Reading about philosophy often reveals within us what we don’t notice ourselves. The emotions, ideas and thoughts hidden in our minds become clearer when we pay attention to them. Those new perspectives, step by step, mold us into new people in life. But there are times when an idea in philosophy becomes very popular, quickly becoming misunderstood. There is a problem with how a specific idea in today’s popular culture is being represented, and it is pulling the discussion on philosophy in a very distasteful direction.
Stoicism has become a part of our zeitgeist in the past few years. We hear about it more on social media, and its principles are reaching out to more people thanks to its popularization. When dealing with the downsides of life, one attitude that is hailed quite a lot is that of a stoic, which has a very natural and understandable appeal. This line of thinking is designed to convince people that they are the ones who are truly in charge of their lives. It is not fate, random chaos nor luck, but the free will of a thinking mind that decides a person’s future, which is frankly a captivating way to look at things.
It’s not shocking that people began to think about stoicism more in the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns. People’s entire lives changed overnight — from what used to be their normal to a confined cage in their own homes — causing people to think more about what is and isn’t in their control. In the meantime, the rapid popularization of becoming a stoic had the negative effect of people missing the point about the philosophy altogether.
“Stoicism” is mistakenly believed to be the lifestyle of a person with a cold heart. Emotions must be abandoned because having a weak heart makes you vulnerable. Society must be left behind because depending on people makes you vulnerable. It is often said that we must become men and women made of concrete and let go of what makes us sentimental. We must be fully independent — lone wolves who need nothing but their consciousness to “resist” life. Toxic behaviors and thoughts have been incorporated into this new and “modern” stoicism, which exists in social media almost exclusively on a warped and flawed understanding of its origins.
The greater danger is that stoicism was never supposed to be about getting stronger by abandoning your emotions. When it was first developed as a thought by the great thinkers of Ancient Greece and Rome, it was created not to forgo life but to embrace it completely. Dealing with pain, from within or without, is unavoidably a tough experience, but it teaches the human mind to adapt and grow. This was the way of people like Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and many others who had complicated, challenging lives. Their experiences were not of resisting life and moving on but working on difficulties and finding the courage to move forward. Understanding this true essence of stoicism can empower us to face life’s challenges with a new perspective.
The very name of this philosophy carries a long legacy of thinkers who contributed to the stoic thought, and it is shameful that becoming popular turned it into something entirely against what it was supposed to be. Social media has the terrible habit of spreading misleading thoughts too rapidly before they can be counteracted. The true origins of stoicism lie in the works created by the thinkers of the ancient, and their words still have a lot of truth to adhere to. More importantly, however, understanding this philosophy requires critical thinking on our part — something social media rarely, if ever, provides space for.
Don’t obsess over forgetting or ignoring pain. Instead, you should be mindful of it by understanding the world around you better and be ready to change your mind when old aspirations and ambitions do not match the new reality. You have a lot of things to learn from stoicism — but remember, learning to be stoic first starts with understanding not what should make you strong like concrete, but what will keep you alive like a human being.
Deniz Gulay is a sophomore majoring in history.
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