The Daily Stoic - Courage Is Calling | Going Beyond The Call

Episode Date: November 7, 2021

On today’s special episode of the podcast, Ryan reads a chapter from his newest book Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave. Opening the 3rd and final section of the book “Going Beyond The Call” details the incredible heroism of the 300 Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae. This audiobook is published by Penguin Random House Audio.Grab a signed copy of Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave at the Daily Stoic Store or pick up a copy anywhere books or audiobooks are sold. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://DailyStoic.com/signupCheck out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target. The new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic. Each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, something to help you live up to those four Stoic virtues of courage, justice, temperance and wisdom. And then here on the weekend we take a deeper dive into those same topics. We interview stoic philosophers, we explore at length how

these stoic ideas can be applied to our actual lives and the challenging issues of our time. Here on the weekend when you have a little bit more space when things have slowed down, be sure to take some time to think to go for a walk, to sit with your journal and most importantly to prepare for what the week ahead may bring. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another weekend episode of the Daily Sturk podcast. I'm going to give you a little behind the scenes on today's episode. I was sitting down and I wanted to write about 300 Spartans, the story of the Spartans

at Thermopoly, one of the most inspiring epic moments in the history of Western civilization, literally a clash of civilizations, the East and the West. And I don't know if we'd be sitting here talking today, had those 300 Spartans not gone to what we call the hot gates, and fought for the Western way of life, the Greek way of life against the then tyrannical Persian way of life, the conqueror, zirxes who wanted to subjugate Greece.

Anyways, as I was thinking about telling that story, I was thinking about what I wanted my source material to be. And of course, Herodotus is one of the first places that we hear about the story, the 300 Spartans. And I went, I picked up my copy, and I hadn't touched it since probably 2006 when I first read it. And there it was, not just all his beautiful retelling

of the 300 Spartans, but there were the notes that I'd written to myself as I read it for the first time. Shortly after I graduated from high school as I read it for the first time, shortly after I graduated from high school and I was just starting college. And anyways, I felt this wonderful feeling that like I had 15 years earlier sent a message to myself in the future. I of course didn't know that I would be a writer. I certainly didn't know that I'd be writing this book at this time about this story. But somehow there was then a part of me that sense that there was something here

that perhaps someday in the future I would need it. And to go back to it and be able to touch, it was like having a conversation with the past and watching myself have a conversation with the future, I know this all sounds very weird, but it was a really cool experience to me. And that's what I love so much about writing is that it's this process. We talked about process, but that was the process playing out. I done work 15 years earlier with no sense of what it would add up to, where it would go, what it would contribute to.

And then that boomerang comes back or that loop gets closed. 15 years later in a chapter in a book, I couldn't have even conceived of writing. Then wouldn't have been qualified to write. Then wouldn't have been capable of writing. Then that's what the process does. It builds on itself. It takes you somewhere day by day. You could never have expected or anticipated.

But if you follow the process, if you trust the process, it gets you there. So today's episode, I wanted to give you one of my favorite sections in Courage is calling. This is part three of the book. One of the book is about overcoming fear. Part two of the book is about courage. Part three of the book is about heroism, the heroic courage and then some courage, selfless courage, sacrificial courage, right? The idea of valor, giving oneself, giving every part of oneself

for something that someone believes in to protect someone else, protect a future and idea cause, which is really what the Spartans were doing there at Thermopylae. So this is an audio excerpt of courage is calling Fortune Favors the Brave, my new book, debut New York Times Bestseller. Thank you to all of you who supported the book. If you haven't checked it out, then get it at Amazon and get signed copies for me in the Daily Stoke Store, or here at my bookstore in Bastard, Texas, the Payne and Porch. You can also get the full audiobook anywhere audiobooks are sold. This audiobook excerpt was provided by my publisher Penguin Random

House audio, and I'm excited to bring it to you. And I hope you could check out Courage is calling to support the book. Make a great gift. I think it's a very timely read, very proud of it. Thank you to everyone who has supported the book. And again, if you haven't, check it out. Amazon Indie Retailer Barnes and Noble Apple Audible. Wherever ever, I appreciate it. Going beyond the call. The Greeks were not perfect. The Spartans, least of all.

