This talk is brought to you by the Tamistic Institute. For more talks like this, visit us at

tamistic institute.org. So in my last talk, I emphasized how we ought to be wary of identifying

our good with a piece derived from a stability in our emotions and in balanced passions.

Such a view is, at least in its outlines, Epicurean, and in modern terms, is discoverable in

views that promote themselves as views for well-being. But that discussion was aimed at encouraging us not to identify our final good with our emotions.

But it risks swinging the pendulum too far the other way, such that we are in danger

falling into the temptation of thinking that our emotions

ought to be avoided at all costs. This is more of a stoic view of humanity. And oddly enough,

today, there is actually a great danger of people falling into stoicism. It's back in vogue in many circles.

You see it coming around on various social media platforms and on the internet in different ways.

And it's popular because it's seen as a way of promoting a kind of mental resilience in the face of trial.

It's kind of a, we might use the more Victorian English way of putting it.

It's the ideal of having the stiff upper lip, which can translate in our times as a kind of strong determination to accomplish a task, no matter

how difficult that may be, no matter what other people may think.

And there is an admiration in people who do those things, who offer, who suffer much for the things that they cherish.

And, you know, we often associate that with people who sacrifice much for their family or their

children or who even sacrifice a lot of goods for something they're passionate about, like

their art or their sport.

And so the idea that we are willing to sacrifice everything for a particular stated goal, right, has a strong appeal,

such that we cannot help but admire people who have such a focus and a verb in their life.

And so this reasoning has stoic undertones to it.

For stoicism is known for its kind of strong indifference.

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