You Can’t Buy Fearlessness
There’s no question that the super rich can afford better medical care than you. They have access to the best doctors, the most cutting-edge treatments. So, naturally, they are living longer—they are buying what scientists are calling “radical life extension.” In fact, some thinkers believe this will be a source of conflict in the future. Today, we have income inequality. Tomorrow, it will be longevity inequality.
We should ask ourselves, what are these folks actually buying and why are they buying it? Because the Stoics would point out that no amount of wealth will ever fully exempt you from the basic fact of mortality. That no amount of medical care, that no amount of delaying, can ever rid the fear that so many people have about death.
There’s no question that Nero had better doctors than Epictetus. One was the emperor. The other was a slave. Then, as now, the rich spend their money on insane medical treatments and soothsayers and magical ointments. They were trying to buy the same thing billionaires are trying to buy today. It’s not actually health. It’s a respite. A get-out-of-jail-free card. Peace of mind from the one fact that so deeply disturbs us.
It’s ironic that the thing they actually needed was very cheap. Sure, living longer is great, but the secret to most of our anxiety about death is quite accessible. Fearlessness is available to everyone and anyone. It’s there in the Stoic texts. It’s there in the examples of the people we admire. “Is it as awful as that,” one of Nero’s guards taunted him, “to die?” It was to Nero, because he was a coward. Because he had lived a bad life.
But for Epictetus, who had lived well, fear was never part of the equation. He did not tremble before his mortality, instead he went through life day by day without worry, without despair. “Death and pain are not frightening,” he said. “It’s the fear of pain and death we need to fear. Which is why we praise the poet who wrote, ‘Death is not fearful, but dying like a coward is.’”
And so is living like one.
Even without a billionaire’s or millionaire’s bank account you can still live extremely well if you take action towards your health and wellbeing (including financial wellbeing) every day. This is also why you’re a part of this community, is it not? You want easy, affordable access to the best resources for your life.
You’ve got the opportunity. The rest is up to you.
-From the Daily Stoic Newsletter
- 2 Replies
I like this article a lot, thanks for sharing it with us!!
No matter how wealthy you are; I guess mentality is something you can’t buy or borrow! You wish you have those guy thoughts, you wish you have no fear, well it doesn’t come easy! It requires mental toughness and actions!!
Living like the stoics; then you embody mortality as a natural event!
here is the quote I would like to share!
“Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day … The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.” — Seneca
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by sara.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
Love it. Thanks a lot.
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