The stoic philosophers had the answers. Life is hard and meaningless so why bother caring? Your wife will die, your daughter will die, your great great grandchildren will die-so why bother caring?
Stoicism teaches us that when life gives you lemons, reflect on the emptiness of the gesture and move on. The philosophy is very comforting as it promotes that most worthless of all qualities- masculinity. Being strong, hard and cold in the face of overwhelming hardship and yes the problem you may see with this is also what makes me weary.
Stoics have conquered their emotions. They have taken that weakness in us and made it a non-factor and in doing so they have lost that element that makes us feel alive: life.
Life is hard and sad, disappointment and depression but it is through this that life has meaning. A broken heart is tragic but it proves that love was real-not only real, but you could experience it- you had the emotional ability and maturity to do so. Hope, the Greeks teach us, is both the best and worst as it keeps you from suffering, but, as Nietzsche points out, prolongs suffering. However, no matter how we perceive suffering- to be endured or to be overcome, it is inescapable to say that it is part of life, part of what it takes to be human.
A friend once told me that he was recommended to take support to HR meetings as otherwise he (yes, he) would get too emotional. He told me that the meeting was about how best to fit him back within ten confines of the workplace and not about supporting his emotional needs. Emotional needs get a bad reputation with idiots taking horses onto planes as support animals yet we cannot escape that we all have emotional needs and requirements. By we, I mean, everyone. Even psychopaths and sociopaths have deep emotional needs, to be without emotion is to be, well, non-human. The lesson that we, education and the law teaches children is that to be emotional is a sign of weakness, that abuse, bullying, violence, should be endured without complaint and from this character is born. Personally, if a child was bullied and sought support from therapists, parents and the school, flying in the face of centuries of domestication, that shows true character, to do otherwise would just be a damming indictment of civilisation after all we are, first and foremost, human. If only more people recognised that and stopped murdering those who speak this inconvenient truth.
Stoicism takes away humanity as we are emotional beings, that is the essence of our humanity.
’till next time
thegreaterfool2016 