Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. This is the one thing you don't accept. There's so much happening that's outside our control. There's stuff that's bigger than us, that predates us, may well outlive us.
There's stuff that's happening far away, there's stuff that's happening that doesn't affect us. There's stuff that we just don't get to say about, because nobody asked us and it won't make a difference. Most of this, the Stoics, tell us this stuff we'll have to come to terms with. We'll have to learn how to accept as painful and as humbling as that might be.
But Titus calls this the art of acquiescence and it's not an easy thing to practice. Marx really reminds himself that he has the power to have no opinion and to try to keep in mind the world was not asking to be judged by him. And yet, do you know what these two men and the rest of the Stoics did not accept what they insisted on having opinions about? Injustice.
They did not think it was right or wise to be silent or resigned to what was obviously wrong. Perhaps a better way to think about it is this. Injustice, whether it's corruption or cruelty, is what we are saving our opinions and our objections for. Instead of complaining about the weather or our team losing this weekend's championship game, we're going to direct our outrage at things we can get involved with fixing.
From corruption to tyranny, the Stoics refused to sit on the sidelines. They tried to change things. They insisted on what was right and they insisted on not doing what was wrong. Now, they didn't always get this right, but it was a place where they refused to be accepting or accommodating because to do so would make them complicit in that injustice.
And the same goes for us.