Shevacai on Nostr: The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Day 29 ...

The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

Day 29

November 10th - Always the Same

"Think by way of example on the times of Vespasian, and you'll see all these things: marrying, raising children, falling ill, dying, wars, holiday feasts, commerce, farming, flattering, pretending, suspecting, scheming, praying that others die, grumbling over one's lot, falling in love, amassing fortunes, lusting after office and power. Now that life of their is dead and gone ... the times of Trajan, again the same..."

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.32

From the Author:

"Ernest Hemingway opens his book 'The Sun Also Rises' with a Bible vers: 'One generation passeth, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever. the sun also riseth, and the sun goeth down, and resth to the place where he arose.'

One of the striking things about history is just how long human being have been doing what they do. Though certain attitudes and practices have come and gone, what's left are people - living, dying, loving, fighting, crying, laughing.
Breathless media reports or popular books often perpetuate the belief that we've reached the apex of humanity, or that this time, things really are different. The irony is that people have believed that for centuries.
Strong people resist this notion. They know that with a few exceptions, things are they same as they've always been and always will be. You're just like the people who came before you, and you're but a brief stopover until the people just like you who will come after. The earth abides forever, but we will come and go."

The only things that really change are the extremes, and names - or 'spins' - on already existing practices, goods, or attitudes. It may seem like degeneration to many, much of it does to me.

Extremes in technology, and commodification of attention spans, may be an exception, but what our ancestors did and what we do are not all that much different. We all want the best for ourselves and those around us, and the ways we go about this - working, producing, creating, caring for, supporting, providing for our loved - aren't new. There's nothing new under the sun.

But things are spun like propaganda, once peaceful entities are spun to be enemies, poisons and toxins are spun as foods and medicines, every aspect of our health is outsourced and we're relieved of our self-responsibility, we've lost trust in the institutions that don't trust us with our autonomy - banking, policing, health, and everything becoming more and more extreme in the opposite direction, but it's always been this way, perhaps? A lot of all these things come by the control of our attention spans, because if we weren't distracted by the cavlcade of talking heads, 7 second long videos, and the struggles of food and living security, we'd all probably see that soyslop is not food, pills are not medicine, our money is debased, we're restricted in basically everything in our lives, and have to ask permission if we wish to do anything, and that we're being lied to.

But it's always been like that, right? It's just the extremes that these things have been taken to. The best we can do is make the best of the positive "sames" that our ancestors did, and to instill those thoughts and beliefs into our children and hope they can do the same. (And also end the Fed, end the state, end the control structures and take back our sovereignty and autonomy.)

Little bit of a rant on this one - thanks for reading.