Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. It's a team sport. Why do they go along with it? Why don't they stand up? Why are they refusing to use their considerable power or resources? Well, what's everyone else doing? If everyone else in your class is turning a blind eye to some abuse or malpractice, you're much more likely to do the same. If everyone else is publicly saying one thing or not saying one thing, but speaking much differently in private, it's likely that you too will be silent. That's why we're in the mess we're in right now. That's why the headlines about so many of these unspeakable tragedies keep rolling out. Nobody else was speaking up, so nobody else did. Courage, it is increasingly clear, is a team sport.
It's harder to be courageous when all you see are examples of cowardice. Well... The Stoics can help us with this because we come from a long tradition of people who did speak up, who weren't cowards, who were fine to stand alone, who put their reputations and lives on the line to do what was right. Cato, Rutilius, Rufus, Helvetius, Thrasius, Stockdale. These are not just powerful examples. They are our peers. They are calling to us. They are reminding us. In fact, not everyone does go along with the crowd. There are, and always have been, brave people who said, no, not in my name, who said, I'm going to do what I can to stop this, who said, everyone should see this. Why are others refusing? We can only speculate.
But us, we can choose to find a different inspiration, to follow a different path, and most important, to help set one for others. And that's what Courage is Calling is all about. It's the first book in the Stoic Virtue series, followed by Discipline's Destiny, Right Thing Right Now, Wisdom Takes Work. All of these virtues are what we need in this moment. That's why I spent the last six plus years writing this series. They're all coming out as a box set here very soon, but if you want signed copies, just go over to store.dailystoic.com. Grab whichever one you want to start with, although I think these days we can certainly use more courage, so it's not a bad place to start.