On Providence by Seneca, one of the greatest thinkers of humanity, the Stoic doctrine could help save humanity, by exposing consumerism, promoting a balanced lifestyle, one that will concentrate less on cravings, and more on ‘wish for what you already have’…Seneca was one of the wealthiest men of antiquity, and critics blame him for that, on the other hand, he knew about richness and was not just envious, or speculating on issues he was unfamiliar with, he was also a favorite of the Gods, hence could write about Providence http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/on-leisure-aka-de-otio-by-senecawith.html 10 out of 10

 On Providence by Seneca, one of the greatest thinkers of humanity, the Stoic doctrine could help save humanity, by exposing consumerism, promoting a balanced lifestyle, one that will concentrate less on cravings, and more on ‘wish for what you already have’…Seneca was one of the wealthiest men of antiquity, and critics blame him for that, on the other hand, he knew about richness and was not just envious, or speculating on issues he was unfamiliar with, he was also a favorite of the Gods, hence could  write about Providence http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/on-leisure-aka-de-otio-by-senecawith.html

10 out of 10

 

 

The Stoics are wrongly considered constipated, pompous men who promote abstinence, something so passé and uncool in the age of paramount consumerism, when we are told by economists that we need to keep shopping and spending, or else the jobs will disappear – there is the threat of AI, explained by Yuval Harari http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/07/21-lessons-for-21st-century-by-yuval.html in the latest issue of The Economist, where he writes about the fact that ‘AI has hacked into our operating system, and we can except their storytelling to bring out new religions, conspiracy theories, maybe the re-election of the ultimate ghoul, Trump – and economies will tumble, like in 2008…

 

There is a lot to say about that, and it is one of the crucial, existential questions of the age, how to keep a Stoic attitude, refraining from excess, but at the same time keep the factories humming, is humans in emerging economies would have the same level of spending as those in rich countries, the we would need a few more planets to cope, to furnish all that furniture, smart phones, cars and more material things – the Dalai Lama, maybe this one, embroiled in a stupid talk with a child, telling the boy to ‘suck his tongue’, or maybe another one entered a hypermarket and said ‘wow, so many things I do not need’

Seneca takes on from the start the idea that ‘good people should have the benefits, luck good life’ if we talk about providence, something we could find in the works of CS Lewis http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-problem-of-pain-by-cs-lewis-sublime.html and other luminaries, the problem of Pain and the misfortune of so many innocents, children and sick people, how could that be when we have the almighty god, or gods for Seneca, who must react, they are also omniscient

 

The answer to this serious problem is that we have Free Will, instead of creating a lame world, one in which we act like machines, everything is prefect in this mechanism, but also infinitely boring, God or the Gods have made an universe where we are free to act according to the principles of ethics, morality, religion, or against them…the example that keeps me furious and letting steam off in those pages is that of the invasion of Ukraine, one despot is inflicting pain and destruction, together with his acolytes.

How could God or the Gods allow for that…Ricky Gervais is just one of the many (indeed, the numbers of atheists are rising, while the faithful are fewer and fewer) who take down religion, he does it with panache wand humor, in one of his shows he looks at the flood, Noah and the myriad animals that have been paired (according to the holy texts) to get on the ark, and we are invited to think how huge that vessel must have been http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/02/genesis-from-bible.html

 

Evidently, we are not to take such things literally – Karen Armstrong http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-bible-biography-by-karen-armstrong.html is the ultimate expert on religion and explains in her books that at the time when the holy texts have been written, people were telling stories, they transmitted myths, we are not to take everything ad literam, on the contrary, in fact, the ones that do much more damage to faith are the creationists, those who insist that the planet is only a few thousand years old (whatever the scripture says) and all else is word for word fact, not metaphor

Stoics believed in fate, which could well be their shortcoming, for nobody is perfect, though some aspire, long for perfection – we find from the psychology classic The Paradox of Choice http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-paradox-of-choice-by-barry-schartz.html by Barry Schwartz the difference between Maximizers and Satisfizers, we need to be the latter, and not the former…

 

There are people who want perfection and thus are never satisfied, when one is satisfied with very good, one has the secret…Stoics invited us to ‘wish for what we already have and be grateful, as we see here http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/08/stoicism-stoic-approach-to-modern-life.html in the Stoic Approach to Modern life

Another splendid work is The How of Happiness http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html by Sonja Lyubomirsky where” Happiness Activity No 1is Expressing  Gratitude –counting your blessings for what you have either to a close other or privately, maybe in a journal, conveying gratitude to one or more individuals you haven’t properly thanked” so we have a path to happiness

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html