But they were not bootlickers, and they were better than the tyrannical and satiable king who bore down on them in 480 BC. Zerksy's the ruler of the enormous Persian Empire, sought subjugation and revenge. The Greeks had offended him, rebuffing his emissaries with insolence, and foiling his father's invasion a decade before, and now with an enormous army he marched into Greece.

Some Greek city-sates saw the writing on the wall and surrendered. Some took large bribes to switch sides. The already shaking Confederacy of Greek nations from Sparta to Athens, Thebes, Argos and Corinth stood on the precipice of collapse and with it rested the entire future of Western civilization, though they could not have fully known this in the moment. Would Zerksy's conquer the West, would an all-powerful king worshiped as a god stamp out the embers of freedom and equality,

extinguishing a way of life we are fortunate enough to enjoy today. As the Allies struggled to come together, struggled to prepare it was decided, a small army led by 300 Spartans and their ruler, Leonidas, would rush to Thermopoly, the hot gates, to hold back the Persians as long as they could. If they could make a strong stand, perhaps Greece could be inspired to fight on. They say that the barbarian has come near and is coming on while we are wasting time, Leonidas told his soldiers. Truth?

Soon we shall either kill the barbarians or else we are bound to be killed ourselves. And so they marched, 300 of Spartans most elite soldiers, to a man each one the father of at least one living son traversing some 250 miles to face perhaps the worst odds in the history of warfare. They picked up some reinforcements from a few neighboring states, but it is believed that between 5,000 and 7,000 Greeks eventually stood against a Persian force that some ancient historians have claimed numbered as many as one million men. They're only advantage, thermopoli, and narrow coastal past near the Aegean Sea, which would neutralize Zerxes' overwhelming strength.

Also, unlike their invader, the Spartans were actually fighting for something. They were prepared to fight and die, so that others might stay free. If you had any knowledge of the noble things of life, the United States told Zerxes, you would refrain from coveting others' possessions, but for me to die for Greece is better than to be the sole ruler over the people of my race. Of course, the insatiable conquerors of history have no understanding of such things. The very first thing Zerxes did was try to bribe the Spartans. It had worked on some of the weaker city-states, and it was certainly the kind of temptation

that Zerxes would have lunged for had he been in the same position. Not Leonidas, not for a descendant of Hercules, to take the easy choice, to betray others for your own gain, to advance one's position, but to do so through treachery. The Greeks have learned from their fathers to gain lands not by cowardice, but by valor, the United's replied. He chose virtue. He chose courage. This idea of valor, not just courage, but a commitment to something larger than themselves, was what convinced the Greeks this mission was even worth attempting.

How could you possibly risk so few against that many one ally, Astley and Idis? If you men think that I rely on numbers, he replied, then all of Greece is not sufficient. For it is but a small fraction of their numbers, but if on men's valor, then this number will do. And so, when Xerxes asked the Spartans to surrender their arms, the Leconic reply was come and take them. For four days, just the threat of tangling with the Spartans kept the Persians at bay. Sometime on August 18th, the assault began. Line after line of Persian soldiers was thrown against the failings of Greeks. There they clashed among the rocks, the Spartans fighting in lockstep, not just for their country, but as true heroes always do for the man next to them. Toward the end of the first day, Zerxes ordered his most fearsome soldiers, the 10,000 Immortals into the breach.

A Spartan remarked to Leonidas that the Immortals were near. Leonidas reassured him, yes, and we are also near to them. Tzirksy's whore, rising three times in anguished impotence, even these troops, were hurled back at great loss. As the first day bled into the second, Leonidas was not fooled by the victories he had won. He had always known, regardless of the hope of reinforcements, that this was a one-way mission. Yet he had come all the same. He was fighting for time. He was there to prove a point as well. His act of devotion was meant to call to the courage of the Greeks who wavered on whether to surrender or resist.

