Stoa Poikile
Much has already been said about the dangers of such a racist and exclusionist worldview, and it's worth looking into, and it is certainly the case that the ruling establishment is the primary benefactor of this divisive ideology, all in a desperate attempt to maintain the crumbling status quo, i.e. their grip on power.
The conception of the self as conceived by the Stoic philosophy tradition, primarily focusing on the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus (c. AD 55-135) and his Discourses, which might appeal to people that are put off by identity politics nonsense and the inevitable decadence and degradation of self/other relation which such an ideology leads to.
For the Stoics, the basis for proper self-conception, identification and orientation in the world is found in a person's will (Greek prohairesis), sometimes also translated as decision or choice, purpose, volition. So for the Stoics, the core of what a self is, is to be found in our mind/free-will/rationality and the proper use of it, that is, our ability to choose what we find valuable and worth pursuing and what we want and what we are averse to, our self-motivation and judgments.
In daily life, we continually face situations in which we can exercise these faculties, and hardship can be seen as an opportunity for growth instead of feeling oppressed or hard done-by, or seeing ourselves as victims of outside forces. The proper task in life, according to the Stoics, is to "live according to nature", which can be rendered as aligning ourselves with objective reality by studying the world, ourselves, and our proper place and relation to it.
Everything that falls outside of prohairesis is not ours in the proper sense, and should thus not be of primary concern for us, or to be taken as something which is good or bad, or upon which our well-being depends. What is good, in the Stoic sense, is virtuous character and virtuous action, to preserve oneself as a rational being.
Body-centric definitions of the self are not something we should base our identity on, since being born with a certain skin colour or gender obviously does not lead to virtue, which for Stoics stands for excellence and signifies a proper aim in life. Rather the body should be treated with indifference, meaning that while we should take proper care of it, it should certainly not be something that defines what a human being truly is, or that allows you to claim a privileged status over others due to some real or imagined oppression. Epictetus notes:
What am I? A wretched little person; [and] my pathetic little flesh.This view is completely at odds with the agenda of today's post-modern ideologues and advocates of identity politics, which includes the rejection of some of the fundamental aspects of real human identity. They have missed the mark as Jordan Peterson would say. And for what? What have they achieved instead? Among other things; group infighting, disregard for Truth and decency, promotion of hedonism, materialism and so on. They have indeed become utter wretches.
Yes, it is wretched, but you have something better than wretched little flesh. Why, then, do you let that go and cling to the flesh? Because of this latter kinship, some of us who incline that way become like wolves, lacking integrity, treacherous and harmful; others become like lions, fierce, bestial and untamed; but most of us become foxes, the utter wretches among animals. For what is a slanderous and ill-natured person but a fox or something still more wretched and abject? See to it, then,and watch out that you don't turn into one of these wretches.
So instead of the perpetual bickering and quarreling produced by adherents of identity politics, with Stoicism we have a universalist ethical regard for other people, irrespective of skin colour, gender, sexual orientation etc. The Stoics rightly saw human beings as social creatures by nature and viewed the proper treatment of other people as an important part of our intrinsic nature and task in life.
If there is one thing that Epictetus would say to identity politics adherents today, it would be something along the lines of:
I invite you to come and hear that you are in a bad way; that you are attending to everything except that which you should be concerned about; that you are ignorant of what is good and bad; and that you are thoroughly unhappy and wretched.
Reader Comments
What is it they say about idle hands are the devil's workshop? They damn sure are 'legion.'
R.C.
But then I learn I was rwong about that. Turns out as stated above that it means a person's will ("Greek prohairesis" )
(Sorry. Weak joke.)
R.C.
There's a problem though. If you do look at the nature of western society today, there is a crisis of identity. We need to look at identity formation. Individually, we do not define who we are in a vacuum.
Before we get to an age where we have the will, the Constitution and strength of character to self-define, we have already been told many different ways who we are and have taken on many traits that are in alignment with these definitions. We are first given an identity by the family we grow up in, the society, our friends etc.
