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[–] whatyoube@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Marcus Aurelius "Meditations", quite profound and relevant today, even though it is nearly two millennia old!

[–] Augustiner@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Planning on reading this myself some time… since you say it’s relevant today, how would you say it compares to all the broicism that’s the main version of stoicism nowadays?

[–] whatyoube@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

One of the key points is that stoicism actually really emphasizes the importance of community and being a good person who contributes to community. This is not at all what these "broicist alphas" value. According to my understanding of them, they incorrectly interpret stoicism being about repressing their feelings, being alone, putting themselves as number one, getting successful - showing everyone you are "alpha". Stoicism is not at all about repressing feelings, rather it is about not letting your feelings control your actions. The book is relevant, for example since it covers struggling with uncertainty and anxiety and how to deal with it with the technique called dichotomy of control (you have power over your mind and not outside events, if you realize that, you will find strength). Also, Aurelius writes that understanding that we all will die and whether the life is a long or short one does not matter as it ends the same way (both lose the "now") - what matters is that we do good things every day without expecting any reward for it. We should do it because that is what should be the humans' nature and we should live according to nature.

[–] Augustiner@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Sounds a lot like absurdism which I’ve been into a lot this year. I read some Camus and really loved it (The myth of Sisyphos, The Stranger and The Plague).

And yeah, I agree with your description of Broicism. It’s more about being like Hemingway/John Wayne and suppressing your emotions than being at peace with things being out of your control.

Thanks for taking the time for such a thorough reply! I’ll have to read my copy of Meditations to see any further similarities and where both differentiate from each other.