Living with Nature 5

. . . " 'Do I convince you of this or not?'

 " 'You do convince me.'

" 'Such, then, as the causes are in each case, such also are the effects. When, then, we are doing anything not rightly, from this day we shall impute it to nothing else than to the will from which we have done it: and it is that which we shall endeavor to take away and to extirpate more than the tumors and abscesses out of the body.'

" 'And in like manner we shall give the same account of the cause of the things which we do right; and we shall no longer allege as causes of any evil to us, either slave or neighbor, or wife or children, being persuaded that, if we do not think things to he what we do think them to be, we do not the acts which follow from such opinions; and as to thinking or not thinking, that is in our power and not in externals.'

 " 'It is so,' he said.

" 'From this day then we shall inquire into and examine nothing else, what its quality is, or its state, neither land nor slaves nor horses nor dogs, nothing else than opinions.'

 " 'I hope so.'
 
" 'You see, then, that you must become a wise man, an animal whom all ridicule, if you really intend to make an examination of your own opinions: and that this is not the work of one hour or day, for you to know yourself.' "

--Epictetus, Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 11 (tr Long)

Let us not deceive ourselves. If we are to understand the argument offered by Epictetus, we need to do some serious house cleaning.

The world has done me wrong?

No, the world has done me no wrong. The will of others may have intended me wrong, and they may indeed have acted unjustly toward me, But they have not done me wrong.

Only I can do myself wrong. They have only wronged themselves.

To think about life, and to actually live life in such a matter, will cost me dearly, it would seem.  In reality, it will cost me nothing but illusions. Reichsmarks or Confederate Dollars.

I will seem ridiculous if I only wish to be wise and to be good, you may say. I will have thrown away everything I am told is necessary, and I will be rejected by the rich, the important, and the powerful. I will be the laughing stock.

But why should I care what those people think? If I think and live like a Stoic, those people most certainly matter to me, because I must care for the welfare of my fellow man.

But their misguided views on meaning and value need not control me.  Those opinions matter for nothing.

How often do I now hear, in a world ruled by entitlement, that someone is offended?

By all means, feel offended. Now look to your reason, and understand that you are your own master. What another says or does will not change you, unless you choose to let it do so. 

I honestly think it better to seem the fool, than to be the fool.

Written in 11/2002