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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Wayfair. Every style. Every home. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Cato wasn't always Cato. He was a towering figure even in his own time. He was known for his honesty, his commitment, his self-discipline, and his incorruptibility.
Even his enemies and political adversaries couldn't help but be impressed by it. We can't all be Cato's, they would say with a shrug, and they had to hand it to him. He was better than they were morally and professionally. But you know, it's worth remembering that Cato wasn't perfect. He had flaws. He made exceptions. He made mistakes. He lost his temper. He miscalculated. He had an ego.
Even his sense of justice, his most impressive asset, was sometimes too unyielding and at other times too self-righteous. The author Ta-Nehisi Coates once said something that echoed that popular expression about Cato, but it had an important addition. Not all of us can always be Jackie Robinson, he said. Not even Jackie Robinson was always Jackie Robinson.
The examples of Cato and Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King and Marcus Aurelius are rightly awesome, literally causing awe because of their incredible virtue and strength and power. Yet we should not forget that they were not superhuman. They were not perfect. They struggled like we struggled.
And we should not let the magnitude of their accomplishments intimidate us from struggling to be like them. And in any case, we'll get better for trying, just as they did. The Stoic that all the Stoics admired was Cato. In his last moments on Earth, Seneca is thinking of Cato. Thrasia is modeling his life on Cato. George Washington, for his part, makes Cato his hero.
It's the basis of his whole life. So of the Stoics, Cato has always been the hero. But what's fascinating about Cato is that Cato didn't write anything down. He's not a hero because of his philosophical writings. He's a hero because of the towering example. His philosophical contribution was his life, who he was as a human being. I'm Ryan Holiday. I've written now 10 books about Stoic philosophy.
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Chapter 2: What qualities made Cato the Younger a Stoic hero?
I was speaking out of ego, really. I was speaking out of insecurity. I didn't actually have anything I want to say. So when I heard Cato's advice that he only speaks when he's confident that what he has to say is not better left unsaid, that's the advice that I was getting. And it's this timeless, amazing piece of advice. The idea that you don't just have to talk for the sake of talking.
You can keep your mouth shut. You can listen. Two ears, one mouth, as the Stokes say. That's the way to think about it. Somebody once asked Cato, the Stoic philosopher, why there was no statue of him in Rome. And he said, I'd rather you ask that question, why there is no statue, than ask why there is a statue of me. Point is, it's better to be obscure. It's better to be underrated than overrated.
And I think about that with my books. I'd like to be—I heard this great expression from a friend— It said, you want to be your favorite rapper's favorite rapper. You don't need to be the most popular. You don't need to be the most famous, the most well-known. You want to be the person that the people in the industry are fans of because you're legit, because you actually do it.
So in my book, Perennial Seller, I talk about this. Don't chase fame. Chase the real tastemakers, the real people who are doing the real shit. That's who you want to impress, if anyone. That's where you want your work to resonate. You don't want to be the person who's got an inflated reputation. You want to be a person who's underappreciated, but actually great.
That's who's going to stand the test of time. And Cato is a great example of that.
cato walked around rome bareheaded he walked barefoot he wore thin toga even though he was quite wealthy he he dressed as if he was not and he was okay standing alone looking different being judged being misunderstood and this wasn't just for fun this wasn't just kind of tourism in a different way of life what cato was actually doing i think
is preparing for the moment when it really counts, when he has to stand alone against Caesar, when he has to stand alone against corruption, when he has to stand alone against the decadence of his time. He's practiced this. He's prepared for it. It's how he's lived his whole life. He doesn't care that he's getting sideways glances. He doesn't care that people are criticizing him.
He doesn't care that people are doubting him. He doesn't care that people are saying what he's doing is pointless and silly and it doesn't mean anything and that he should just go along with everyone else. No, he's practiced this. He's prepared for it. He's made it a daily habit, which is what we have to do to prepare for a moment like that in our own lives.
all the great moments in stoic history involve standing up for the little guy cato stands up for the little guy rutilius rufus stands up for the little guy marcus aurelius passes laws that not only protects rome's slaves he even gives wooden swords to the gladiators so they won't get hurt in the arena right we're all privileged we all have advantages and at different times we're going to see ourselves in positions of power or influence
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Chapter 3: How did Cato's upbringing influence his Stoic beliefs?
The rage and fury that had frightened Sarpedon was channeled through his training in Stoic philosophy and rhetoric into a fierce advocacy for justice. that would stand out as a defining feature of his personal and political character. As Plutarch put it, above all, he pursued the form of goodness which consists in rigid justice that will not bend to clemency or favor.
Armed with a resolute or fearless character, stoic ethical principles, and a powerful proficiency in public speaking, Cato would become a formidable political figure and a rare one in that all knew his vote could never be bought. But before he made his name as a politician, Cato was a soldier. In 72 BC, he volunteered for service in the Third Servile War against Spartacus.
It would have been unconscionable to let someone else serve in his place. To Cato, it was the actions one took, the sacrifices one was willing to make, especially at arms defending one's country, that made you a philosopher. And so in that war, as in the battles he fought in, he was fearless and committed as he believed every citizen was obligated to be.
Fresh from this crucible, he was ready in 68 BC at age 27 to stand for military tribune, the same position his father had served in before him. In fact, the Basilica Portia, the public forum where the tribunes conducted their business, was named after its builder, his great-grandfather.
Pregnant with respect for this legacy and always deeply committed to what he felt was proper, Cato would be the only candidate who actually adhered to the canvassing restrictions and campaign laws. Corruption may have been endemic to Rome, but Cato was never one to buy the argument that everyone else was doing it. It was a strategy that won him respect. At the very least, it made him stand out.
As Plutarch recounts, the harshness of his sentiments and the mingling of his character with them gave their austerity a smiling graciousness that won men's hearts. That included the troops he led over the next three years as his military service took him across the empire, exposing him to the provinces.
Some thought visits to these exotic locations might soften the man or his iron grip on himself, but they were mistaken. And this in part is why he was so well-liked, because he carried himself like a common soldier. War, although it began as a grand adventure, would soon break Cato's heart. In 67 BC, a letter brought word that his beloved brother Capio was ill.
Cato and Capio had always been different, Capio favoring luxuries and perfumes that Cato would have never allowed himself. But sometimes when it's your brother, you look the other way. Cato did more than that. He idolized Capio.
And hearing that he was near death, rushed to his side, braving wild and dangerous seas that nearly killed him in a tiny boat was the only captain he could convince to take him. Life is not fair, and it cares little for our feelings and our plans.
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