You Should Feel for Them
You see them in the comments sections. You see them on social media. You hear it come out of the mouths of friends, family members. Sometimes it’s casual. Other times it’s uncouth. Sometimes it’s couched in intellectualization or an economic analysis.
It doesn’t matter the form, it’s always a bit stunning to hear. Oh, don’t worry about it, the mortality rate of COVID-19 is actually really low. The media is just exaggerating. Oh, a lot of these people were old, they would have died anyway.
History affords us few examples into the emotional life of Marcus Aurelius but we know that he once broke down in public at the mere mention of all the Romans who had lost their lives in the Antonine Plague. It was these tragic victims—young and old, family and strangers alike—who he was thinking of even in his last moments. Even as his friends grieved for him, he was reminding them to consider all the people who had been affected by this deadly scourge.
The Stoic is not an unfeeling robot. The Stoic is not callous or indifferent to suffering. They are strong and tough and can withstand their own suffering, to be sure, but nowhere in the Stoic teachings does it encourage you to close off your heart to the pain and sufferings of others. In fact, the Stoic ideas of oikeiôsis and sympatheia are built around the idea that we are obligated to care—not to dismiss—what happens to other people.
Just because you’re young, because you’re healthy, because your business is fine, or because it’s in the interest of your industry or political party to downplay the pandemic, doesn’t mean you get to pretend that this isn’t happening. That it hasn’t happened. You have to feel this. Feel it like Marcus did.
You can’t close your heart. You can’t lie to yourself with statistics. You can’t deceive yourself with magical thinking. This is a tragedy of epic proportions. This has been devastating for people—for your neighbors, your fellow human beings. They need you to understand that.
They need your help. And as a Stoic, you owe that to them.
What are you seeing, hearing, and feeling from your close network and your community? Get back in touch with the comings and goings, the feelings and lives of your neighbors.
Want to talk about it? You know what to do. 🙂
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