The Daily Stoic - This Is Demanded Of You | 5 Stoic Secrets From The Ultimate Man Of Principle (Cato The Younger)

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

Seneca tried to teach it to Nero but Nero couldn’t grasp it. To be fair, most leaders, most powerful people, most governments and civilizations struggle with it. In fact, up until Seneca sat down to write De Clementia there wasn’t even a word for what we have, ever since, called clemency.Clemency, as Seneca explains it, is basically how a powerful person treats a person they have power over–particularly when the less powerful person has done wrong.---And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan shares some of the most strongest examples that Cato The Younger set for living like a Stoic.📺 You can watch the video at The Daily Stoic YouTube channel.📜 Check out the Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge at dailystoic.com/leadershipchallenge.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check 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 Stoic Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. On Tuesdays, we take a closer look at these stoic ideas, how we can apply them in our actual lives. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy. This is Demanded of You. Senaqa tried to teach it to Nero, but Nero couldn't grasp it. To be fair, most leaders, most powerful people, most governments and civilizations

struggle with it. In fact, up until Senaqa sat down to write his essay on Clemencey, there wasn't even a word for such a thing. Clemencey, as Senaqa explains it, is basically how a powerful person treats a person they have power over, particularly when the less powerful person has done wrong. Clemencey was what Marcus really has tried to offer a video's casius when the less powerful person has done wrong. Clemency was what Marcus really has tried to offer a video-scaseous when the general attempted to palace coup. Clemency was what Marcus insisted the Senate maintain. His reign would not be stained by a single drop of blood, he said. Clemency was what Ulysses S. Grant offered at Appomattox. Clemency and something more was what the US offered Japan and Germany after the Second World War by not only not destroying them, but rebuilding both countries after.

It's worth pointing out just how remarkable the concept of clemence was when Sennaqa first articulated it. Rome was a country that slaughtered its enemies and sold the rest into slavery. Sennaqa himself was cruelly exiled for some made up crime, sent away from his family and his friends because he had offended the emperor Claudius. A tale you can read about in lives of the Stoics. Today's society is less violent and has more robust legal protections of human rights.

But clemency is still too rare, not just for the conquered, but also between colleagues, between spouses, between rival political parties to say nothing of our legal system here in the US. When someone has wronged you, deceived you, betrayed you, stolen from you, do you get your pound of flesh? Or can you be merciful and restrained? Can you be generous? The ability to forgive, to let go, to not extract a full measure of punishment from someone, this requires self-control, it requires decency, it requires wisdom. It is the mark of leadership and also a virtue. Do you have it?

This idea of what the Stokes can teach us about leadership, something obviously think a lot about here at Daily Stoke. And it's what we built the Daily Stoke Leadership Challenge about. I think one of the best challenges we've done, certainly one of the longest and biggest and most ambitious. It's six weeks of leadership lessons from the Stokes, but also from the leadership experts that we interview. We talked to GM of sports franchise,

we talk to a two-star general in the Air Force, we talk to entrepreneurs, we talk to business experts, bunch of interesting people, plus you get to talk to me as the head of my own small little business here in Basharb, Texas. Anyways, I'm super proud of the Daily Stoke Leadership Challenge. I would love to have you join us in it. Thousands of students have gone through it over the last couple years and it's getting better

every day. You can sign up at dailystoke.com slash leadership challenge. I'll link to it in today's show notes and you can find out a bunch more about it in the Daily Stoke Store. And also, as always remember, if you sign up for Daily Stoke Life where you get the weekend emails and much other awesome stuff, you get this challenge and all the challenges for free. So check that out at dailystokelife.com. It's funny, I talk to lots of people and a good chunk of those people haven't been readers for a long time. They've just gotten back into it.

