[Dialogue] Stoicism

[Ken Fisher]

My comments fade in comparison to these reflections.

In what do we put our trust? What is my posture in having a life?

We reduced profundity to one-liners. As I recall, the RS1 stoicism illustration was a checker board. Stoicism guided one to be always on the ‘good' squares not the ‘bad’ squares. You can take it from there that we were proponents of living ‘all’ the squares - whatever they offered. Any form of nihilism was rejected.

I rather like Camus’s version of the posture of Sisyphus - rather than accepting being condemned by the gods to futility and meaninglessness by rolling his rock up a hill in hell, only to see it escape and roll back down - Sisyphus would enthusiastically shout, “That’s my rock!” and continue his eternal mission.
Another current favourite for me is: “Yay though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him.” What is Job saying? He is saying that for sure he will argue his case (Can I please have it my way?) – but at the bottom, no matter what, he trusts the goodness of the cosmos. Phrases of trust scratched on the walls of Nazi extermination camps reflect this.

Love and hugs, Ken


> On Jan 20, 2022, at 11:46 PM, Jim via Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
> 
> Maybe stoicism is another form of facing reality in which we stop pretending all is well and going to get better some day.  I have been following many scientists and philosophers as they try to account for global warming, massive pollution of our precious water and degradation of our living space and the pending energy crisis.  Some think we are only in a natural cycle of Earth's processes, Some think we still have time to pull ourselves out the situation if we only rely on the human way of solving such situations especially through innovation and our desire to succeed, and some see an end to everything that our species will be.  
> 
> From my own perspective that has been instructed by a very special person, William Catton, who authored the book Overshoot, I understand that humans have been able to create living space that has far exceeded the Earth's carrying capacity.  Fossil fuels have allowed us to over populate the Earth by at least 5 billion more beings than can be sustained in the future.  Fossil fuels have also allowed us to use up most of its resources including arable land and potable water.  As a species, we use an estimated 10 planets the size of Earth which is totally unsustainable.  Many scientists believe we have gone beyond several tipping points especially concerning climate.  The atmosphere is gaining massive gigatons of carbon dioxide and many other green house gasses each year and that what we have put up there will last for several centuries.  The future temperature will definitely exceed CoP-26 projected 1.5 degrees C and by the end of this century may be 3 or more degrees higher.
> 
> As we deplete our enormous energy supply that has made our current life of comfort and free time possible, life will become very difficult and unpleasant for those of us who are accustomed to the great American Dream.  Our children and grandchildren will certainly experience life's resources comparable to what was only available hundreds of years ago and a climate of droughts and floods and unbelievable strong weather patterns.
> 
> Here is where I probably show my stoicism.  I have a thought that has allowed me to say yes to what is occurring.  I believe that one role sentient beings have in this world is to replenish our biosphere with millennia of lost carbon dioxide.  Carbon dioxide which was plentiful millions of years ago and allowed great life forms to populate this planet.  Humans may go extinct but life will still flourish in our wake.  Thus, we give back to our planet that, which if lost completely, would cause all life to perish on a frozen world
> 
> Didn't we also have a saying: "Always going through it, never going under"
> 
> Jim Baumbach
> 
> On 1/20/2022 6:27 PM, Dharmalingam Vinasithamby via Dialogue wrote:
>> Dear colleagues,
>> 
>> I need help with an idea I’m trying to sort out. If you have the time and inclination, I would love to hear from you on the following: 
>> 
>> Saying Yes to life and Stoicism. Stoicism seems to be understood as a relationship to life where you keep going on despite the odds. There is also an inuendo that this may not be humanly possible and that internal pressures will eventually cause the person to crash. What I want to know is, was that the Stoicism that Zeno founded or merely a degraded understanding? Why did we as an Order cast it in a negative light? What was our beef with it? Was it a reaction to the degraded form or were we looking at it in its original sense?
>> 
>> regards
>> Dharma
>> 
>> 
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