201215 What I learned in my studies this morning

Daily Tao:

From The Daily Stoic: 

Imagine today is your final day in this life... Can you be a perfect Stoic today?  Achieving perfection of ethos (character) today? 

From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice:

Hoffer offers an example using the Kremlin and the USSR's Iron Curtain. The restriction on immigration and influx of outsiders was a way to build group cohesiveness. 

By eliminating outside influence, they reinforced the belief that "there is nothing worthy and eternal, nothing deserving of admiration and reverence, nothing worth identifying oneself with, outside the confines of holy Russia." 

(The True Believer, XIII-45)

From Agrippinus:

Living in the age of tyrants Claudius and Nero, and having lost his father to the previous tyrant, Tiberius, Agrippinus stood apart from most people who kept their head down and tried not to be noticed by the murderous madmen in charge.

Despite the threat of execution for those who refused to live by any standards other than those of the Emperor, Agrippinus lived up to Stoic ideals.

Serving as the governor of Crete and Cyrene, Agrippinus stood for what was right, for the rule of law, for justice and principle, much like Aristo and Cato.

When Nero finally exiled him, he did not beg or plead or try to get an alternative sentence. Instead, he imply looked at his friends and said, "Let's stop in Aricia (the first city on the road out of Rome) and get lunch."

He accepted misfortune with indifference and went about his life.

(Lives of the Stoics, pp. 179-183)