Lockdown like a Stoic
It’s all a bit of a pain, isn’t it? It’s January, so the weather’s grim. You might have chosen to make it a “dry January” or “Veganuary” on top of that, so you’re missing some of your usual treats. Christmas was less than ideal, New Year was a write-off and there are no holidays until Easter.
On top of all that, Lockdown has reared its head again like the baddie in horror film which refuses to die. You’ve got to home school your children. You either have to close your business or return to the world of Zoom meetings, and the realisation that the illicit thrill of judging your colleagues’ home decor was so 2020.
Lockdown 1.0 at least had the thrill of the new, it was an adventure and the weather was ok. Lockdown 2.0 held the promise of making family Christmases possible. Lockdown 3.0 only offers a miserable grind while the vaccine gets rolled out, a process which, if experience is any guide, is likely to take rather longer than the government hopes.
So, how are we to keep going in the forthcoming weeks of tedium? How can we get through being stuck at home, going nowhere, seeing no-one and doing nothing?
We might decide to be stoic about things, grit our teeth, get our heads down, mix our metaphors and just get on with it. That’s what the Victorians would have done, and if it worked for them, it will work for us. There’s nothing that a good bit of emotional repression can’t deal with.
Alternatively, we might decide to be Stoic about the issue. Those who are paying attention might object here that if the previous paragraph was about a stoic approach to lockdown, then a Stoic approach is not really much of an alternative. However, to do so is to commit the one sin guaranteed to put a bee in the bonnet of a modern Stoic. Nothing annoys them quite so much as the conflation of their ancient philosophy with the stiff upper lip of the Boys’ Own Hero.
Invented by Zeno, a Phoenician merchant who (literally) washed up in Athens, around 300 B.C., Stoicism became one of the dominant schools of ancient philosophy, before being overtaken by Christianity. With adherents ranging from the lame former slave Epictetus to the emperor Marcus Aurelius (now perhaps best known as Richard Harris in Gladiator), it offered a subtle code to guide its followers through the vicissitudes of life. Similar to lockdown, despite its ostensible defeat, it never entirely disappeared, with followers popping up from time to time through the historical record.
In contrast to a stoic whose suggestions would run to “Suck it up” and not much else, a Stoic would have several weapons in his arsenal to deal with the travails of lockdown.
Stoics divided things into two categories, those we control and those we do not. Their definition of “control” was fairly maximalist, meaning things which are always in our power and, looked at in that way, the list is really quite short: “our judgement, our impulse, our desire, aversion and our mental faculties in general” in Epictetus’ summary. Even things such as our bodies are not really in our control. A prisoner chained to a wall may well wish to walk, but he will not be able to do so.
Obviously lockdown does not fall into one of the categories Epictetus outlined. It is outside our control. So what? Well, if it is outside our control, there is nothing we can do about it. And if there is nothing we can do about it, there is no point in worrying about it. All we will do is expend mental energy without changing the outcome. It is a waste of time. Better, then, to move on.
Stoic Takeaway 1: “Ask yourself: ‘Is this or is this not one of the things I control?’ And if it is not one of the things you control, be ready with the reaction, ‘Then it is none of my concern.’”
That might succeed in moving us from frustration and sadness to resignation and a greater awareness of our impotence, but a Stoic would go further.
He would start by arguing that any upset caused by lockdown was due to us perceiving that we are harmed by it in some way-”It is not events which disturb people, but their judgements concerning them” as Epictetus put it.
Stoics had a well worked out theory of psychology which accords remarkably well with our modern understanding. An external event makes an “impression” on the mind, causing a “proto-passion”, an instinctual reaction which is hard-wired into the human brain. However, for it to develop further into a full-blown emotion, it needs to receive “assent” from the mind. As Marcus Aurelius put it, “I myself am not yet harmed unless I judge this occurrence bad and I can refuse to do so.”
The 20th century psychotherapist Viktor Frankl agreed, writing “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”. While we might not be able to do much about what happens to us, we have the freedom to perceive it in any way we wish — judgements are, as we saw, one of the things we control. This freedom, however, is not easily used. We all have habitual patterns of thought — “Our soul becomes dyed with the colour of our thoughts” as Marcus more poetically put it. These are conditioned by our upbringing and experiences and our minds will often find themselves following well trodden pathways. However, with practice, we can learn to exercise our freedom and see things for what they are, “‘It is in my power now to keep this soul of mine free from any vice or passion or any other disturbance at all; but seeing things for what they are, I can treat them on their merits.’”
