How Stoicism Can Help Us In Times Of Crisis

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Thomas Paine

It can be difficult to stay optimistic during times of crisis. The Coronavirus pandemic has us all feeling isolated, anxious, scared, angry and confused. Its especially hard when there is so much uncertainty and negativity.

People are dying. Many are losing their jobs. Some have had to delay their retirement. The financial markets are volatile, and the economy is in a recession.

Our government restrictions are getting more firm. We can feel overwhelmed with the information they give us, but also skeptical of their lack of transparency and cohesion.

It can all feel hopeless, having all of our decisions made for us. Forced to follow along, without an end in sight. It can feel like we have no control.

In times like these we are always told to stay calm, not to worry, and stay positive. More of those empty phrases that we hear that are easier said than done. 

However, these old adages have roots, and they connect us to some of the worlds greatest minds.  

This is a summary of one of the main principles of stoicism described in an introduction of Marcus Arelius’s Meditaions:

“All events are determined by the logos, and follow in an unbreakable chain of cause and effect. Stoicism is thus from the outset a deterministic system that appears to leave no room for human free will or moral responsibility. In reality the stoics were reluctant to accept such an arrangement, and attempted to get around the difficulty by defining free will as voluntary accommodation to what is in any case inevitable. According to this theory, man is like a dog tied to a moving wagon. If the dog refuses to run along with the wagon he will be dragged by it, yet the choice remains his: to run or to be dragged.”

Gregory Hays

That doesn’t sound like a very encouraging sentiment, but it can be helpful when thinking about life’s events.

By accepting that a given situation is inevitable, it helps us realize that no matter what, no amount of whining, complaining, or blaming will change the outcome. 

Lets think about that wagon story again. If we focus on the lack of choice we have, we might become resentful and blame the wagon driver for driving. We might blame our parents for ever bringing us into the world. We might even blame the wheels on the wagon for being round, but none of that changes anything.  We still move forward, only we get muddy and bruised if were dragged along.  However, when we choose to accept our fate, we can focus on the positives of the situation. We can run. We can strengthen our lungs, build muscles in our legs, and we can become stronger, so that eventually, running along side the wagon won’t seem so bad.

There are positives like that in every situation. Every. One. You just have to dig for them. When people, who have gone through a trial or hardship, are asked if they would do it all over again if given the choice, most say yes. There is something about looking back on our past that makes us see through rose coloured glasses.

“Like muscles, a man must exercise his virtues and strengthen them, misfortunes are the means by which men exercise virtue.”

Seneca

I remember the evening before my dad died, my mom brought me into the hallway of the palliative care unit of the hospital. It was late and the hall was dark. A shadow covered most of her face, but I could still see the tears swelling in her eyes. When she finally managed to fight off the lump in her throat, she told me that the nurses said that they didn’t think our dad was going to make it through the night. I can still hear the sadness in her voice when I think back. We hugged. We took some deep breaths, and we let out a sigh of relief. We knew that there was going to be an end to my dad’s nine month long battle with cancer which kept my mom living in the hospital for most of that time. I remember that particular moment because, like all mothers do, she tried to ease her child’s suffering. She told me that she was grateful that our father got sick when we were adults, and not small children. She allowed me to think about anything positive about the situation. I was able to see what I had, instead of what I was about to lose. I’m proud to tell this story and repeat what she said. It belongs here, on a blog called What the Wise Have Said.

When someone tell us to stay positive, it can help to remember these words from a man who was a slave for the first 18 years of his life.

“Man is not disturbed by things, but by the view he takes of them”

Epictetus

If you’ve ever read Hamlet in high school, those words might have sounded familiar. Shakespeare must have read the stoics, or maybe he met my mom.

“For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”.

Shakespeare

How about this jovial, enlightenment philosopher.

“He is happy, whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent, who can suit his temper to any circumstances.”

David Hume

Another individual who saw the benefits of this maxim first hand, and on a large scale, was Viktor Frankl.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose ones attitude in any given circumstances, to choose ones own way.” 

Viktor Frankl

Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and the author of the book, Mans search for Meaning. It’s an autobiographical account of his devestating experiences in Nazi labour camps. Frankl developed a school of psychology called Logotherapy. Remember the Logos?

The concept is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find meaning in life.

That brings us to one of my favourite people: Jordan Peterson. He is a Canadian clinical psychologist, who gained attention in 2016 when he was criticized for his views on political correctness. I won’t go into detail, but he is a fascinating character. Worth checking out.

Peterson spent years of his life studying European totalitarianism. He was heavily influenced by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

“The purpose of life, as far as I can tell, is to find a mode of being that’s so meaningful that the fact that life is suffering is no longer relevant”

Jordan peterson

Fredrick Neitzche, zee German philosopher, came to a similar conclusion in 1887:

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering” 

Friedrich Nietzsche

So how did we get from being positive to finding meaning in suffering?

Its all about responsibility.

“Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open. It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitual order.”

Jordan Peterson

There will always be things in our lives that don’t go according to plan, but we can teach ourselves how to respond to adversity. We can choose to think instead of react.

Being responsible is being accountable for our actions. life is difficult, and it’s seldom fair. If we neglect responsibility we can become bitter, resentful and nihilistic.

Look for the positives in your situation. They’re there. Focus your energies on others instead of yourself. When we compare ourselves to others less fortunate than us, we realize that we don’t have it so bad.

We live better today than the kings of the past.

When we shift our perspectives, we can start to think a little differently.

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become”

Carl Jung

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