Comment by hugh3
15 years ago
"How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks." -- Marcus Aurelius
Y'see, this is the problem I have with Marcus Aurelius. It must have been relatively easy for him to not care what other people think. For those of us who aren't the goddamn Emperor of Rome, well, we occasionally have the sorts of practical issues which didn't affect him so much.
I was also recently reading some of the letters of Seneca. He spends nine tenths of his time talking about how awesome it is to be a stoic emotionally detached from material posessions as well as the ups and downs of life, but the remainder letting slip his day-to-day concerns overseeing his vast estates, huge wealth and thousands of slaves.
Are there any good stoic philosophers who weren't fabulously wealthy?
Though he predates Stoicism by a bit, I think Diogenes of Sinope [1] did a fine job of practicing what he preached. Also, while Stoicism might be difficult to accept through the conduit of someone like Marcus Aurelius, he was strongly influenced by and frequently quoted Epictetus [2], who also fits your criteria to a tee.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epictetus
Emperors often died at the end of their terms, often only a few years, and often because they did something to piss someone off.
His saying that from his position is a lot more difficult than you saying it from yours I can assure you.
And not caring what people think (or limiting how their thoughts affect your actions) is probably the biggest secret in life, period.
"It must have been relatively easy for him to not care what other people think."
I don't think you understand how difficult it was to be an Emperor! An Emperor who was unpopular could be assassinated. An average Joe Soap who is unpopular may have rows with his family or work colleagues but is not usually murdered. Being an Emperor raised the stakes and the paranoia.