On Anxiety 5

. . . "When, then, you are mounted on a horse and go into a plain, are you anxious at being matched against a man who is on foot, and anxious in a matter in which you are practiced, and he is not? 'Yes, but that person has power to kill me.'

"Speak the truth then, unhappy man, and do not brag, nor claim to be a philosopher, nor refuse to acknowledge your masters, but so long as you present this handle in your body, follow every man who is stronger than yourself.

Socrates used to practice speaking, he who talked as he did to the tyrants, to the jurors, he who talked in his prison.

"Diogenes had practiced speaking, he who spoke as he did to Alexander, to the pirates, to the person who bought him. These men were confident in the things which they practiced.

"But do you walk off to your own affairs and never leave them: go and sit in a corner, and weave syllogisms, and propose them to another. There is not in you the man who can rule a state."

--Epictetus, Discourses 2.13 (trans Long)

I often think that the virtue of courage is deeply misunderstood. We readily confuse it with mere brute force, strength, or toughness. We ridicule those who seem to have difficulty facing their obstacles, advise them to "get over it", and parade our own power over our circumstances.

The truly brave man does not put others down, he does not admire his own power, and he most certainly is not brave because he rules his circumstances. No man rules his circumstances, though he may be deceived into thinking so when the wind happens to blow his way. I suspect we sometimes confuse the brave man with the bully, who is, in my experience, the weakest man on the inside, though he puffs himself up on the outside.

A man is not courageous because he has power over others, but because he has power over himself. I need not be handsome, rich, influential, or physically strong to be that sort of man. A brave man faces his fear and anxiety by understanding that he can always trust in his ability to rule himself, and he cares little for all that is beyond this.

I will not mock or ridicule those who are self-important, but I can certainly try to be like Socrates or Diogenes. These were men who spoke their minds equally to anyone and everyone, were committed to what was true, and smiled at the circumstances of the world that faced them.

Socrates was an honest and brave man, because he acted in exactly the same way to his enemies and to his friends. Diogenes was not intimidated by his captors, not because he was a tough guy, but because he knew they could do no true harm to him, and he joked that no master owned him, but he owned the master.

A man is never a coward because he feels fear or anxiety, but he is a coward if he allows his concerns to rule him. These concerns are illusions, because they arise from depending upon conditions that do not define our nature and our happiness. Let us not dismiss others, but rather help one another to make that necessary judgment.

They say that no one can love another if he does not love himself, and similarly that no one can rule another if he cannot rule himself.  Let us not be deceived by philosophers who spout moving rhetoric and impressive logical proofs. The measure of whether they are real philosophers is if they act with conviction and integrity.

Written in 11/1998

Image: Edvard Munch, Anxiety (1894)