There Were No F**ks Given That Day

Sir-weasel posted this link over at the Stoic subreddit (note that Mr. Weasel warns us that the article contains "somewhat ripe language"):

Link to the article

Here is my response:

Upvote! I'll tell you why... this characterizes something I've noticed about the developing masculine subculture known as "red pill." My guess is that quite a few young men end up here because stoicism, or outcome independence, is discussed as part of the red pill outlook on life.

I listen to Joe Rogan's podcast (to me he is a modern day philosopher, the real thing, who gathers forward thinkers around him and discusses new ways of being). Anyway, he often uses the phrase "there were zero fks given that day!" I don't know that Mr. Rogan would call himself a red pill thinker; he certainly doesn't like parts of it, but he does seem to represent to me a large number of young men who are dissatisfied with modern culture. Sounds a lot like the founders of our own philosophy... My point here is that this "No Fks given" idea isn't some random meme; it's the tip of a cultural iceberg. It's a movement.

There is a shade of the "no F**ks given" idea that to me seems to be in conflict with Stoicism. A cartoon accompanies the article. It shows a character floating away with a bunch of helium balloons in one hand and a raised middle finger in the other. The character is flipping off a large number of people and going his own way.

Aurelius tells us that we will often meet people who behave in negative ways, and that we are to remember that they do this because they are ignorant of the good. Those are our brothers and sisters.
When we reject modern culture, or aspects of it, we do so because we feel that parts of it are aggressively colonizing our minds. So we here have revived a twenty-five hundred year old philosophy in response. That's a pretty bold move... it's a pretty clear rejection. Rather than see modern culture as the enemy, though, I think that we are directed to see the people who we don't want to emulate as ignorant of the good.

So perhaps the cartoon character could be smiling, open armed, and saying "I don't give a f**k, and you don't have to either."

Thanks for posting this and for stimulating my own thoughts. I look forward to hearing more from you.

* * *

I choose not to use profanity publicly. For me it seems to cheapen my thoughts. That's why I asterisk out the "f" word. Do what you like; I don't mind, it's just not for me.