And I always love hearing that and they tell me how they fall in love with reading. They're reading more than ever and I go, let me guess, you listen audio books don't you? And it's true and almost invariably they listen to them on Audible. And that's because Audible offers an incredible selection of audio books across every genre from bestsellers and new releases to celebrity memoirs. And of course, ancient philosophy, all my books are available on audio, read by me for the most part. Audible lets you enjoy all your audio entertainment in one app. You'll always find the best of what you love, or something new to discover. And as an Audible member, you get to choose one title a month to keep from their entire

catalog, including the latest best sellers and new releases. You'll discover thousands of titles from popular favorites, exclusive new series, and exciting new voices in audio. You can check out Stillness is the Key, the Daily Dad. I just recorded so that's up on Audible now. Coming up on the 10 year anniversary of the obstacle is the way audio books. So all those are available and new members can try Audible for free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash daily stoke or text daily stoke to 500 500. That's audible.com slash daily stoke or text daily stoke, to 500, 500.

The Stoke that all the Stokes admired was Kato. In his last moments on Earth, Seneca is thinking of Kato. Thrasia is modeling his life on Kato. George Washington, for his part, makes Kato his hero. It's the basis of his whole life. So of the Stoke, Kato has always been the hero. But what's fascinating about Kato is that Kato 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. There's two Kato's in ancient Rome. There's Kato, the elder whose Kato's great, great grandfather, and then Kato the younger comes later, and he's the one who's explicitly thegrandfather, and then Kato the younger, comes later, and he's the one who's explicitly the stoic, and that's what we're going to talk about in today's episode. And I'm going to do some tips and strategies and lessons

from Kato's life that you can apply in your own. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got came when I got my first job in Hollywood. I sat in this meeting with a bunch of important older people, and I remember I spoke up about something, I didn't really know what I was talking about but I just said something and then afterwards one of my mentors took me aside and he said, why did you say that? Did you feel like it really needed to be said or did you just want to have something to say? I was speaking out of ego really, of speaking out of insecurity, I didn't actually have anything I want to say. So when I heard Kato'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 to the sake of talking, you can keep your mouth shut, you can listen. Two years one mouth as Stoke say, that's the way to think about it. Somebody once asked Kato the Stoke 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, and said, you want to be your favorite rappers, 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 Cellar, I talk about this, don't chase fame. Chase the real taste makers, the real people who are doing the real shit. That's who you wanna impress if anyone, that's where you want your work to resonate.

You don't wanna be the person who's got an inflated reputation, you wanna be a person who's underappreciated, but actually great, that's who's gonna stand the test of time. And Kato is a great example of that. Kato walked around Rome bare headed, He walked bare foot. 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 Kato is 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. 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 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 then 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. Kato stands up for the little guy. Routilius Rufus stands up for the little guy. Marcus Reles passes laws that not only protects Rome slaves, he even gives wooden swords to the gladiators so they won't get hurt in the arena? We're all privileged. We all have advantages and at different times We're gonna see ourselves in positions of power or influence where we can do something for someone and a huge part of Stoicism is using that power using that privilege to lessen the burden to make life easier and better for other people, right? A stoic virtue of justice, right? Justice is a core stoic virtue of justice, right? Justice is a

core stoic virtue. Just that you do the right thing, the rest doesn't matter. The fruit of this life-marks really says it's good character and acts for the common good, which especially and particularly means speaking up and standing up for people who can't stand up and speak up for themselves. stand up and speak up for themselves. Hello, his famous question was, if not me then who? And then he said, if not now then when? And I think this is a really important stoic question. And this is why you see the stoics stepping up in moments of crisis and difficulty throughout the history of stoicism, because they knew that if they

didn't do it, if Kato had simply simply rolled over then no one would have stood up If Marcus Aurelius had declined being the emperor because what he really wanted to do is be a philosopher Then who would have taken his place? I think even Seneca realizes this in neurosurface. He says if I don't do this someone else worse will do it and I think This is just such a key question if you're not will do it. And I think this is just such a key question. If you're not gonna do it, who's gonna do it? And if everyone backed out, if no one stepped up, where would that leave us?

If not you, then who? And if not now, then when? Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

Pfft. 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. Hey there listeners! While we take a little break here, I want to tell you about another podcast that I think you'll like.

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