Together as One
Our shared legacy as citizens of the world
Stoicism is often looked upon as a philosophy that focuses on control and resilience. It is often portrayed focusing solely on the doctrines that allow an individual to emotionally restrain themselves, or overcoming adversities. And while this is true that those are tenets of the philosophy, another, one that lays the foundation for the philosophy as a whole, is the idea that we’re all inextricably connected to one another.
The Stoics took the view that we are all connected, not just to our city, our state, or our nation, but to each and every one, bound together by the intricate world. We are, in essence, citizens of the world.
Throughout the Meditations, one sees Marcus Aurelius continuously reminding himself of the interconnected nature of our lives, our reliance upon people outside of ourselves, and the desire to work hand-in-hand with others. Marcus was known to have a temper and one can view these entries as his way of trying to deflate that temper as he understood it could easily carry him away and isolate him from the citizens of Rome who he was working to serve.
The history books are littered with stories of how absolute power corrupts absolutely and yet rather than allow this for himself, Marcus, despite having unparalleled power, recognized the privilege of ruling. He had studied philosophy most of his life and had come to understand the power he possessed was a privilege, and an opportunity, to do right by his fellow citizens.
In book five of Meditations, he reminds himself:
“In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them.”
We currently live in the age of rage, where the goals of our leaders is to inflame rather than unite. But Marcus knew we were interdependent upon each other. And while we all drive each other crazy at times, or have different beliefs, or hate the direction our country is going, we’re also tied to one another, connected through our shared existence within the world.
He continued in the same entry:
“But when they obstruct our proper tasks, they become irrelevant to us - like sun, wind, animals. Our actions may be impeded by them, but there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt.”
Clearly, just because we are fellow citizens doesn’t mean we are going to get along with each other about everything. People are people, they are their own individual selves and within themselves hold views that oppose ours and take actions that go against our own. But that doesn’t mean we cannot still work to get along.
Marcus understood that society is woven together through the strands of humanity, that even though we disagreed on many things, even though we hold different beliefs, we are bound by an underlying principle: our shared existence with one another.
And it is from this understanding that he writes one of his most famous dictums. Finishing off the same entry, he writes:
“The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Someone will always be in opposition to us, we cannot live our life without experiencing this. But that doesn’t make the other individual our enemy. In fact, it boils down to our intentions when we act. Because while some think crushing the opposition shows strength, it is actually our ability to adapt to the opposition, to mold it to our advantage, to work with the opposition, not against it, that is true strength, and that springs from our character.
Real strength springs from our character, and it is from this that we are able to take adversities and mold those experiences into advantages.
It is easy to write people off. It is easy to push another down when they disagree or stand in our way. But by doing that, by attacking a member of our society, we are in essence chopping off, in Marcus’ own words, one of our limbs. We are social creatures who rely upon each other. It’s not always easy to interact with others, and often we want to tear our hair out, but if we remember our connectedness, if we reflect on how we are citizens of the world—all of us—we can turn those frustrations into opportunities. We can learn to work with one another side-by-side, and we can in the process continue to build our character as a citizen of the world.
Thank you again for reading and I hope you found this useful. Please feel free to heart, comment, or ask questions about this post. Suggestions are always appreciated and considered.
Until next week,
D.A. DiGerolamo