They fought on the second day, as brutal as the first. Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could live in a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean working during the day and partying at night with your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder's Sam Bankman Freed lived that dream life, but it was all funded with other people's money, but he allegedly stole. Many thought Sam Bankman Freed was changing the game as he graced the pages of Forbes in Vanity Fair.

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Sam Beckman-Freed. Follow Spellcaster wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to episodes Add Free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today. By the third day, it was clear that the Persians had found a way to attack from the rear. A warning came about the enemy's strength. Zerxes Archer's would fire enough arrows to block out the Sun. Then we shall fight in the shade, Leonidas said.

Then he ordered his men to die in well because they were most likely to die next in the after world. He attempted to select three injured men to return to Sparta with news, hoping secretly to spare their lives as well. To a man they rejected this golden ticket, I came with the army not to carry messages, but to fight the first replied. The next, I should be a better man if I stayed here, the third, I will not be behind these, but first in the fight.

With nothing left to say the Spartans stood in silence, who among them was not bearing wounds from the previous days fighting, who was not exhausted, who was not thinking of their children, of the country they had left behind. By nine o'clock the sun was up in the heat with it, they sweated in their armor, their bodies coerced with whatever reserves of adrenaline and patriotism remained. They would never see Sparta or their families again. Leonidas gave the order to march forward. They stepped outside the protection of the rocky gates to meet the enemy in the open, inflicting extra damage as they took their final stand.

The Persians hit them with a fury whipped from behind by their slave drivers, backed by so many soldiers that they could afford to trample the wounded or fallen comrades as the endless waves of men followed, one after another. The Spartans dispatched them methodically as fiercely as before at times even feigning to have broken ranks, letting the Persians rush forward and then reforming to slaughter them. Each time a cry of exhilaration would go up, for this brief moment, uncommon valor was common virtue, the men passed beyond themselves, fighting and performing with almost other worldly excellence.

But the Spartans knew. They knew. This was it. They would not grow old to a man they would fall in soon. Leonidas was killed in the middle of the final day, fulfilling a prophecy he had long believed that a Spartan king would have to die less griefs be destroyed by an invader. His men rushed out in one, two, three attempts to retrieve his body on the fourth they managed, and right back to the fight.

Their spears broke off from use. No reinforcements came. Now the word spread through the ranks. It was time they retreated back to the gates. Here they fought with only their swords, and upon losing these they resorted to their hands and teeth Eventually inevitably they were overwhelmed It had been three days of battle plus the four before they bought their country one week It cost Zerke's countless men, but mostly time he did not have more it shook his confidence Mostly time he did not have, more, it shook his confidence. How many more Spartans are there in Greece? He asked one of his advisors, do they all fight like this?

There are thousands more came the reply, none are equal to these fallen men, but all are just as good at fighting. Greece also understood what was at stake. No one could deny the gesture the Spartans had made. No one could deny the call to do their part. Centuries later, Churchill remarked of the RAF's incredible defense of Britain during the Battle of Britain that never before have so many owed so much to so few. This was not quite true. For even the stand of those few owes a debt first to the 300 Spartans, it's not a stretch to argue that all the accomplishments of Western civilization, from the Renaissance to

the American Revolution, would not have happened where it not for the sacrifice at Thermopoly. And so those 300 soldiers who sacrificed, as the soldiers at Gettysburg did, as the RAF did, they became more than men. They became almost like gods. It's almost offensively cliche now to use the phrase freedom isn't free. Nonetheless, it is true. Purchased there in the glorious defeat at Thermopoly were the victories that the Greeks were able to achieve at Salamis and Plittia. The magma card of the Declaration of Independence, the United Nations, all of it rooted there in the fight at the hot gates, the freedom that everyone loves,

but so many tend to abuse. It was won there too by the fathers who fought side-by-side knowing for certain that they would not live to see the fruits of their labor, just as the tree you sit under was planted long ago by a man or woman who cared about the future. There's was not to reason why, there's was to do and to die. As the ancient inscription at the battlefield reads, tell the Spartans passer by, here obedient to her laws we lie. Their example of courage and selflessness stands eternal.

