Bite-sized New New-Stoicism, ep. 3

"Wait a minute!" you might be thinking right now. "So, you're saying there's nothing I can do against the flesh? Why even bother?"

Well, yes... and no.

Like I said before, it's your reasoning which mediates between the body and the mind. You ought to know that if you do nothing to curb your body's natural cravings and reactions you will be no better than any other animal. Actually, you'd be worse than all other animals, because you can bring a lot of harm to those you hold dear (and to all those unfortunate enough to be around you) if all you do is give in to your basest instincts. Animals are just fitting in the natural scheme of the world. As humans, we can actually bring destruction to everything around us when we go happy-assholing around getting up to no good.

You see, when you allow your body free rein to do whatever it desires, you become a prisoner of what the ancient Greeks called "The Four Passions." For our purposes, we should call them "The Four Vices." These are Affliction, Fear, Greed, and Vanity. We will talk about these in more detail in another episode.

Instead, we should strive to achieve the ideals of what is morally and ethically right.

How to do that? Well, a lot of us think that it's enough just to know the difference between right and wrong. We think, "Well, it's hard to be so black-and-white about the world, because there are a lot of gray areas..." But, come on, to be sincere, that's just us trying to cut ourselves some slack for all the times we might fail to live up to our own standards. It is true that it'll be almost impossible to live up to an ideal, but that doesn't mean one should not try.

So, what ideals work better than just the basic concept of knowing right from wrong? I like the name "The Four Virtues" (again, courtesy of those ancient Greek dudes). These are Wisdom, Justice, Prudence, and Courage. Yes, we are gonna talk about them later, too.

So, prepare yourself, because in the next episode we'll talk about The Four Vices, and why they should be actively avoided. I say "prepare" because, when talking about them, some people may feel personally attacked. I swear I'm not trying to make you feel bad. That, my dear reader, you'd be doing on your own!

See y'all next time!