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The True Meaning of Stoicism October 9, 2025
Self-discipline isn't supposed to be punishing. Rather, it's friendly and encouraging. The encouraging Master is strict only in holding fast to moderation.
Today, "stoicism" means weathering adversity without complaint. There is much more to the philosophy of stoicism than that. In its entirety, stoicism is a philosophy of wisdom much like Buddhism in its emphasis on virtue, self-control, renunciation of excess, self-improvement, detachment, cause and effect (The Four Noble Truths) and the cessation of suffering though understanding. It also shares many similarities with Taoism in its view of living within Nature, accepting the limits of our control, rejecting wealth, status and power, and like Buddhism, finding liberation through practice, insight and understanding. Here are some succinct excerpts on Stoicism from orionphilosophy.com: The Stoics elaborated a detailed taxonomy of virtue, dividing virtue into four main types: wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. The Stoics believed that the path to happiness (which they called eudaimonia) was discovered through: 1. Accepting the world for what it is (rather that expecting it to be something it is not). 2. Being resistant to the draws of desire, addiction, pleasure, fear, or pain. 3. Understanding our own nature and acting in accordance with it. 4. Living with virtue. Stoic philosophers believed that some of our negative emotions are simply caused by errors in our judgement, such as: 1. Having unrealistic expectations of the world, other people, or ourselves. 2. Trying to control things outside the reach of our influence. 3. Not accepting responsibility for the things within our control (our beliefs, actions, values, perspectives etc). 4. Not understanding the nature of the world or ourselves. The Stoics did not look to eliminate emotions, they looked to lessen their hold on our peace of mind. This was achieved through reason, judgement, and self control. The use of logic, discipline, meditation, and objectivity helped the Stoics keep their composure in times of difficulty, and remain clear headed to judge the best way to move forward. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said this: "Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our actions." In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote: "When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil." End of excerpts. I would add four comments regarding Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. 1. So far as we know, the Meditations were his private notebook of self-improvement. The book was not composed for publication, though he may well have anticipated that as a possibility. 2. Much of his writings can be viewed as a relentless reduction of expectations. If we expect little, we're better prepared to accept adversity because it is what we anticipated. If something a bit better transpires, we're delighted. If our expectations are too high, we suffer disappointment, depression, resentment, indignation, envy, etc. 3. The first chapter of the Meditations was an outpouring of gratitude to everyone who taught him valuable lessons and provided an example how to live a virtuous, kind and ethical life. 4. He was a strict taskmaster of himself, constantly seeking to better himself via actions and insights. Let's extend this discussion of stoic virtue into self-discipline, a key element of stoicism's principles of self-control and moderation. Our world is dominated by the drive to maximize profits. I contend (and am in good company doing so) that this economic dynamic now dominates society, culture and governance (politics). As a result, everything is viewed through the prism of maximizing financial gain, as if all of human life boils down to this single drive. In this context, both ends of the spectrum of indulgence and discipline are highly profitable, and so they are marketed to us with great zeal. Moderation isn't profitable and so it's ignored, much like no one spends a fortune marketing carrots and broccoli, as these low-margin items cannot be as profitable as junk food. (Deep-frying carrot-colored potato-starch sticks in low-quality fat, coating them in low-quality sugar and marketing them as a "healthy snack" replaces low-profit carrots with high-profit ultra-processed food--the essence of Ultra-Processed Life--my new book; you can read the first part for free.) On the indulgence end, we're constantly told "we deserve" a treat, a luxury, etc., so go ahead and indulge yourself. We're shown scenes in which the joy of the participants indicates that indulging in pizza and alcohol while watching a football game on TV is the height of human happiness. The not-so-subtle message in all this encapsulates the entirety of Modernism: the elevation of the Self as the One True Measure of Everything. This is the essence of narcissism and self-absorption. A solipsistic focus on gratifying my desires, expressing my uniqueness with curated social