The Daily Stoic - We Are Who We Honor

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

"It was Malraux who said that we judge a society by the monuments it puts up. So imagine a society that puts up statues to tyrants, to someone who nearly succeeded in tearing an empire apart, who did horrible, inexplicably cruel things, even by the standards of their own time."Ryan tells us why monuments dedicated to the Confederacy must come down in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***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 @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanholidayInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholiday/Facebook: http://facebook.com/ryanholidayYouTube: 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 Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. 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. music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic. For each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, 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. We are who we honor. It was Milro who said that we judge a society by the monuments it puts up. So imagine a society that puts up statues to tyrants, to someone who nearly succeeded in tearing an empire apart, who did horribly, inexplicably cruel things, even by the standards of their own time.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the reign of Domitian, or the reign of Communists? Can you imagine when the fear wore off when the collective insanity that enabled and was complicit with their evil, what the Romans did next. They sawed off the head of the Domitian statue and after the death of Comedis when his terror had ceased, the Senate issued the following decree. For him who was foe of his fatherland,

let his honors be taken away. Let the honors of the murderer be taken away. Let the murderer be dragged in the dust. The foe of his fatherland, the murderer, the gladiator in the charnelhouse, let him be mangled. On all sides are statues of the foe. On all sides are statues of the murderer. On all sides are statues of the gladiator. The statues of the murderer and the Gladiator,

let them be cast down. The slayer of citizens let him be dragged in the dust, the murderer of citizens, let him be dragged in the dust, let the statues of the Gladiator be overthrown. Is that destroying the history? Or is it simply the obvious response of a freed people with a conscience? Of course, the past is complicated very few people or causes who are displayed in bronze

or iron or stone are entirely good to judge history by the standards of the present is tricky business, but the fact that something is hard and complicated does not absolve us of the responsibility for solving it. Rome was able to tear down the monuments of its worst villains. Here in America and in the rest of the world, we have more tools at our disposal besides belatedly angry destruction. We can still study and learn about these people in our history books and our schools, just as we do for comedists and Hitler and others.

We can move appornate monuments to museums. We can take them off public property, remove them from the prominent places in front of courthouses and capitals, which are supposed to be the people's house. All people. If Marcus Arelius had caused the deaths of one million Romans and

tore the empire in half for the sole purpose of protecting slavery. Would he be our hero? No, he probably would not. If he had done it as recently as some living people's grand parents, he absolutely would not. And if his likeness had been appropriated

by vicious tyrants who subverted the rule of law to intimidate fellow citizens. And if his likeness was put up in statues paid for with stolen tax dollars, then it would be a perversion of his legacy and not worth protecting. You can make good arguments about Marcus Aurelius. There are good arguments about the good that Churchill did. There are good arguments about Jefferson and Washington and others, and only a coward is afraid of having an argument. The same is not true for Nathan Bedford Forest. Jefferson Davis was a fool. Robert E. Lee betrayed his prior service and his

country when he raised arms against it and sent a generation of men to their deaths in a rebellion over the worst cause for which men have ever rebelled and a war that he should have had no hope of winning. Let the statues of the foe come down. Let the murderers legacy be mangled. Let their celebration become dust. And finally, put up better statues in your homes and in our public spaces that reflect the kind of society we want to become.

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in Apple podcasts. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just going to end up on Page Six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellasai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wonder E's new podcast, Dis and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud. From the build up, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feud say about us?

The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out in personal as Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynn's lack of public support, it angered some fans. A lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling parents, but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Brittany.

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