None of them survived yet. They turned out to be far more immortal than the Persian troops, who killed them. Gates of fire, the epic historical novel of this battle by Stephen Pressfield, is today passed from soldier to soldier, person to person as a kind of tribute to that example. The central question of that book is, what is the opposite of fear? It's not enough to simply conquer or quench fear. In writing the book Pressfield wanted to know as the Spartans did what lay beyond it. If fear was the vice, what was the virtue? It's not just courage because you can be courageous for selfish reasons. You have to override fear

to jump out of an airplane, sure. But if you're doing it for fun, is it really that meaningful? It wasn't just the men and their arms that made feats at Thermopoly possible, who's also the wives who not only allowed their husbands to go, but whose courage and iron self-discipline was the backbone of the country. The toughness and selflessness of Spartan women is legendary. When one Spartan king was killed in a vicious coup, his mother rushed to his body, and when the killers offered to spare her if she kept quiet, she stood up and defied them. Her last words as she offered her neck was, may this only be in service of Sparta.

We are mistaken to see the Spartans as mere warriors, just courageous fighters. As Pressfield concludes the opposite of fear, the true virtue contrasted with that vice was not fearlessness. The opposite of fear is love, he says. Love for one another, love for ideas, love for your country, love for the vulnerable and the weak, love for the next generation, love for all. Is that not what hits us in the solar plexus when we hear Leonidas' final, cheerful words to his wife as he leaves?

Mary, a good man who will treat you well, bear him children, and live a good life. And it is this profound, marrow-deep love that allows one to rise above the logic of self-preservation and achieve true greatness, whether that's shielding someone from a bullet, risking your job to speak out in defense of the common good, or fighting against all hope for cause you know is right. Florence Nightingale cared tenderly for the suffering

of the sick in her country. De Gaulle fought exasperatingly hard to preserve France. The Spartans at the hot gates were something beyond this, truly selfless, giving the most a person can possibly give. Sure, not all selflessness requires the ultimate sacrifice, but there is no selflessness without sacrifice. The sacrifice they made was incredible. All the more so because it had not been for themselves

or their own people that they had made it. Leonidas could have survived if he chose. He and the Spartans could have ruled all of Greece. Nevertheless, he went and died so that all those other Greeks could be free, so that we could be free. If courage is rare, then this kind of heroism is a critically endangered species. If courage is by itself unreasonable, then love in this higher form, the truly selfless kind is insane. It's baffling in its majesty. It is real human greatness.

It is us transcending logic, self-interest, and millions of years of our own biology to find quarter, however briefly, in a higher realm. The Spartans are the heroes we recognize as the embodiment of that idea, but we should remember that they are stand-ins. They represent the anonymous courage of countless resistors for all time, for people who testified in trials and faced reprisals, people who registered to vote and were beaten for it. Union organizers who went up against robber barons, pioneers who sent out rescue parties

Athletes who played through career-ending injuries to keep their team in the game or their families fed These were moments of true greatness a soul What we're willing to give that full measure of our devotion to the effort to the stranger to what must be done That's what takes us higher. That's what transforms us from brave to heroic. Maybe for a moment, maybe just to one person, maybe to be enshrined in the history books for all time. My new book, Courage is Calling is now officially a New York Times bestseller. Thank you so much to everyone who supported the book.

It was literally and figuratively overwhelming. We signed almost 10,000 copies of the book, which just, you know, it hit me right here. And I appreciate it so much. If you haven't picked up a copy or you wanna pick up a signed copy as a gift, please do, you can get your copy at dailystoic.com slash courage is calling or you can just go to store that daily stoic.com.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.