 the cool kids are into. So a lot of my dissident right friends, they've now sworn off politics now that politics didn't go their way November 3rd. It's like, ah, who needs politics? It's getting stupid. They're getting off social media cause Trump's no longer on social media. And we've got a democratic administration, Democrats in power in Washington, like who needs to be on social media? Social media is getting stupid. And then like who needs to follow the news, read a newspaper, subscribe to the New York Times. The news is getting stupid, right? I'm just like, a lot of my friends say, I'm just cleaning my life out. Don't want to pay attention to politics anymore or talk radio or Fox News. I want to get rid of the news in general. I'm just washing my hands essentially of this world and involvement in this world. And a lot of people are claiming to embrace the stoic approach to life. And you may be interested that stoicism leads to depression. Okay, stoicism does not lead to happiness in a piece. It leads to failure and depression. So there's a study and in contrast to its hypothesis that stoicism would help people better deal with the ups and downs of life, stoic ideology significantly negatively predicts wellbeing. So the more stoic you are in your ideology, the less wellbeing you have, right? The less engaged you are in life. So people tend to become stoical and then start gaming. People tend to become stoical and then start watching a lot of porn. People tend to become stoical and stay home. People become stoical and start reducing their social engagements. People become stoical and spiritual and disengage from earning money. People become stoical and disengage from communal life in general. So stoicism tends to correlate with depression, tends to lead to depression. Not all stoics are depressed, but don't take it on thinking that this is like this great philosophy for navigating life. So here's a study. Ancient philosophy identifies a wide range of possible approaches to life, which is supposed to bring wellbeing, right? The ancients, like how can you go wrong with tuning into the ancients? So the stoical approach to life focuses on emotional restraint and looking towards finding meaning inside yourself. So few individuals are explicit adherents to stoicism, but many people can be stoic to a degree or not, right? So you can take on a stoic ideology. Now, does this lead to wellbeing? Well, no, not really. In a study of 636 participants, they reported their stoic ideology and their wellbeing and their orientations to happiness. They found that the more stoic they were in their ideology, the less wellbeing they had. So stoic ideology tends to be detrimental to individuals' wellbeing. So Bertrand Russell, in his book, History of Western Philosophy, first published in 1945, he noted that Edward Gibbon wrote The Decline of Fall of the Roman Empire. His detailed history begins with the vices of Commodus, agrees with most 18th century writers about the period of antinomies as a golden age, if a man were caught upon to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would say that period between the death of Domitian and the accession of Commodus in the ancient Roman Empire. But Bertrand Russell says it's impossible to agree with this judgment. The evil of slavery involved immense suffering and sapped the vigor of the ancient world. The ancient world is filled with gladiatorial shows and fights with wild beasts, which were intolerably cruel and debased the populations that enjoyed the spectacle. Marcus Aurelius decreed that gladiators should fight with blunted swords, but this reform was short-lived, did nothing about fights with wild beasts. So when we compare the tone of Marcus Aurelius without a Francis Bacon or John Locke, we see the difference between a tired age and a hopeful age. In a hopeful age, great present evils can be endured because they just thought that they were passed. But in a tired age, even real goods lose their savers. So the stoic ethic suited a tired age, times of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius because these ages had a gospel of endurance rather than a gospel of hope. So philosopher Isaiah Berlin refers to this, the retreat to the inner citadel when people start disavowing their hopes and their desires, knowing that one has little hope of attaining the things that you wanna get. So Isaiah Berlin wrote, I am the possessor of reason and will. I conceive ends and I desire to pursue them, but I am prevented from attaining them. So I no longer feel a master of my situation. So what do you do if you can't get a job? What can you do if your wife doesn't wanna have sex with you? What can you do when you're failing at life, when you no longer feel master of your situation? Maybe the laws of nature, maybe accidents, maybe the activities of men, maybe the effect of human institutions, it may be social media or the Democrats, whatever, Wall Street, whoever you wanna blame your problems on, but these outside forces may frequently be too much for you. So what do you do to avoid being crushed by life? Oh, it's very tempting to become stoic or super Christian. Like, I must liberate myself from desires that I know I cannot realize. If you wish to be a master of your kingdom, but the frontier is a long and insecure, therefore I contract what I desire to reduce or eliminate my vulnerabilities. So I begin by desiring happiness or power or knowledge or success or the attainment of some specific object. I wanna become a master live streamer with thousands of viewers, but I cannot command these achievements. I choose to avoid defeat and waste, and therefore I decide to strive for nothing that I cannot be sure I will get. All right, so I'm gonna go live in the cave, essentially. I determine not to desire those things that I'm not sure I will attain. If outside forces threaten me with the destruction of my job, the destruction of my reputation, the destruction of my property, the destruction of my family, my community, my political party, if I'm threatened with imprisonment or exile or death or unemployment or unpopularity then if I can't overcome those obstacles, I can no longer feel attached to any of the things that I used to want. No longer feel attached to having a job, to property, to prestige, to material security, to having a good reputation in my community. So I no longer care whether or not I have a job, whether or not I have a prestigious position in my community, whether or not I'm in prison. So if I kill my natural affections, then life cannot bend me, right? Because all that is left of myself is no longer subject to empirical fears or desires. So you can perform a strategic retreat into an inner citadel through embracing a strong form of Christianity or getting all stoic and you can retreat into your reason or your soul where no external force or no human malice can touch you. I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain and an island never cries. So you just withdraw into yourself and no one can touch you. How does it go? The winter's day in a deep and dark December, I am alone, gazing from my window to the streets below on a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow. I am a rock, I am an island. I built walls, a fortress deep and mighty that none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain. It's laughter and it's loving, I disdain. I am a rock, I am an island. Don't talk of love, well I've heard the word before. It's sleeping in my memory. I went, disturbed the slumber of feelings that have died. If I never loved, I never would have cried. I am a rock, I am an island. I have my books and my poetry to protect me. I am shielded in my armor, hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain and an island never cries. So I'm good stoic philosophy there from Simon and Garfunkel. So as if I was to say, oh, I got a wound in my leg. All right, or I got a problem at work or I got a problem with my spouse or I got a problem with my online reputation. So there are two methods of freeing yourself from this pain. One is to heal the wound. But if that's too much work or too challenging, you can get rid of the wound by getting rid of your leg or getting rid of your job or getting rid of your spouse or getting rid of any desire for a good online reputation. So if you train yourself to want nothing to which the possession of the job prestige a spouse or leg is indispensable, then you won't care about the lack of it. So this is the tradition of aesthetics and quietness. This is the path towards self emancipation for stoics and Buddhist sages, for intense Christians, people who flee the world, escape the yoke of society, people who wanna escape the yoke of public opinion, people who want to self transform so they no longer care for any of the values of wider society. So they can remain isolated and independent on the edges, no longer vulnerable, but retreat to the inner set of hell. So you disavow hopes and desires that one knows ones has little chance of obtaining. So endorsing stoicism tends to correlate with depression. So Jen says, I am super stoic and I am super happy. I think people are mistaking disengagement, denying and detaching for stoicism. Stoicism is a great philosophy for navigating life, but you need an initiation and most are too prideful for that. Self-guided stoicism would lead to gloom and desperation. Wow, Luke, thanks, you gave me an insight. Stoicism does not make sense to pursue unless you are submitting to the guru genius from Church of Entropy.