You make a great point. I initially rejected the DOC, as I wrote: "I thought, sure, I cannot control many things, but I can influence them, it’s not a dichotomy but a spectrum of influence. But the more I thought about it, I came to realize that my initial reaction was wrong. For those things that I thought I had “influence” over, if I broke them down into their fundamental action components, I realized that there was, in fact, a stark dichotomy."
This is very difficult for many to overcome, but about the most we can do as Stoics, is vote and serve, while not getting distracted or emotionally involved in politics outside our control.
Exactly. We can largely control our internal decisions, but not the way those decisions play out in the world when enacted. We do our best to live and act virtuously, but the results are out of our control. We just keep trying and let the chips fall where they may.
You make a great point. I initially rejected the DOC, as I wrote: "I thought, sure, I cannot control many things, but I can influence them, it’s not a dichotomy but a spectrum of influence. But the more I thought about it, I came to realize that my initial reaction was wrong. For those things that I thought I had “influence” over, if I broke them down into their fundamental action components, I realized that there was, in fact, a stark dichotomy."
This is very difficult for many to overcome, but about the most we can do as Stoics, is vote and serve, while not getting distracted or emotionally involved in politics outside our control.
Exactly. We can largely control our internal decisions, but not the way those decisions play out in the world when enacted. We do our best to live and act virtuously, but the results are out of our control. We just keep trying and let the chips fall where they may.
There is just so much wisdom in it, Stoicism is perhaps more relevant today than it was in ancient times.