For if a person shifts their caution to their own reasoned choices and the acts of those choices, they will at the same time gain the will to avoid, but if they shift their caution away from their own reasoned choices to things not under their control, seeking to avoid what is controlled by others, they will then be agitated, fearful, and unstable.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.1.12 T”
Today’s passage implores not to avoid those things that we can’t control, but rather to simply ensure that those things are unable to control our emotions or our lives. Instead, we should focus on that which we can control, and thus render all externals irrelevant.
When we talk about only concerning ourselves with what we can control; our perceptions, our own acts, our emotions, it can be tempting to try to withdraw from all of that which we can’t control. The image is a hermit, who lives an ascetic life, free from desire, and free from temptation. We can become so internally focused, we begin to avoid the external; for fear that it will damage our stoic Ataraxia (tranquility, freedom from disturbance by external things). We hermitize ourselves in order to avoid that which may cause us harm.
First, by allowing the fear of the external to dictate what we do we are no longer in complete control. Second and perhaps more important, to avoid that which causes us harm is to miss the point of Stoicism. We should not hide from things that may cause us harm, but instead, ensure that we have the proper perception of them. Then, when these things do happen, we render them harmless because we perceived them to be so.
Withdrawal is the opposite of what the Stoics would preach, particularly if it were for reasons of fear. Instead, I think the Stoics would side more with Theodore Roosevelt when he said: “
…The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Epictetus would say rather than withdraw, we should be in the mix, in the arena, seeking to better our friends, our societies and ourselves, with virtue as our purpose and the Stoicism as a guide.
Putting ourselves out there will only be worthwhile, sustainable, and effective if we can remember that everything is based on our perceptions, and our perceptions are the only things we can truly control.