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

13 snips

Feb 9, 2024

Ruling the world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; history shows it can be a path to personal ruin. Power may bring ambition, but it often leads to loneliness and despair. The podcast explores the concept of selective ignorance—choosing not to have opinions on everything can foster a calmer mindset. It advocates for fewer opinions to enhance happiness and strengthen relationships, focusing on what truly matters in life. Ultimately, the discussion reveals the unexpected blessings of a simpler, more peaceful existence.

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ADVICE

Resist the Allure of Power

Resist the allure of absolute power and wealth.
These things often corrupt and destroy happiness, not enhance it.

ANECDOTE

The Story of Marius

Ryan Holiday recounts the story of Marius, a Roman consul whose power ultimately led to his downfall.
Marius's story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked ambition.

ADVICE

Practice Selective Ignorance

Practice not forming opinions about things that don't truly matter.
This can reduce stress and improve well-being.

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We talked about this recently, but ruling the world is not great. The evidence bears this out. In Lives of the Stoics, 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 Meditations he takes pains to remind himself that the cost of becoming Alexander the Great is not worth it—that few survive it.

Power and wealth, they change a person. Command is lonely and isolating, disorienting and corrosive. These are not environments conducive to virtue. They are not fantasies…they are nightmares.

We are lucky that destiny has not made us sovereigns, even in modern times (just ask King Charles what his childhood was like). But we are still ambitious, 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.

Marcus Aurelius would have given anything to have had a life even half as normal as yours, half as stressful, burdensome, corrupting as his. You are so lucky…and yet here you are, dreaming of things that would ruin it.

In today's Daily Stoic excerpt, Ryan 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.

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