BY BORDI JAEN
SOME may wonder why I chose “On the Stoa” as the title of my column. It has a lot to do with Stoicism, a philosophy I read upon very much.
What is a Stoa?
A Stoa, in simple terms, is a covered walkway. In the ancient Greek world, these covered walkways surrounded the marketplace and were used for commercial and social activities. Think of Stoa as a place around, say, the La Paz mercado or any of the busy public markets around our city.
The philosophy of Stoicism was derived from the word “Stoa” because the founder, Zeno of Citium, held many of his lectures about life there. In modern terms, they were tambays in the public markets talking about life! Hahaha!
Stoicism has been making a sort of a cultural comeback recently with newsletters, books and YouTube channels dedicated to unravelling the ancient teachings for the modern audience. You may have heard of books like “The Daily Stoic” or “Stillness is the Key” by author Ryan Holiday, one of the main proponents of Stoicism nowadays. What is in the philosophy of Stoicism that has given it a comeback in the modern day, that it is experiencing a Renaissance after having been in the void for so long since the days of old Rome?
Stoicism teaches the individual mental fortitude to overcome obstacles in life. It teaches an individual to practice self-control and to reconcile with oneself and the world.
One of the more well-known tenets of Stoicism is cemented in a quote by Epictetus, “It’s not what happens to you but how you react to it that matters.” Stoic practices such as premeditatio malorum and memento mori help individuals in adhering to the tenets of Stoicism.
Premeditatio malorum is the practice of understanding in advance that things won’t go your way, that not everyone’s going to be nice to you, that something bad may always happen. In short, premeditating bad things.
You might say this inflicts a lot of negative thoughts to a person, but the purpose of this practice is to understand the possibility happening; this enables the individual to not be caught off guard. It’s that comic spoof where you’re mad that something bad you thought was going to happen happened, but also pat yourself in the back because you knew that it was going to happen.
Think about those times in your life. Didn’t it feel much better than an unexpected bad thing? Stoics understand this feature of human psychology and use it to help humans navigate through this cruel, cruel world.
Memento mori, meanwhile, is the practice of reminding yourself that you’ll die someday, so make the most of the time you have while you’re still here.
Humans are interesting creatures. According to psychologists, our brain thinks of death as an unfortunate incident that happens to other people and not us. Memento mori, for Stoics, is the contemplation of death and the inevitable of our eventual demise.
Historically, memento mori has been achieved through keeping symbols that remind an individual of death like skulls or other gloomy objects. Again, it is a depressing and negative thought to have, but its purpose is for the individual to understand that life is precious so one must be more prudent with how they use their time.
I could go on with the teachings of Stoicism, but I probably won’t be able to finish everything at once so they will have to be in succeeding articles.
With the basic picture of what Stoicism preaches, it is no wonder that it is indeed making a comeback in the 21st century. The world is slowly becoming out of breath with the increasingly rapid pace of how we conduct our lives. People, commensurately, are becoming more exhausted mentally and physically. This can be seen in the statistical rise of poor mental health, especially among teenagers and young people.
It’s no wonder people are looking for strategies to overcome the mental rigor of living in the 21st century and it’s no wonder that Stoicism, as a philosophy, is gaining adherents. It is become a vessel for people to navigate through the unpredictable torrents in life./PN
