Dialogue this Wednesday October 23 and a related book synopsis

“People turn shit into sugar all the time – shit that’s a lot worse than whatever we’re dealing with. I’m talking physical disabilities, racial discrimination, battles against overwhelmingly superior armies. But those people didn’t quit. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves. …They focused on the one thing that mattered: applying themselves with gusto and creativity.”

- Ryan Holiday

Again this Wednesday October 23 the dialogue begins at 6 PM at the Humainologie Gallery & Store, 1514 Seventh Street SW. Our topic will be "the Past." Think of one or two good questions about the past, perhaps something you would like to investigate and tell us about either this Wednesday or another time. Your contribution can enrich the experience for all the other participants.

Stoic philosophy has had a persistent and pervasive influence on our past. The two books for which I've provided a synopsis herewith are both inspired by stoicism.

Arthur

Two Books: (Ryan Holiday) Ego Is the Enemy (2016) and The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph (2014)

After spectacular and conspicuous success around the age of 20, Ryan Holiday fell into the trap of ego, began to recover, and had tattooed on his right forearm “Ego Is the Enemy” and on the left forearm “The Obstacle is the Way.” Amelia Earhart had tattooed on her airplane – the one she used to cross the Atlantic in 1928 as the first woman to make that flight solo – Always think with your stick forward. Rommel, the German military genius, took the offensive again and again, gaining “some of the most astonishing victories in the history of warfare,” because he took action while his opponents were taking a nap. “He never, ever stopped moving.” “As a young basketball player, Bill Bradley would remind himself, ‘When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him, he will win.’” It’s a safe bet that every one of them – Amelia Earhart, Erwin Rommel, and Bill Bradley – had been influenced by the Stoics.

Stoic philosophy inspired these two books. In his Introduction to The Obstacle Is the Way Holiday tells us the “old Zen story about a king whose people had grown soft” and complacent. Hoping to wake them up, he had a large boulder placed in the centre of the main road, thus blocking entrance to the city. He hid nearby and watched to see if the people would work together to remove the obstacle. They didn’t. After a few days, a peasant encountered the obstacle, tried to remove it, and at last went into the woods and came back with a large branch which he used as a lever to dislodge the boulder from the road. “Beneath the rock were a purse of gold coins and a note from the king, which said: The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”

Dwight Eisenhower commanded Allied forces in Europe in 1944, when the German Blitzkrieg attacks, that had defeated so many previous opponents, were directed against his forces. Envision a spearhead of German troops driving through the weakest point in your line, and you’ll have an idea of what Eisenhower’s forces faced. But within that very spearhead lay an opportunity for the Allies to defeat those German attacks. Eisenhower had his forces attack the German forces on the flanks. The Germans might break through the weakest point in the Allied lines, but soon they would find themselves surrounded and defeated. That opportunity for the Allied victory was inherent in the structure of the Blitzkrieg attacks. Within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.

The three sections of the book are Perception; Action; and Will. A chapter in the first section, “Alter Your Perspective,” begins with a quotation from Viktor Frankl: “Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.” How you think about any situation, for example, is influenced by what you choose as the larger context within which to see that situation. It’s also influenced by such things as how you think of any setback you experience in trying to deal with the situation. You can see the setback as a foreshadowing of doom, or as simply a necessary part of your learning how to deal with any such situation in the future.

In the section on Action, the author includes a chapter “Follow the Process,” in which we learn that a very successful football coach taught his team NOT to think about the championship game, but on finishing each drill at each practice session as close to perfection as you can. As Ryan Holiday explains: “Okay, you’ve got to do something very difficult. Don’t focus on that. Instead break it down into pieces. Simply do what you need to do right now. And do it well. And then move on to the next thing.” The same approach works, he tells us, whether it’s for “pursuing the pinnacle of success in your field or simply surviving some awful ordeal.”

In his chapter “Something Bigger than Yourself,” in the section on Will, he opens with a quotation from Leroy Percy, “A man’s job is to make the world a better place to live in, so far as he is able – always remembering the results will be infinitesimal – and to attend to his own soul.” (In my experience, women actually do this job better than men, but I’ll let that go for the moment.) Holiday concludes that chapter with this: “Embrace this power, this sense of being part of a larger whole. …We’re all just humans, doing the best we can. We’re all just trying to survive, and in the process, inch the world forward a little bit.” He adds: “Help your fellow humans thrive and survive, contribute your little bit to the universe before it swallows you up, and be happy with that. Lend a hand to others. Be strong for them, and it will make you stronger.”

In Ego Is the Enemy, Holiday describes how a highly influential and capable US Air Force colonel (John Boyd) had emphasized the difference between dedicated service and self-promotion. Speaking to groups of Air Force officers, “he’d write on the chalkboard in big letters the words: DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY. Then he would cross those words out and replace them with three others: PRIDE, POWER, GREED. His point was that many of the systems and structures in the military – the ones that soldiers navigate in order to get ahead – can corrupt the very values they [were designed] to serve. There’s a quip from the historian Will Durant,” Holiday adds, “that a nation is born stoic and dies epicurean. That’s the sad truth Boyd was illustrating, how positive virtues turn sour.”

The book is divided into three sections: Aspire; Success; Failure. “To whatever you aspire, Ego is your enemy.” (Recall that concept of “flow” – an immersion in work you love to the point that you lose track of time and escape your ego.) The success that gazes upon itself in a mirror turns to stone. How can we transcend success? “Sobriety, open-mindedness, organization, and purpose – these are the great stabilizers. They balance out the ego and pride that comes with achievement and recognition.” A big ego will make you vulnerable when you encounter failure; you’re more resilient without it. With case examples, Holiday emphasizes again and again the importance of such stoic virtues as self-restraint; dedicated work without any particular interest in taking credit for the success it brings; and forgiveness and understanding (love) toward adversaries. The psychologist David Elkind has studied a characteristic of adolescence, the “imaginary audience” who (the youngster thinks) are watching (with approval or disapproval) everything about them – their looks, their words, their behavior. That adolescent tendency is one of the many ways that ego becomes manifest. Egotism can be painful, and it’s usually counterproductive. (Even so, when you’re crossing the street or in countless other contexts, you must take care of yourself. That’s not egotism, it’s stoic common sense.)

The stoic virtues have empowered wisdom through the ages. “You can accomplish anything in the world if you don’t need to take the credit,” was one of the unforgettable highlights from a visiting speaker in Calgary, a friend of mine. It was a priceless gift.