TIME: "Why We Still Read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations"
Read my new article on Marcus Aurelius versus Modern Self-Improvement Influencers
In the middle of the second century CE, the most powerful man in the Western world sat in the legionary fortress of Carnuntum, by the River Danube, contemplating the fact that one day nobody would remember his name. “Near is your forgetfulness of all things,” he wrote, “and near the forgetfulness of you by all” —but he spoke too soon.
More than eighteen hundred years after his demise, probably from plague, we’re still talking about Marcus Aurelius. In fact, we’re going on about him more than ever. That’s largely due to the long-standing popularity of the Meditations, the notes he wrote for himself about how to apply Stoic philosophy in daily life.
Andrew Tate, has recently claimed to be a fan of Marcus Aurelius. There’s a fundamental difference, though, between the self-improvement advice given by the likes of Tate and the philosophy found in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Well - guilty as I have Meditations in my kindle app and probably read something from it at least everyday. It is both comforting as I approach my mid 70s having lived with life long disabilities and now other age related conditions to feel a real connection across all those years, cultural shifts and time to another human being struggling with day to day problems and emotions whilst functioning in the best way available.
I find it deeply irritating and quite puzzling how the ‘popularisation’ and TicTok snap shot reductionism seems blind to the compassion and humanism in Marcus and the stoics -
I felt that the modern application of stoicism in psychology was a formulaic and, what I saw and still see, is dehumanising as it is often taught and applied in the hands of therapists that have never picked up a philosophical book let alone a stoic philosopher.
The irony was that I trained in a multidimensional model one of which was the cognitive behavioural of Albert Ellis - Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and studied philosophy and medical ethics - guess what when CBT became the flavour of the moment in the U.K. I was deemed not trained in CBT.
Times are fortunately changing but as I reach the later years of practicing as a psychologist and therapist I still am disturbed by the paucity of the teaching in schools from the primary stage of philosophy. It seems we have ignored what a huge benefit this would be to the development of children and subsequently society as a whole.
I read every day now and wish only that I had this educational opportunity at a young child. I think the ab it as a no d misuse of Marcus and the stoics has only been possible because those who latch on are uninformed and yet desperate for meaning and emotional and life skills that are lacking in a world that looks either to a nihilistic view or runs in desperation into the seductive arms of simplistic and fundamentalist religious and political dogmas, all of which ulterior fail us in a global interconnected world where we are all just mortal.
Apologies for the diatribe - it touches a sore spot I maybe need to meditate on more!