Stocism

[Martin Hash]

It dawned on me that all the people I enjoy talking with & being around practice the philosophy of Stoicism whether they know it or not.

R U a stoic? (Google it for a couple minutes)

[Smitty-48]

It dawned on me that all the people I enjoy talking with & being around practice the philosophy of Stoicism whether they know it or not.

R U a stoic? (Google it for a couple minutes)

I am not naturally stoic

I trained myself to be stoic for the purposes of war, to endure hardship gladly in the field for operations

I could turn it on like a switch, I had a tactical mode compartmentalized for duty

but off duty I am fiery & passionate like an Eyetalian

the duality of Smitty, it's a Jungian thing

[C-Mag]

Embrace the Suck

[Smitty-48]

I could embrace the suck in the field

for any tactical and/or operational imperative I would push myself beyond the limits of what most could endure

when it came to garrison chickenshit tho, I didn't hold my tongue, I was a barracks room lawyer

[Smitty-48]

it's like when I was an FNG, they issued me a rainjacket, and when it rained, I wore the jacket

but as my role became ever more tactical, the rainjacket became a burden

you're not stealthy wearing a rainjacket, makes too much noise

so then I just got used to being soaking wet, so I could sneak through the woods better

sneaking through the woods gave me joy, it was just more fun to be wet cold & tactical

I'm not so much stoic as I just learn to have fun in any situation not office work related

I couldn't be stoic about working in an office tho, I would snap after a few weeks

I will endure hardship gladly for a noble cause, something larger than myself

if there is no duty I deem worthy of sacrifice however, then I revert to being a hedonist

fight hard, party harder, abolish work

[Smitty-48]

in terms of breaking men who think they are stoic

the two worst things I encountered was sleep deprivation & marching on mangled feet

there were a lot of guys who were stoic in garrison

but then they fell apart when they were a week without sleep, wringing the blood out of their socks

that becomes hell on earth after awhile, you start to go mad without sleep, literal torture

I got a buddy who was shot seven times with AK-47 fire and survived

he said going without sleep for nine days was worse, if he had to do one over again, he'd take getting shot

[Martin Hash]

Enduring adversity is only a part of being a stoic; stoicism is the old American way. Here's a snippet about stoicism from my new novel, "Ubermensche:"

All of the philosophers tend to make the life about themselves, and stoicism doesn’t blink when faced with ambition, ego and pride. What’s interesting is that stoics aren’t necessarily self-aware, they are simply the ultimate pragmatists, and have no place for mysticism in their outlook; the world is up to them, and everyone else is mostly an obstacle. The philosophy is divided into three parts: logic are the things you’re told true or not; physics, a quest for all knowledge and experience; and ethics, which is one’s personal values and morals; but since I consider myself amoral, it’s more my principles such as honesty, non-judgmental, and the wish to live life on the boundary between spontaneity and organization. Stoical ethics are more like apothegms: nature is rational, the universe is reasonable, virtue is living rationally and reasonably. Wisdom is defined as the root virtue, leading to insight, bravery, self-control and justice. Since passion is irrational, stoics avoid it, but pleasure is acceptable if it doesn’t interfere with the quest for virtue, which it’s one’s duty to seek. Interestingly, and a concept that speaks of the integrity of stoicism; poverty, illness, and death are not considered evil; little is except perhaps a loss of virtuosity. When I first heard the Serenity Prayer, either on television or maybe in a book, it was before my interest in philosophy so I didn’t recognize it as stoicism defined: “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.” I immediately recognized the foundational truth in that concept, and knew I had to become an acolyte.

[Smitty-48]

Enduring adversity is only a part of being a stoic; stoicism is the old American way. Here's a snippet about stoicism from my new novel, "Ubermensche:"

All of the philosophers tend to make the life about themselves, and stoicism doesn’t blink when faced with ambition, ego and pride. What’s interesting is that stoics aren’t necessarily self-aware, they are simply the ultimate pragmatists, and have no place for mysticism in their outlook; the world is up to them, and everyone else is mostly an obstacle. The philosophy is divided into three parts: logic is are the things you’re told true or not; physics is a quest for all knowledge and experience; and ethics is one’s personal values and morals; but since I consider myself amoral, it’s more my principles such as honesty, non-judgmental, and the wish to live life on the boundary between spontaneity and organization. Stoical ethics are more like apothegms: nature is rational, the universe is reasonable, virtue is living rationally and reasonably. Wisdom is defined as the root virtue, leading to insight, bravery, self-control and justice. Since passion is irrational, stoics avoid it, but pleasure is acceptable if it doesn’t interfere with the quest for virtue, which it’s one’s duty to seek. Interestingly, and a concept that speaks of the integrity of stoicism; poverty, illness, and death are not considered evil; little is except perhaps a loss of virtuosity. When I first heard the Serenity Prayer, either on television or maybe in a book, it was before my interest in philosophy so I didn’t recognize it as stoicism defined: “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.” I immediately recognized the foundational truth in that concept, and knew I had to become an acolyte.

by those standards I am a stoic

again tho, I don't think you know how stoic you are, until you suffer physical privation & torture

it's easy to be stoic from your comfy chair in an office

the real test is whether you hold to it under extreme duress

death before dishonour doesn't really have much force behind it, until you are at bayonet range

I've just seen so many guys come off civvie street proclaiming to be stalwart

but once in the field, they cracked under duress

more than a hundred men started my section commanders course crucible, every one a supposed tough guy

sixteen weeks later tho, there were only fourteen of us left standing

you don't know if you are going to hold the line, until you are holding that line while being tortured

they literally tortured us at Battleschool, confinement, hard labour, sleep deprivation, even waterboarding

your stoicism doesn't really get tested, until it is tested under battlefield conditions

anybody can be a stoic on the internet

but I don't know what they are really capable of, until they are tested at the school of hard knocks

could you be a stoic all the way through Navy SEAL Hell Week ? Because most guys break in the face of that

brave men dark waters is where the stoic meets his ultimate crucible

[SuburbanFarmer]

I’m a stoic personality to strangers, a goofball to friends.

I did 3.5 days standing with my hand on a car for Super Bowl tickets. That was the hardest thing I’ve had to do, I suppose.

[doc_loliday]

But did you win the tickets?