Stoic Joy - Review 3 of 5

In this third edition of the review of Stoic principles, we discuss fatalism, or the past, the present and the future. It was the Stoics view that you were supposed to live a fatalistic life. That you should live with the view that this could be your last day on the earth. That this could be it. And for that reason, you should live passionately in the moment. In addition to that, you should not dwell on the past neither should you fret about the future. That you should live passionately in the present moment.

If you knew, for sure, that this was your last day on the planet, what would you be doing differently? How about if you knew that this wasn't your last day, but next week, seven days from now, was your last day. How different would today be? Continuing on with that thought, say the last day is a year from now, would you be living any differently, or would you begin to have thoughts that you would condition your behaviour as the time to death drew nearer? Would you have a goal, a plan for life, that you would need to complete?

Since many of us don't know when that end date is, aren't we prone to thinking that we have unlimited time? The thought of death rarely enters our minds, yet it is the one thing that is for certain. It's the one factor in life that's absolutely certain. You will die. One day.

Stoicism therefore teaches you not to dwell on the past. The past is done. What's left of the past are lessons to be learned. You should definitely heed the lessons of the past so as not to repeat them, and you should assimilate the lessons of the past in order to do things better, but you should not live in the past, full of regret. In the same vein, you shouldn't dwell on the future. For the most part, you cannot alter the future. It will come when it does, in it's own time, and you may not even be there to witness it. This shouldn't stop you from planning for the future, saving your money, or booking for that vacation in advance. However, it should stop you from worrying about something that isn't here yet.

It's human nature, so we would like to think, to worry. Say you're going to give a presentation next week, and you're not comfortable in front of crowds. So you're nervous about an event that hasn't taken place yet. You should prepare, for that future event. You should make sure that you spend time today, making plans to succeed, in that future event. But the worry part is difficult to deal with. It's like being on death row, waiting for an execution. You know the date that you're going to be executed. However, the jail warden's still bringing you dinner, still you're reading books and watching TV. Why not take a fatalistic attitude towards all of this? Why not just give up, right now? It's because the present moment, the here and now, this very instant, is the only thing that we truly have control of. In fact, to clarify, it's not the situation that we have control over, it's our attitude towards this moment that we have control over. You can choose to be happy or sad, to be positive or negative, to be kind and consoling or harsh and rude. You can choose how to behave and how to portray yourself in this present moment.

So, the idea of fatalism is this notion that you should imagine that this is the last day, this is the last moment and that it shouldn't drive you to complacency, but rather to a heightened sense of urgency and a passionate life. That your view of the past is that of history teacher and of the future a place that you might not possibly see.