The Daily Stoic - Don’t Let Them Flood You | There is Philosophy in Everything

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

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It must have been hard to live in Nero's Rome, not just because he was capricious and tyrannical, but because he was the living embodiment of chaos and nonsense. One day he's banishing a poet for being too talented. On another he's trying to murder his mother. Here he is rigging the Olympics so he could be recognized as a winner. Here he is marrying his boyfriend in a public ceremony in which Nero dressed as the groom

and his boyfriend as the bride. Here he is in another bizarre ceremony, marrying a former slave who, Nero this time, insisted be his bride. Here he is watching the city burn. Here he is screwing up another negotiation. Here he is locking the Roman elite in a theater to watch him perform on stage as an actor or singers for hours on end.

It must have been exhausting. And this is what chaotic dysfunctional leaders do because they can't help themselves and also because it serves them. With their inexhaustible supply of ego and incompetence, they distract and divide their opponents. They keep everyone on their back foot. They make it hard to tell the serious from the silly, the urgent from the unbelievable.

Was this what tripped up Seneca? He was so busy trying to put out fires and prevent damage that he lost sight of the fact that he was essentially enabling the arsonist. Today, good and bad people all over the world are reeling from the efforts of strongmen and autocrats. Every day seems to bring more chaos and contradictory reports. Each passing hour, a new outrage, each more overwhelming than the last. We must recognize that this is partly their strategy. They flood the zone with shit, as one advisor to such leader has put it, confusing our priorities as

well as our basic perceptions. To resist, we must first regain command of ourselves. We can't let them provoke and distract us. We can't let them make us despair either. We must remain sober. We must regroup. We must ignore the shit and come together to defeat the flood. If not, we risk being wiped out and washed away by its chaos and incompetence and tyranny. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. There is philosophy in everything. This is the March 24th entry in the Daily Stoic,

366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living. Holding the hardcover here, but maybe you like audio books, you want to listen to the audio book, you can grab the Leatherband edition in the Daily Stoic store. You can grab an ebook if you want. But today's quote is from Epictetus' Discourses. We had our streak of many Marx Relius entries in a row, and now I think we're on an equally

long Epictetus streak. Epictetus says, eat like a human being, drink like a human being, dress up, marry, have children, get politically active, suffer abuse, bear with a headstrong brother, father, son, neighbor or companions. Show us these things so that we can see that you truly have learned from the philosophers." That's Epictetus' Discourses 321. Plutarch, a Roman biographer as well as an admirer of the Stoics, although not always he had his disagreements. He didn't begin his study of the greats of Roman literature until late in life, but as he recounts in his biography of Demosthenes, he was surprised at how quickly it all came

at him. He wrote, It wasn't so much the words that brought me into a full understanding of events as that, somehow, I had a personal experience of the events that allowed me to follow closely the meaning of the words. This is what Epictetus means about the study of philosophy. Study yes, but go live your life as well. It's the only way that you'll actually understand what any of it means. More importantly, it's only from your actions and choices over time that it will be possible

to see whether you took any of the teachings to heart. Be aware of that today when you're going to work, going on a date, deciding whom to vote for, calling your parents in the evening, waving to your neighbor as you walk to your door, tipping the delivery man, saying good night to someone you love. All of that is philosophy. All of it is experience that brings meaning to the words. You know, there's another quote from Plutarch, he was talking about Socrates and he said, you know, Socrates didn't teach as he sat down at his desk and lectured his students, he taught in how he lived his life, how he served in the army,

how he walked through the marketplace, how he talked to his wife, how he talked to his children. He taught his students, he said, as he drank the hemlock and died. Socrates wasn't talking about his philosophy. He was, as Epictetus said, embodying his philosophy. They didn't talk about it. He was about it, right? Don't talk about it, be about it.

But what I like from this, what I think is important that we realize for the Stoics is that the philosophers weren't these kind of abstract you know, abstract theoretical people. The Stoics were living their lives. They were engaged in the world. They weren't philosophers writing their works. They were philosophers in how they raised their kids, how they dealt with being tired from a long dusty day of travel.

They were philosophers in disputes, philosophers when they were sick, philosophers visiting their family over the holidays, right? Philosophy was something you applied to life, but not in the big magnificent heroic moments, but the regular, the ordinary, the simply human moments, and that this is what really tests us. This is what really challenges us, but this is also the opportunity. You know, when Mark Shreela says the obstacle is the way,

he isn't actually talking about major crises. He's talking about obnoxious people who are getting in our way. There's another great quote, I'm forgetting, who said it, something like, anyone can be great in a crisis. It takes power and strength and fortitude to be resilient and philosophical in the ordinary everydayness of life. That's the challenge.

That's why I call it the daily stoic, something you apply every day in big situations and little ones alike, ordinary and extraordinary as a family member, as a friend, as a spouse, as a parent, as an academic, as a mechanic, as emperor, as a slave, that's what stoicism is really about. And I think it's a think it's a worthy reminder. I think it's such a wonderful, cool thing to think of that idea from Epictetus,

making its way to Marcus Aurelius, and then him having to put it in practice, how different all their lives were. Anyways, that's my Stoic message for today. I'll leave you there and talk to you all very soon. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it, and this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you. If you like The Daily Stoic and thanks for listening, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.

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