The Daily Stoic - But What Will We Do IF? | The Cost of Accepting Counterfeits

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

“A few days ago we talked about this paralyzing fear—the “preemptive whataboutism” that holds people back from doing the right thing. It’s why we don’t speak up about somebody on our side. Why we won’t take that career risk. Why we don’t see enough real leadership.”Ryan explains why you can't let the concept of the future disturb you, and reads The Daily Stoic’s entry of the day, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.This episode is also brought to you by Scribd, the e-book and audiobook subscription service that includes one million titles. Scribd uses the latest technology with the smartest people to recommend you content that you’re going to love. We’re offering listeners of The Daily Stoic a free 60 day trial. Go to try.scribd.com/stoic for your free trial. That’s try.scribd.com/stoic to get 60 days of Scribd for free.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke Podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the book, The Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Stephen Hanselman. And so today we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics, from Epipetus Markis,

really a Seneca, then some analysis for me. And then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts. But what will we do if? A few days ago we talked about this paralyzing fear,

the preemptive what aboutism that holds people back from doing the right thing. It's why we don't speak up about somebody on our side, why we don't take that career risk, why we don't see enough real leadership. It was Seneca sticking with Nero out of fear that the next emperor might be worse. It's the right endorsing illiberalism out of fear of left-wing illiberalism. It's the left breaking norms because they fear the right might do

the same. How do you cut through it? How do you resist the pull of this pathetic passive logic with this little reminder from Marcus Aurelius. Never let the future disturb you," he said. You will meet it if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. It's absolutely true. The future might be bad. We might never know the unintended consequences of an action. But does this excuse us from doing the wrong thing now? No, it does not. We can handle

what the future brings. If trouble knocks, it will find us home. Because, as we've said, we have a heart for any fate. That's what's so strange about Sena's decision. He'd already survived, expertly navigated, in fact, four other emperors before Nero. What was one more? He had the weapons to do the right thing, to bear the consequences that might have come from it. He just talked himself out of using it. Don't do that, you're better, you're well armed, you got this.

The cost of accepting counterfeits. When it comes to money, when we feel our clear interest, we have an entire art where the tester uses many means to discover the worth, just as we give great attention to judging things that might steer us badly. But when it comes to our own ruling principle, we on and doze off, except in any appearance that flashes by without counting the cost. That's Epic Titus' discourse, and today's entry, April April 8th from the Daily Stoic. When coins were much more rudimentary, people had to spend a lot of time testing them to

confirm the currency they had just received. There's a Greek word which means to assay or check the quality of a mineral ore. Merchants were often skilled enough that they could test coinage by throwing it against a hard surface surface and listening to the note that it rang. Even today, if someone were to hand you a hundred dollar bill, you might rub it between your fingers or hold it up to the light to confirm that it isn't fake. All of this for an imaginary currency, an invention of society, and the point of this metaphor

is to highlight how much effort we put into making sure money is real, whereas we accept potentially life-changing thoughts or assumptions without so much as a question. One, ironic assumption along these lines that having a lot of money makes you wealthy, or that because a lot of people believe something, it must be true. Really, we should be testing these notions as vigilantly as a money changer. For as Epic Titus reminds us, the first and greatest task of the philosopher is to test and separate appearances and to act on nothing that is untested. And you know, it's funny just a few days ago in the Daily Stoke we had, this is on April 5th, we had trust but verify. As Epic Titus says, first off,

don't let the force of an impression carry you away. Say to it, hold up a bit and let me see who you are and where you are from. Let me put you to the test. So, I think that's really what today's entry is about. It's this idea that we have all sorts of impressions, knee jerk reactions, opinions, we get told something, we are taught something, we witness something, but we have to check, is this real? Was it an optical illusion? Do we have an implicit bias? Is there an emotional sort of force

acting on what we are seeing or not seeing? And the still has to work always against the reality of our sort of irrationality. To me, this is what's so great about Robert Green's book The Laws of Human Nature. He's trying to help you notice what things are acting on your perception or perspective around the world. So much, I think all of this is particularly true today when we are a wash and misinformation and bullshit and propaganda. It is imperative that you develop the ability to see through things, to get to the truth of matters, and to not be fooled by your own biases, your own emotions, the impulse to outrage or judgment or mobocracy.

How can you be rational? How can you say, I'm not gonna rush into this. I'm not gonna have an opinion right away. Remember Marcus really says, you always have the option of having no opinion. That's true, but maybe it's just don't rush into having an opinion. Stop for a minute, as EpicTida says.

Put this up to the test, verify, make sure that it's real, and then once it's real, then you can take action based on this, but don't react before you know. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoke Podcast. Again, if you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. You just go to dailystoke.com slash email. So check it out at dailystoke.com slash email. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon

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