I Got Introduced to Stoicism By a Meme
The Last Place I Thought I’d Find Life-Changing Philosophy
Several months ago, I found myself scrolling through YouTube, ready to consume whatever Internet memes came my way, courtesy of the inscrutable recommendation algorithm. Suddenly, a thumbnail on my screen commanded my full attention.
Marcus Aurelius as a Wojak?1 Now that’s a meme I haven’t seen before. I clicked on the thumbnail, fully expecting a lighthearted and comedic video, but instead, found myself learning about a new, profound outlook on life.
What is Stoicism?
This question was what I asked myself as I read the video title out loud, “Embrace Stoicism, Doomer.”
Though I had heard of Stoicism before, I would be lying if I claimed that I had a good idea of what it was. From the various bits and pieces I had heard so far, I would have defined it as something like: “A philosophy emphasizing showing no emotion and enduring hardship.”
And although that definition might not be entirely inaccurate, it does a disservice to the complexity of Stoicism and its myriad of facets. I found that even this short, three-minute video’s exposition of Stoicism delves into all of the philosophy’s fundamental disciplines.
What causes sadness?
Making a mistake does not immediately cause sadness, but the emotion of sadness only appears when you think that making a mistake is something bad. (Low Budget Stories 0:07)
Opportunities to make mistakes exist in every day that we live. And when these opportunities come to fruition, we often find ourselves expressing regret or frustration toward ourselves. How can we identify the root cause of why we berate ourselves for making mistakes?
Consider this: Our perception of something being bad is what causes sadness.
Let’s say one morning as you’re getting ready for work, you’re juggling too many tasks simultaneously and accidentally spill milk on the countertop. You rush to clean it up before finishing your breakfast and heading off for the day. Later, you find yourself arriving at work a few minutes late.
Was spilling the milk bad?
Intuitively, you might think, “Yes, spilling the milk was bad.” A fair point. Perhaps spilling the milk caused you to be late for work—an undesirable outcome.
Is your thought about the spilled milk an absolute truth or a perception? If it is the former, then the milk being spilled is definitively bad. There is no argument to be made that it was a neutral event or even a positive event.
However, if your thought is a perception—a malleable product of your mind—you can make an intentional shift to perceive the event as being neither good nor bad.
Changing your thinking about the event will also change the emotion that you experience toward the event.
If the event is not bad, I have no reason to experience sadness.
You are in control of your emotions
In the case of the spilled milk, it’s important to not ruminate in the past. What has happened has happened. There is no changing the fact that the milk was spilled.
In other words, you have no control over the spilled milk.
But you do have control over how you respond to the milk being spilled. You are the one in control of your emotions. How you react to the event is entirely at your discretion. It is up to you if you decide to get wrathful, indifferent, or depressed about an event that has already occurred.
If you choose to get upset over the spilled milk, then you suffer unnecessary anxiety.
If you choose to avoid distress, you create peace of mind.
Coming to terms with what you can and can’t control is a powerful tool.
An opportunity to learn
From a practical sense, being able to maintain your composure after spilling the milk makes analyzing the situation a smoother process.
Your possible faults become much more lucid when your emotions are not part of the equation.
It is much more difficult to realize that you should not have been taking a phone call and flipping your pancakes while also pouring a glass of milk if you lose your temper.
Neither good nor bad, the spilled milk may still be a mistake. And a mistake is always a chance to learn.
Credits to Low Budget Stories for the video
The quote that set my heart ablaze
Toward the end of the video, Low Budget Stories gives us this:
Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.
- Marcus Aurelius
I was (and still am) awestruck by this quote.
Can we really decide that we are not hurt by merely choosing so?
What are the limitations of this idea? Can it be applied under any circumstances? Can we choose not to be harmed even when faced with our mortality, or the suffering of our loved ones?
I had to find out.
I immediately started looking for other resources on Stoicism, searching for books, watching videos, and browsing blogs and online forums. Shortly after my frenzied research, I found my first literary introduction to Stoicism in the form of Meditations, a series of personal writings authored by the 16th emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius.
Meditations is arguably the most famous and popular of all Stoic texts—something I can personally attest to. I’ve now read Gregory Hayes’ translation of Meditations twice, back-to-back, and am currently reading it for a third time.
Despite this, I’ve only scraped the surface of the Stoic iceberg. I know that there is untapped wisdom lying in wait—from this ancient philosophy over 2,000 years in age.
And I envision that there is a prodigious role that Stoicism can play for the generations to come.
In a world where so many young people are lost, not unlike the “doomers2” of Low Budget Stories, things can sometimes feel hopeless. Whether it is climate change, rising housing prices, or overpopulation, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Nevertheless, all of these worries are things beyond our control as individuals.
To be a doomer is to extend the scope of what we cannot control to everything. Nothing is in my control. Everything is hopeless. Why should I care about anything anymore?
On the contrary, Stoicism is the polar opposite of “doomerism.” Although Stoicism does not claim that everything is under our control, it teaches us to take great care when drawing a line between what we can and cannot control.
When we accept that some things are simply out of our domain of influence, we can focus on directing our energy toward things that we can control. We can improve our skills, better ourselves physically, or strengthen our mental fortitude.
Ultimately, we are the ones in control of our thoughts, attitudes, and actions.
Wojak - Also known as “Feels Guy,” Wojak is an MS Paint illustration of a bald man, typically with a melancholic expression on his face.
Doomer - A person (typically a millennial or Generation Z) who is fully immersed in sentiments of apathy, self-hatred, and thoughts of impending doom