphus' boulder. The boulders are unchosen duties/responsibilities or a life circumstance that we truly cannot change. For the boulders in our lives, yes, mentally struggling against the thing you have to do will only cause more suffering. The heroic choice is also the rational one.
My sense is that in the society that gave birth to Stoicism, there was very little personal freedom for most people. I imagine it was a much more rigidly hierarchical society where, based on the circumstance of their birth, people were simply expected to pursue those activities appropriate to their station in life. Since you were unlikely to be able to change your circumstances or influence society, you might as well get on with it and start pushing your boulder up the hill! Don't spend time worrying about the justice or morality of it, you can't change it - that's just Nature, so start pushing!
Maybe I'm just projecting my own issues here (ahem... yes!), but it seems like the bigger problem we have in modern life is dealing with the problem of freedom. For more affluent and liberal societies, the range of options for most people has expanded exponentially. Yes, there are still boulders, but for many people wishing to pursue virtue the great source of anxiety is how to choose among the many possible good directions in life? What tasks to purse? Which social problems to try to influence? What ways to try to make society better?
Stoicism wisely says we should let go of the things that are out of our control - and embrace the tasks that are required of us. But the freedom and possibilities for the individual in modern life demand an additional kind of wisdom and discernment -- how to choose which between good activities to pursue (and to what extent) and how to let go of all the rest. There were obvious natural limits of individual influence in ancient times, but today the challenge is to identify and make peace with our own limits.
Does Stoicism have anything to say on this problem? Virtue can be pursued in just about any arena... how do we choose which arenas to play in? Which problem to work on? Is there a hierarchy of responsibilities we have? How might we weight those? How do we choose?
Rob, Great insights and great questions.
A few thoughts.
As we have seen many people have relinquished their command center and behave mindlessly. It seems they have many choices but in reality their impressions and beliefs drive the bus. Their freedom is very limited.
As you say, though, with some degree of mindfulness, we do have many choices. To be spread too thin with no discernment is to sap our effectiveness.
I have been considering books by Cal Newport for MIndset Shifts U. Cal is a computer science professor who has done great work in helping answer some of your questions.
Perfect timing Barry. In the middle of pushing that boulder up the mountain with a friend and client. This was a very helpful reminder to keep on keeping on. The process is the substance that nourishes in the present
Well this article, if I am open to listen, provides the very answer to my question in the comments on the previous about everything having happened before and without fail happening again. I like the thought of the reset every day at the bottom of the hill being a source of happiness. To lock you into a process in which the task is laid out before you and you attend to it with wholehearted attention and devotion. That is something actually that Jordan Peterson talks about - that in order to be free one needs boundaries and that endless freedom represents a prison in one's mind, not freedom. That much of the anxiety of the day is related to the seemingly boundless possibilities but an inability to form those boundaries for yourself and set yourself to that task. What a lovely and refreshing thought that represents but how much harder it is to do than it sounds. To lock yourself into your duty, to build those boundaries that will provide your mind with the freedom is so desires rather than to run from selecting a path. The Fear of Missing Out which is really the Fear of Failure. If I choose the path and I choose wrong I only have myself to blame.
Exactly, my day is almost always miserable when I begin with the "boundless possibilities" mindset. I have mostly learned to not do that.