The Daily Stoic - Tell The Truth, Even If They Hate You For It

Episode Date: June 17, 2019

There is a certain archetype that is as old as literature and history themselves. One of the first times we see it in the West is with Cassandra in the Greek tragedies. She has the power to see into the future (she prophesied the fall of Troy and the murder of Agamemnon) but no one listens to her. Then we have Demosthenes, whose warnings against the rise of Phillip (Alexander the Great’s father) are so incessant that everyone hates him for it. Later on in Rome, Cato the Elder—Cato’s grandfather—was such a frequent (and ultimately prescient) critic and hawk when it came to Carthage, that he would play the same role. In fact, he would end every speech he gave, no matter the topic, no matter the occasion, with Carthago delenda est (“Carthage must be destroyed”). His grandson, Cato—the towering Stoic—would develop a similar reputation as a kind of obstinate truth-teller, even when it was inconvenient, even when it disturbed the peace, even when it made enemies, even when he was exhausted or knew he would be ignored. In all these cases, people just wanted them to let.it.go. Why do you have to be so annoying? Why can’t you be more strategic? Don’t you see you’re just pissing people off?All of which was legitimate criticism. Perhaps with a bit more tact and better awareness, these important messages could have been heard earlier or more receptively. Cato the Elder and Cato and Demosthenes seemed to almost be trying to alienate people with the way they spoke and hammered their message. But it’s important to understand the distinction between how you say something and how often you say it. Tone is one thing (to always be considered), timing is something else. “Waiting for the right moment.” “Trying to figure out the best way to say it.” “Not wanting to turn people off.” Those are timing issues that, more often than not, we lean on as excuses for avoiding one of the hardest things to do in the world: speaking an unpopular truth. Warning people about a reality they’d rather not deal with. Cicero, a contemporary of Cato (and an admirer of his grandfather), would quote this line of poetry: “Indulgence gets us friendsBut truth gets us hatred.”If we tell ourselves that our main job is to be a good messenger, we risk compromising our message. We end up leaving out important or unpleasant parts of the message, rounding off its sharp edges in the pursuit of fitting in instead of standing out so our message may be heard. We can end up going along to get along...even if the conclusions that come out of that are wrong. But if our job is to tell the truth—no matter what, no matter who it upsets or how unpopular it makes us—and we are committed to doing this as long as we have an ounce of blood in our bodies? Then no pesky considerations or compromises can stop us. And, hopefully, we can wake people up—as Winston Churchill did about Nazism—before it’s too late.See 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 the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. insight, wisdom necessary for living good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystowach.com. Tell the truth, even if they hate you for it. There is a certain character type that is as old as literature and history itself. It starts with Cassandra and the Greek tragedies. She has the power to see in the future, specifically that Troy will fall and later that Agamemnon will be murdered, but no one listens to her. Then we have Dimastonese, whose warnings against the rise of Philip, Alexander the Great's father,

are so incessant that everyone hates him for it. Later on in Rome, Cato the Elder, Cato's grandfather, is such a frequent critic and hawk when it comes to Carthage, that he would play the same role as Dimastonies. In fact, he would end every speech he gave no matter the topic, no matter the occasion, with the expression, Carthage must be destroyed. His grandson, Cato, the towering stoic, would develop a similar reputation as a kind of obstinate truth teller, even when it was inconvenient, even when it disturbed the peace, even when it made enemies, even when he was exhausted or knew he wouldn't be listened to.

In all these cases, people just wanted them to let it go. Why do you have to be so annoying? Why can't you be more strategic? Don't you see you're just pissing people off. All of which was legitimate criticism. Perhaps with a bit more tacked or better awareness, these important messages could have been heard earlier or more receptively. Kato and Kato and Dimastinese seemed to almost be trying to alienate people

with the way they spoke and hammered in their message. But it's also true that waiting for the right moment and trying to figure out the best way to say it and not wanting to turn people off are often excuses for one of the hardest things to do in the world, telling an unpopular truth, warning people about a reality they'd rather not do with. Cicero, a contemporary of Cato the Younger and an admirer of his grandfather would quote this line of poetry, indulgence gets us friends, but truth gets us hatred. If we tell ourselves that our job is to be a good messenger, we can end up compromising our message. We can end up leaving out important or unpleasant parts of the message.

If we want to be liked rather than right, we can end up going along to get along, even if the conclusions that come out of that are wrong. But if our job is to tell the truth, no matter what, no matter who it upsets, or how unpopular it makes us, and we are committed to doing this as long as we have an ounce of blood in our bodies, then no pesky considerations or compromises can stop us. And hopefully, we can wake people up as Winston Churchill did about Nazism before it's too late. In exciting news, we now have an obstacle is the way pendant. If you want to carry this idea with you everywhere you go,

it's a necklace you can wear, it says the obstacles the way in the front, it has a mountain path carved through the steep mountain up to the top. And on the back, it has that quote from Marcus Reelys, the impediment to action, advances action, what stands in the way, becomes the way. You can check it out at dailystoic.com slash store. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.