media posts and possessions, and making my opinions known is the Modernist Project. In marketers' clever hands, indulgence isn't self-destructive excess, it's the discovery of "the real you," the self freed from all the constraints of convention and the limits we place on ourselves, i.e. self-discipline. Indulging ourselves via buying something is presented as freeing ourselves from the shackles of convention, a means of self-discovery and self-expression. This distortion of the authentic project of acquiring oneself (in Kierkegaard's phrase) is highly profitable, as high-margin indulgences (triple-patty bacon cheeseburgers, luxury vehicles, jewelry, river cruises, etc.) can be marketed as "you deserve it." In marketers' able hands, self-discovery and self-expression require the constant purchase of highly profitable products and services to become "the real you." The other end of the spectrum--self-denial--is equally profitable, as high-margin home gyms, weight-loss programs, etc. are marketed as the extreme tools you need to restore your health and glorify your "real self" after decades of self-indulgence. That the vast majority of the home-gym contraptions end up outside rusting and the majority of those who lose weight via strict diet regimes gain it back are testament to the ephemeral frailty of self-denial that can be purchased. Equating self-denial with self-discipline distorts the true purpose of self-discipline, which is to maintain moderation, not unsustainable extremes. Extremes of fitness and diet are profitably sold as the means to become "the real you," the self glorified as a photo-worthy body. Self-discipline isn't the pursuit of extremes for the purpose of self-glorification; it's the pursuit of moderation for the purpose of well-being, learning, insight and self-cultivation. The point of self-discipline isn't forcing oneself to extremes, it's to be a friend to yourself by limiting destructive excesses of self-indulgence and self-denial. The media glorifies the gains of extreme self-privation, but such extremes are not sustainable nor are they desirable from the perspective of the cultivation of virtue, health and wisdom. The point of self-discipline is not to become more self-glorifying than others, it's to master moderation. For this, we don't need to buy any products or services. Moderation isn't profitable. In the realm of moderation, any two-meter square of ground can be a gym. Any diet of a wide variety of real, unprocessed food and moderate servings can be a healthy diet. Self-indulgence and self-privation are not pathways to self-discovery or self-expression. These extremes are brittle. Self-discipline in service of self-cultivation and moderation is flexible. The dead reed is brittle, the living reed is flexible. Self-discipline isn't supposed to be punishing. Rather, it's friendly and encouraging. The encouraging Master is strict only in holding fast to moderation. Moderation is flexible and that's why it's sustainable. Stoicism isn't asceticism. As Marcus Aurelius showed, it's gratitude for what we have learned, lowering expectations of ourselves and the world, and the process of self-cultivation via self-discipline, learning and moderation--a pathway of self-reliance. Self-reliance is a journey of learning, flexibility, lowering expectations, moderation, encouragement and self-cultivation. I wrote a book about it: Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. You can read the first chapter for free. 
New podcast: KunstlerCast 430: Finance and The Ultra-Processed Life (1 hr) Check out my new book Ultra-Processed Life and my updated Books and Films. Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com Subscribe to my Substack for free My recent books: Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases originated via links to Amazon products on this site. Ultra-Processed Life print $16, (Kindle $7.95, Hardcover $20 (129 pages, 2025) audiobook Read the Introduction and first chapter for free (PDF) The Mythology of Progress, Anti-Progress and a Mythology for the 21st Century print $16, (Kindle $6.95, audiobook, Hardcover $24 (215 pages, 2024) Read the Introduction and first chapter for free (PDF) Self-Reliance in the 21st Century print $15, (Kindle $6.95, audiobook $13.08 (96 pages, 2022) Read the first chapter for free (PDF) When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal $15 print, $6.95 Kindle ebook; audiobook Read the first section for free (PDF) Global Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States (Kindle $6.95, print $16, audiobook) Read Chapter One for free (PDF). A Hacker's Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet (Kindle $6.95, print $15, audiobook $17.46) Read the first section for free (PDF). Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World (Kindle $3.95, print $12, audiobook) Read the first section for free (PDF). The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake (Novel) $3.95 Kindle, $12 print); read the first chapters for free (PDF) Money and Work Unchained $6.95 Kindle, $15 print) Read the first section for free Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free Ultra-Processed Life print $16, (Kindle $7.95, audiobook, Hardcover $20 (129 pages, 2025) 
