Joe Rogan on Gossip

"Some people, they trip themselves... Think about yourself... don't get distracted.... and I think that a lot of that is a distraction, this fixating on other people... There are a lot of people out there who spend a tremendous amount of time hating on other people and very little time working on themselves... There's no commitment to hating on someone. There's no consequences if it doesn't go well, so you put your energy into that."

-Joe Rogan*

This isn't an absolutely direct quote. I took it off a podcast and my rewind function isn't precise. Also he's not expecting to be quoted, he's just working out the idea as he says it. Still, there is a lot of wisdom in this. I'll try my hand at turning it into a maxim:

"Gossip is an easy distraction. Improving yourself is difficult. Weak people will choose to waste their time with gossip."

* * *

*Although I don't subscribe to his every utterance (and I doubt that he would want me to) I think that Mr. Rogan is a modern philosopher. He is a generalist who wants to teach people how to live better lives. I think that Socrates would find a discussion with Mr. Rogan to be much more enjoyable than a discussion with the head of your average university philosophy department.

Physical Aggression

I've had to deal with physical aggression twice recently. I took both incidents as opportunities to put my Stoic skills to use. I'll discuss one of the incidents here in case it's useful to you.

A close associate was overly familiar with me physically. I explained that I didn't like it, and that for our friendship to work he would have to stop. The person protested. I said something like "Look, I really like you and I know you don't mean anything by it. I'm just not that way."

There were others there who backed me up and said they didn't like it either. He does the same thing to them, apparently.

I may as well say it: many young men (one generation younger than my own) seem to bond with each other by pretending to be homosexual. "Pretending" is used pretty loosely here. I know actual homosexuals and none has ever groped me. They've been very respectful. Anyway, it's like that. I'm not into it. I don't find it funny.

"If it was me I would have taken that guy down."

I couldn't. It would have been no contest. I'll fight if it crosses the line but it would be more of a "go down swinging" kind of thing. Also I like the guy and I don't think he means any harm. And suppose I could easily take him down? I would hope that I would try this strategy first in either case. It's more rationale.

I did tell him that if he is gay and not out we could talk about it. This distressed him. He said "if I was gay I could do so much better than you." I laughed at that. I enjoyed his distress, but I meant what I said. Maybe the guy is gay and just can't handle it. We shall see.

"...what you think, you become."

"The mind is everything. What you think, you become."

This quote seems to share a kinship with Stoicism. It is often attributed to the Buddha, but it seems that the Buddha never said this.

Ralph Waldo Trine, a philosopher whose long life straddled the middle of the 19th and 20th centuries, used it in many of his books.

Worth a look (check out the bottom of this page).

Why Blocking Trump Rallies Backfires

Let's leave Mr. Trump and Secretary Clinton's platforms aside for a moment.

What does it say when you block the road to a Trump rally?

I don't like Communism but it has NEVER OCCURRED to me to block an American Communist Party rally.

Why? Because they aren't relevant. I'm not worried about a Communist takeover. That and I'm a fan of free speech and assembly.

Anyway, by taking such strong action you admit that he's a threat. You announce to everybody in the country that this guy is gaining on you. Backfire.

First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win. Ghandi said that.

I don't really look forward to a Trump presidency. My politics and his don't match well. But the idea that you would try to keep his supporters from assembling is wrong and should be resisted.

Edit: I thought about this. Mr. Trump may be a lot more moderate than he lets on. This occurred to me because I view his handling of the recent Ted Cruz scandal as the work of a master, whatever I may think of the morality of it. I think he's been setting up this Cruz hit for a long time. I say "I" but I didn't really formulate this idea at all. Mike Cernovich did.

Mike Cernovich's twitter feed led me to this article. Trump releases an unflattering picture of Cruz's wife, Cruz fires back and takes the moral high ground... the DAY BEFORE THE SCANDAL BREAKS. Also Mr. Cernovich tells us that Trump had planned a 10 day break from the campaign THE DAY AFTER THE SCANDAL BREAKS.

Maybe Mr. Trump doesn't mean everything he says (as palms slap foreheads across the country... I know, I know). Maybe he uses media better than any candidate ever has. Who knows what a Trump presidency will look like? There's no way of knowing what the man actually plans to do because for him the world is a chessboard. Every statement is calculated for its effect. We're about to make a wild card president.

Cernovich implies that similar bombshells await Secretary Clinton. We'll see.

Fire Your Friends

This article from Motivated Mastery is a quick treatment of the thought of Seneca. One thing that jumped out at me was this:

Those people who, contrary to Theophrastus’ advice, judge a man after they have made him their friend instead of the other way around, certainly put the cart before the horse. Think for a long time whether or not you should admit a given person to your friendship. But when you have decided to do so, welcome him heart and soul, and speak as unreservedly with him as you would with yourself. 

Respect. You and your friend will, ideally, share mutual respect. You don't seek advantage from each other and you make each other better.

And if not? If you have admitted a person to your friendship hastily?

I think you fire them.

I've done this. It was messy. I was emotional. I'd be less emotional now, I think, but one thing that Stoicism has done for me is that I have become pickier with who I spend my time with in the first place, so the problem hasn't arisen.

Wealthsteading

John Pugliano runs a very interesting website geared toward getting people independently wealthy. His views on investment are deeply rooted in reason and, I suspect, philosophy. He seems to be a moderate libertarian.

"Overcome your natural tendency to fear new things."

"The entrenched powers will always lose. It happens every time."

"Embrace innovation."

He is a sort of optimistic fatalist. We embrace change or change stomps us. It's like the dog tied to the cart. Run along with it or let it drag you, but that's reality. And for all the destruction of capitalism we live in unprecedented luxury.

He views investment as "wealthsteading." He sees it as a way to carve out a self-sustaining plot of money (rather than land, like the original homesteaders) and thereby win freedom to choose one's way of life.

Worth a look.

The Stoic And Online Etiquette

I was on a certain website recently and decided to troll members of the opposition. I took their opinion and fed it back to them in its most extreme incarnation. I presented myself as a political commisar enforcing an absurdity. I was effective. I silenced people. I stayed up until 2 a.m.

That's a problem.

Tonight I was playing a simulation (it simulates something I do in real life). There was a competition involved. There are people competing in it who have been competing every night for ten years. They are very impressed with themselves and they insulted me. I responded in kind. Effectively. More effectively than them. Edit: No I didn't. I ignored them, got angry and tossed out an effective one-liner. They left me alone after that. It was ONE LINE. I'm aggrandizing myself here. It was satisfying.

Then it wasn't.

What kind of Stoic am I if I spend my time in the dirt with everybody else? Shouldn't I pull myself out of the dirt, and then turn around and help my brothers and sisters out of the dirt?

I need to work this out. Time for a new project.