You Don’t Want To Rule The World | You Don't Have To Have An Opinion

About this episode

<p>We talked about this recently, but ruling the world is not great. The evidence bears this out. In <a href="https://store.dailystoic.com/products/lives-of-the-stoics-signed-edition" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Lives of the Stoics</em></a>, we tell the story of a haunting meeting between Posidonius and Marius, when Marius, during his seventh consulship of Rome, was on his deathbed. Marius was powerful but pathetic, his success having destroyed his soul, stripping him of happiness and the possibility of peace. Marcus Aurelius would have known this story. In <a href="https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/meditations" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Meditations</em></a> he takes pains to remind himself that the cost of becoming Alexander the Great is not worth it—that few survive it.</p><p>Power and wealth, <a href="https://dailystoic.com/power-doesnt-corrupt-it-reveals/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">they change a person</a>. Command is lonely and isolating, disorienting and corrosive. These are not environments conducive to virtue. They are not fantasies…they are nightmares.</p><p>We are lucky that destiny has not made us sovereigns, even in modern times (just ask King Charles what his childhood was like). But <a href="https://dailystoic.com/what-kind-of-ambition-to-have/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">we are still ambitious</a>, still have dreams of extreme wealth and power and influence. As if it actually serves the people who get it well—as if it doesn’t rip their families apart, doesn’t consume their every waking moment with dread or busyness.</p><p>Marcus Aurelius would have given <em>anything</em> to have had a life even half as normal as yours, <a href="https://dailystoic.com/stress-is-a-fact-of-life-being-stressed-is-not/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">half as stressful</a>, burdensome, corrupting as his. You are so lucky…and yet here you are, dreaming of things that would ruin it.</p><p>-</p><p>In today's <a href="https://www.thepaintedporch.com/products/ryan5?_pos=1&amp;_sid=abdbcc08d&amp;_ss=r" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Daily Stoic</a> excerpt, Ryan&nbsp;reminds us that not all things are asking to be judged you, to let whatever is not in our favor become irrelevant. This kind of selective discipline is what the stoics practiced. They practiced having the ability of having absolutely no thought about it.</p><br><p>You can grab the <a href="https://store.dailystoic.com/products/the-daily-stoic-leatherbound-signed-edition" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">leatherbound edition of The Daily Stoic here</a>. </p><br><p><em>✉️</em><strong>&nbsp;Sign up for the Daily Stoic email:&nbsp;</strong><a href="http://dailystoic.com/dailyemail" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail</a></p><p>🏛 Check out the&nbsp;<a href="https://store.dailystoic.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Daily Stoic Store</a>&nbsp;for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.</p><p>📱 Follow us:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/dailystoic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/dailystoic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/dailystoic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>