Question Authority

#17 of the Stoic Edge in 30 Posts

One of the things that amazed me about Covid was what it showed about us as people. We have long fancied ourselves as a nation of rugged individualism, a notion that began with the Constitution enshrining the "people" with "inalienable rights" and continued through the Manifest Destiny period of westward expansion, the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley, and so much more. We have a sense of self determination, a hard core loyalty in many circles to the 2nd Amendment which enshrines personal autonomy, and a "can do" spirit that says "Don't Tread on Me."

Or we did. I was amazed at how, in many parts of the country, we were willing to give up our basic freedoms when the government said to stay home. In California and other states, the stay-at-home orders were draconian and lasted for months; my son was out of school for a year, and many small businesses were forced to close forever. Yes, the government paid us off with PPP money and other handouts. But the damage was real and lasting; people were encouraged to tell on their neighbors, many died alone. We were in a panic based on much information that we now know (and many of us suspected then) was greatly exaggerated, not subject to any kind of cost-benefit analysis, or just made up out of whole cloth. We were gaslit and most of us just got in line and went along with it all.

That this isn't a scandal is a mystery to me. But it shows something that I have reluctantly come to believe about our fellow citizens: we don't think for ourselves. We are too ready to believe what we are being fed -- by the government, the corporate media, or partisan sources that have an agenda. We have become sheep, where everything we've worked for can go up in smoke because some local official says so, or some public health "expert" is telling you to not be "anti-science" if you dare question their proclamations from on high.

The Stoics were big on thinking for yourself. One of the four virtues of Stoicism is courage, which asks us to not only push through obstacles, but to bring a calm and rational mind to the problem. As Seneca said:

"To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden."

Our reaction to so many issues we face today is not calm. We rarely seem to question what we are hearing, and with the advent of AI, this will become an ever greater problem. We are in the midst of a bonfire of hubris, vanity, and tribalism which robs us of the opportunity to learn from each other, to question authority, to think for ourselves.

"A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it." -- Marcus Aurelius

Don't throw your mind into the fire. Stop, think, question what you are hearing. Is it true? What are the motivations behind it? Ask questions. Our country depends on it.

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