Those who practice mindfulness meditation might find this easier than others, but for those who do not, Marcus offered a handy checklist:
Stoic Takeaway 2: “Constantly test your mental impressions, each one individually if you can: investigate the cause, identify the emotion, apply the analysis of logic.”
Deconstructing one’s thoughts is all well and good, but if we arrive at the same conclusion as we started with, it’s hard to say that we’ve made progress. If we begin by thinking that lockdown is bad and conclude after analysis that yes, lockdown is bad, we’re not likely to feel much better. What we need is a reason to deny assent to our initial reaction
For a Stoic, the purpose of life was to pursue (capital V) Virtue which was the amalgam of the four (small v) virtues: courage, prudence, temperance and wisdom. Virtue was the only good because it could never be used for evil. Everything else, being capable of being used for ill, they classified as indifferent. While some things were better than others -it is better to be healthy rather than sick, for example- they were only “preferred indifferents”. It was fine to pursue them, but they were not “good”, and so should never be sought at the price of Virtue.
Lockdown may well interfere with our pursuit of some of these indifferents, but it does not hinder our attempts to be virtuous. We can still act wisely and so on. All that has happened is that our usual opportunities to do so have been replaced by a different set. As Marcus put it, “Does what happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, humility, straightforwardness?”
So, if lockdown itself is indifferent and, at worst, only interferes with your ability to pursue other indifferents, can you really say you have been harmed? A Stoic would say no. Lockdown does not diminish your ability to pursue Virtue and, since that is the only good, you have not really suffered an injury.
Stoic Takeaway 3: “They haven’t really hurt you. They haven’t diminished your ability to choose.”
If a Stoic was successful in persuading us that lockdown was merely indifferent, and not, therefore, something to be bothered about, he might be tempted to go further, and persuade us to see it as an opportunity.
Born a lame slave, Epictetus, through a process which is largely mysterious to us, ended up teaching Stoicism in Northern Greece, founding what we might think of as a philosophical finishing school for young aristocrats. This brought him such fame that in a seldom paralleled example of social mobility, the emperor Hadrian made a special trip to meet him, and a bidding war broke out over his effects after his death.
Epictetus left behind no writings, but we do have the lecture notes of one of his pupils, Arrian, which are now known as The Discourses of Epictetus and a shorter, how-to guide called the Enchiridion (Handbook). One of the themes which emerges from them is how keen the teacher was on practical applications, not just understanding the theory. While book-learning was important, it was nothing compared to using the skills in the real world. “‘Take the treatise “On Impulse” and see how well I’ve read it.’ Idiot. It’s not that I’m after. I want to see how you put impulse and revulsion into practice, and desire and avoidance as well.”
Events such as lockdowns are extreme. They are not easy. However, the difficulties they bring also give us opportunities to behave virtuously. We can display courage in dealing with uncertainty, temperance in not giving in to despair, justice in following the dictates of the law. We have a chance to put into practice what we have learned and improve ourselves. “When a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has paired you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic champion, but it is not achieved without sweat.”
Stoic Takeaway 4: “The Obstacle is the Way”
To the Stoics, the universe unfolded according to the dictates of logos or reason. Often conflated with the Olympian gods, this was a beneficent force which organised events to the advantage of the whole and, since humans were rational social animals, the good of the collective was also to the benefit of the individual. Understanding and accepting this was a key part of wisdom: “What is not good for the beehive cannot be not good for the bees” in Marcus’ formulation.
Agreeing with this is pretty easy when things are going your way, rather less so when they aren’t. Being prevented from seeing your family and friends, being stopped from doing what you want, may not be pleasant, but it is the best thing for the community as a whole. Lockdown gives us the opportunity to widen our perspective beyond our narrow self-interest, to consider our role in society at large and act in accordance with logos. “Realize that the chief duty we owe the gods is to hold the correct beliefs about them: that they exist, that they govern the world justly and well and that they have put you here for one purpose — to obey them and welcome whatever happens in the conviction that it is a product of the highest intelligence.” as Epictetus tell us.
Stoic Takeaway 5: “Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?”
Perhaps this has convinced you. Perhaps you now see that any distress lockdown causes you is all in the way you perceive it. It’s no longer bad, just indifferent. It’s even an opportunity to test yourself, improve your character, live according to the dictates of the universe.
Or perhaps it hasn’t. Maybe you still think it’s a pain and are heartily fed up. If so, our Stoic has one final piece of advice.
Stoic Takeaway 6: “All these things will change, almost as you look at them, and then will be no more.”