Ultra-Processed Life: the substitution of a synthetic, commoditized, very profitable facsimile for what was once authentic. Ultra-Processed Life is my term for everything that is analogous to ultra-processed snacks: attractively marketed, instantly alluring, easy to consume, addictive by design, tasty in the moment but harmful over time, its origins a black box of unknown processes, the brightly colored product bearing no resemblance to the real-world ingredients, an idealized form of what is inherently imperfect, untethered from the natural world or the future, disconnected not just from the consequences of our consuming the snack but disconnected from the consequences unleashed by those consequences. This book recounts my journey of discovery of how our everyday realm has drifted away from the foundations of human life and happiness without our noticing. As with many others, the catalyst for my exploration was a life-threatening medical crisis that did not have a specific cause. This led me to wonder if our entire way of life is like an ultra-processed snack: tasty but not healthy, edible but stripped of the nutrients we need to be healthy, addictive by design. Read the Introduction and first chapter Reader Jeff H. "Having this book during the life stage of middle age and two teens coming of age couldn't be better-timed. Smith makes a compelling case for us to refocus on what truly matters: community, meaningful work, and simply starting a small vegetable garden. Getting out of the rat race can be done locally and incrementally. It just takes a willingness to experiment, connections with others and a large dose of patience. There is a big difference between blame and responsibility. We may not be to blame for our current predicaments in modernity, but the responsibility is ours (responsible = response-able; able to respond). It is our duty to instruct the next generation about the reality of the situation and guide them along a better path." The Mythology of Progress, Anti-Progress and a Mythology for the 21st Century print $20, (Kindle $9.95, Hardcover $24 (215 pages, 2024) audiobook, Read the Introduction and first chapter for free (PDF) 
What if growth--and policies to accelerate growth--are no longer working because our fix for every problem--growth at any cost--is failing? We're told Progress is inevitable as a result of technology, but everyday life is getting harder, not easier--the opposite of Progress, what I call Anti-Progress.
What if the real source of the unraveling is far deeper than economics or politics? What if the problem is what we see as the inevitable destiny of humanity--Progress--is actually a modern mythology, disconnected from the real-world consequences of growth for growth's sake? We indignantly reject that Progress is a mythology, but our need for mythology hasn't gone away because we've mastered technology; we've created a modern mythology of technology that is heedless of its own consequences. To truly progress, we need a new mythology aligned to 21st century realities. That's the goal of this book. Read the Introduction and first chapter for free
Recent entries: The True Meaning of Stoicism October 9, 2025 Look Out Below October 7, 2025 The Golden Age of Spectacle October 3, 2025 Will AI Crash the Economy? October 1, 2025 Price Doesn't Reflect Value, and We're Paying a Steep Price for Confusing the Two September 29, 2025 Can Social Security Be Saved for Future Generations? September 25, 2025 Money, Credit, Growth and Depression: It's Complicated September 23, 2025 Is This the Last Bubble? September 18, 2025 The Moral Decay of Debt September 16, 2025 Precarity and the Point of No Return September 11, 2025
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Extra-Special Bonus Aphorisms:
"There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity." (Douglas MacArthur) "We are what we repeatedly do." (Aristotle) "Do the thing and you shall have the power." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." (E.F. Schumacher, via Tom R.) "He who will not risk cannot win." (John Paul Jones) "When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army." (Honore de Balzac) "Progress is not possible without deviation." (Frank Zappa, via Richard Metzger) "Victory favors those who take pains." (amat victoria curam) "The man who has a garden and a library has everything." (Cicero, via Lee Bentley) "A healthy homecooked family meal and a home garden are revolutionary acts." (CHS) "Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything." (Napoleon Bonaparte) "The way of the Tao is reversal" Or "Reversal is the movement of Tao." (Lao Tzu) "Chance favours the prepared mind." (Louis Pasteur) "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill) "Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasures." (Rumi) "The realm of gratitude is boundless." (CHS, 11/25/15) "History doesn't have a reverse gear." (CHS, 12/22/15) Smith's Law of Conservation of Risk: Every sustained action has more than one consequence. Some consequences will appear positive for a time before revealing their destructive nature. Some consequences will be intended, some will not. Some will be foreseeable, some will not. Some will be controllable, some will not. Those that are unforeseen and uncontrollable will trigger waves of other unforeseen and uncontrollable consequences. (July 8, 2014)(thanks to Lew G. for retitling the idea.) Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only. The Smith Corollary to Metcalfe's Law (The Network Effect): the value of the network is created not just by the number of connected devices/users but by the value of the information and knowledge shared by users in sub-networks and in the entire network. (CHS, 4/6/16) My Credo of Liberation: I no longer care if the power centers of our society--the distant, fortified castles of our financial feudal system--are changed by my actions, for I am liberated by the act of resistance. I am no longer complicit in perpetuating fraudulent feudalism and the pathology of concentrated power. I no longer covet signifiers of membership in the Upper Caste that serves the plutocracy. I am liberated from self-destructive consumerist-State financialization and the delusion that debt servitude and obedience to sociopathological Elites serve my self-interests. (Thank you, Klaus-Peter L., for reminding me) "We've become a culture of excuses rather than solutions: solutions always require sustained effort and discipline." (CHS 4/9/16) "Fraud as a way of life caters an extravagant banquet of consequences." (CHS 4/14/16) "Creativity = problem solving = value creation." (CHS 6/4/16) "Truth is powerful because it is the core dynamic of solving problems." (CHS 7/21/17) "We live in a system of human emotions that masquerades as a science (economics)." (CHS 1/1/18) "Always remember, your focus determines your reality." (George Lucas) "Diversity is for poor people. Sameness is for the successful." (GFB) "When power dissipates suddenly, it dissipates completely." (CHS 7/14/19) "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." (Henry David Thoreau) "Markets cannot price in the value of non-monetized natural assets such as diverse ecosystems." (CHS 7/14/19) "Magical thinking isn't optimism, it is folly." CHS 1/3/22) "Tune in (to self-reliance), drop out (of hyper-consumerism and debt-serfdom) and turn on (to relocalizing capital and agency)." (CHS 1/5/22) "The path to everything you desire starts here: like yourself as you are right now." (CHS 11/20/22) "There are only two signals: how many essentials you produce and share and if you're consuming less with better results. Everything else is noise." (CHS 12/17/22) "Liberation is no longer needing any confirmation or feedback from others or the world for one's sense of self. Wealth, fame, recognition, admiration, praise, prestige, approval, sainthood, martyrdom, success: none are needed, none are desired." (CHS 12/26/22) "When fame, wealth, prestige, status and glory are out of reach, you're free to pursue other more valuable things." (CHS 2/6/22) "It is the sacred duty of every activist who seeks to better their community to grow and share as much life-giving food as is humanly possible." (CHS 6/15/23) "Being anonymous, gray and unknown is the ideal state of freedom." (CHS 3/15/24) "We seem to have entered a world of anti-leisure and anti-productivity in which the unpaid shadow work demanded to keep all the complicated digital bits in motion obliterate our leisure and productivity." CHS (5/22/24) "It is axiomatic that failing systems work the best just before they fail catastrophically." Ray W. "Looking younger is mere technique; thinking younger demands creativity." CHS (10/16/24) "Tell me what's taboo and I'll tell you the truths that threaten the status quo." CHS (12/15/24) "This is the core of the Attention Economy: the ultimate addiction is the addiction to ourselves." CHS (1/28/25) "If You Seek the Truth, Look for What's Taboo." CHS (7/18/25) "My definition of self-reliance: the less you need, the easier it is to get what you need." CHS (7/26/25) "Mastery requires reading and doing." CHS (7/28/25) "The replacement of authentic value, quality, agency, choice, trust, legitimacy and experience with self-serving facsimiles is the key dynamic of Ultra-Processed Life, my term for the present-day human condition." CHS (8/12/25) "Ultra-Processed Life replaces an authentic experience with a synthetic, simulated, commoditized, highly profitable version that's superficially attractive but destructive over the long term." CHS (8/12/25) "What we see everywhere is the replacement of authentic things--including democracy--with synthetic facsimiles designed to maintain the illusion of choice and value." CHS (8/12/25) "Sometimes certainty is the enemy we don't even see and uncertainty is our most faithful ally." CHS (9/20/25) |
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