There is a deep need in humans to feel like they belong, to find their tribe if you will. If you're a minority, if you are a woman (feminist), before anything, in the west (say US), you would have been told you were a victim (that is, that your tribe is a victim). Not only would you be told this, you will be taught this, you will learn about slavery, you will learn about how women could never vote or how they suffer domestic and sexual violence from men... You will have this reinforced daily - if you're a minority, you will notice poverty, crime, drug addiction afflicting your kind more than anything, you will notice wars of empire being waged in countries where your kind exist... If you are a woman, your dad will tell you not to walk home alone, to be careful when you are out and about, you will hear stories from other women about their ordeals, the abusive relationships they are in etc... All the above will hammer in, more than anything your sense of identity. Before you define to yourself who you are, you have to define where you belong .
How does stoicism deal with this?
Every time I read something about stoicism, it's always about the self... My big issue is that before you define who the self is, you have to define the matrix in which the self finds itself and this matrix forms the fabric of the definition of the self to the self! I hope that makes sense!
Epictetus was in a specific matrix when he came up with stoicism. I'm just not sure how a person who doesn't feel a connection to the sort of matrix that was in existence when stoicism grew in strength could really absorb and utilise the philosophy. That's my doubt.
If anything we need philosophies that have been adapted to work within today's matrix and to connect and deal with the issues people feel are tormenting them today e.g. being born into a victim class etc.
1) We are all trapped in bodies and minds, never truly able to merge with another being. Sexual intercourse is the closest we can get, but even that is merely physical, not a true knowledge of another person's inner consciousness. And afterwards, we are still two separate beings in two separate bodies.
2) This makes us profoundly lonely beings, able with our marvelous minds to appreciate and comprehend our utter total separation from all other beings in the universe.
3) This makes us intensely unhappy. The universe is vast beyond comprehension, and we are as insignificant as a grain of sand on a beach the size of the Solar System. We are nothing, beyond unimportance, more trivial than a speck of dust floating in the Pacific Ocean. We are all alone, and every other being is all alone, no matter how hard we try to forget this.
4) This makes life, our life, my life, your life, meaningless. Totally without purpose, meaning or value. Worthless. Useless. Not worth living.
5) This creates an intense fear within us. It is the fear of insignificance. It is the fear of pain. It is the fear of hunger. It is the fear of losing even the miserable mess of pottage which is our silly little life. It is the fear of death.
How to escape from this dilemma? (Greek word again...)
1) Face the truth of our profound loneliness, instead of trying to deny it by using alcohol or drugs, (prescription or otherwise,) or by joining Antifa or the Republican Party or Islam or Judaism. Those desperate "belongings" are mere substitutes for our deepest and most anguished needs, and as Eric Hoffer pointed out in The Ordeal of Change , referring to these substitutes: " We can never get enough of that, which we do not really want ."
2) Dedicate our existence to Service to the Other. Whether the Other is fellow human beings, or stray dogs, or orphaned children, by serving the Other we come to love them. And that emotion of love bridges the separation of our Self from the other Self.
3) Loving the Other is a gentle rain on the desert of our souls. It causes many little flowers of joy to sprout and bloom. Love is forgiving. Love is compassionate. Love is generous. Love is trusting. Love is kind. " Perfect love driveth out fear ."
4) Loving the Other eventually leads to loving the All. What is the All? It is every sentient being in the Universe. It is the Universe itself. (Read (3) again.) This love and service to the beloved All creates trust - trust that the Universe loves us back. Trust that our existence has meaning. Trust that our being loved by the Universe means that the Universe will do us no harm.
5) It means seeing clearly the terrible, painful illusion that 99.99% of humans suffer under - the illusion that we are meaningless, useless, trivial, utterly lonely souls, living in a barren desert of permanent fear. It means feeling sorry for them, feeling compassion for their self-inflicted pain, instead of joining their nightmare of fear and hating them.
- Quod Erat Demonstrandum (Latin, not Greek)….
Unlike so many today were worldwide populations have grown up in cities, isolated from neighbours, born into nuclear families, often without extended family members and as far as the West goes, even without the help or guidance of religion.
These are the people who are suffering from identity crisis,and are so often lost, lonely and aimless, mindless consumers within the consumer society and are being easily led by media manipulation into these endless divisions, which, as has been said, only benefit the controllers.
R.C.
But the young are now being targeted and manipulated in ways that their parents were not and are vulnerable to all manner of corrupting influences.
R.C.
*Saker: A classic quote!
RC