Superficially Stoicism isn’t in conflict with the mindset that maximses your chances of getting rich.
Superficially there may be similarities between Stoicism and massive wealth. The same way there may be similarities between Stocisim and Machiavellianism, for example. And yet, no one will argue that Machivelli’s Prince was a stoic…
However, Stoicism is fundamentally opposed to the idea that wealth and any of the externals matter. Sure, it’s preferable to be rich, but having wealth as an aim is being deluded according to Stoics. Your aim should be virtue, and virtue alone. If virtue happens to give you wealth, so be it. If it doesn’t happen to give you wealth, you haven’t lost anything.
Fundamentally Stoicism isn’t a philosophy of strength. It is the philosophy that remains when strength is gone from one’s soul. When one has been so badly crushed, that the only escape is madness: creating an imaginary reality wherein the weak and trampled by fate is actually the real winner.
How so?
The Stoic will say: your family got killed? Your money got taken away from you? You were beaten and dragged through the public square as a traitor? Don’t worry, you haven’t lost anything. Nobody can humiliate you if you don’t let them. Sure, they may have your body in chains, spitting on you, whatever. But what truly matters is your attitude and will, and no one can take that away from you.
So can you see how Stoicism is a philosophy of defeat? It’s a philosophy for those who have no escape. For those who have to accept that victory is not possible.
Compare Stoicism with pre-Platonic philosophy. The true Homeric hero was the one who found a way to win, regardless of the obstacles fate placed in its path. The true Homeric hero was NEVER resigned, or “happy” with the inner victory. The true homeric hero wanted and got everything.
Trace the lineage of philosophy that flows from the Sophists, through Machiavelli, through Nietzsche — and you will discover a philosophy fundamentally opposed to pretty much the entire Western corpus. Stoicism is nothing but a footnote to Plato — it is platonism.
Because the fundamental essence of platonism is the psychological inversion of values that the loser performs to justify his existence and block the pain. “You are not really a slave, even though you are in chains, because your spirit is free”. It’s a refusal to accept reality, and escape from reality into an imagined world where without any effort you are a winner regardless of what happens to you.
So while you may have applied a technique, it’s not the technique that helped. The technique of cognitive distancing is nothing more than hypnosis. You believe that with that aid you can do something that you really could do even without it.
There is no cure for fear except action. It doesn’t matter what you think. What you feel. All that matters is acting.
And what stops you from acting? The fact that you believe that what you think and what you feel MATTERS! You are hypnotising yourself and you don’t even know it.
The truth which you can discover for yourself is that your feelings and your thoughts have nothing to do with your actions. At will, you can act AGAINST your thoughts and feelings. That is the ultimate power.
Superficially there may be similarities between Stoicism and massive wealth. The same way there may be similarities between Stocisim and Machiavellianism, for example. And yet, no one will argue that Machivelli’s Prince was a stoic…
However, Stoicism is fundamentally opposed to the idea that wealth and any of the externals matter. Sure, it’s preferable to be rich, but having wealth as an aim is being deluded according to Stoics. Your aim should be virtue, and virtue alone. If virtue happens to give you wealth, so be it. If it doesn’t happen to give you wealth, you haven’t lost anything.
Fundamentally Stoicism isn’t a philosophy of strength. It is the philosophy that remains when strength is gone from one’s soul. When one has been so badly crushed, that the only escape is madness: creating an imaginary reality wherein the weak and trampled by fate is actually the real winner.
How so?
The Stoic will say: your family got killed? Your money got taken away from you? You were beaten and dragged through the public square as a traitor? Don’t worry, you haven’t lost anything. Nobody can humiliate you if you don’t let them. Sure, they may have your body in chains, spitting on you, whatever. But what truly matters is your attitude and will, and no one can take that away from you.
So can you see how Stoicism is a philosophy of defeat? It’s a philosophy for those who have no escape. For those who have to accept that victory is not possible.
Compare Stoicism with pre-Platonic philosophy. The true Homeric hero was the one who found a way to win, regardless of the obstacles fate placed in its path. The true Homeric hero was NEVER resigned, or “happy” with the inner victory. The true homeric hero wanted and got everything.
Trace the lineage of philosophy that flows from the Sophists, through Machiavelli, through Nietzsche — and you will discover a philosophy fundamentally opposed to pretty much the entire Western corpus. Stoicism is nothing but a footnote to Plato — it is platonism.
Because the fundamental essence of platonism is the psychological inversion of values that the loser performs to justify his existence and block the pain. “You are not really a slave, even though you are in chains, because your spirit is free”. It’s a refusal to accept reality, and escape from reality into an imagined world where without any effort you are a winner regardless of what happens to you.
So while you may have applied a technique, it’s not the technique that helped. The technique of cognitive distancing is nothing more than hypnosis. You believe that with that aid you can do something that you really could do even without it.
There is no cure for fear except action. It doesn’t matter what you think. What you feel. All that matters is acting.
And what stops you from acting? The fact that you believe that what you think and what you feel MATTERS! You are hypnotising yourself and you don’t even know it.
The truth which you can discover for yourself is that your feelings and your thoughts have nothing to do with your actions. At will, you can act AGAINST your thoughts and feelings. That is the ultimate power.
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