/lit/ - Literature

>>23340188
>heating up metal and shaping it (active/fire component), then plunging it into water to anneal it and fix the shape
That reminded me of the "Magician" from the Ferrarese/Venetian so-called Mantegna Tarocchi (pic rel)

It's quite interesting that the author mentions the Stoic Ideal as a factor of depersonalization, wasting away not only personal talent (see page 38) but I may add that: also degrading whatever a character possessing it may come into contact with (environment/neighborhood/city/public office/etc.); three examples to corroborate what I just said:
1. the fall of Rome 200 years after stoicism was catalyzed by Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius; this is plausible because stoicism doesn't pair well with the need to delegate tasks or with subordinated being truthful
2. the fall of Greece 200 years after stoicism was catalyzed by Socrates and Zeno (I am fairly convinced that Plato didn't mean to set up Socrates as the hero it is represented as today)
3. if we observe the paths taken by Stoicism and Skepticism, we can also observe their effects on the soul: apatheia ("without passions," a cornerstone of Christian Orthodox spirituality) versus ataraxia (lucid tranquility, attained by seeking out /gr. zetesis/ the best possible conditions for evolution and making them real)
where did all that stoicism and apatheia lead Christian Orthodoxy? first of all to tolerating anarchism as the de facto spirituality of the masses (Chernyshevsky's 1863 hack job "What is to be Done") and then adopting imiaslavie/hesychasm as the default spirituality of the Orthodox Church (initially condemned, true, yet quickly reconciled... and soon after -- aggressively promoted!)
is it surprising then that most people in Christian Orthodox countries have adopted the behavior and cultural preferences of stereotypical gypsies, while the rest of the population stoically tolerate them (while being out-bred 10:1, not to mention mandatory schooling with diversity quotas)?!

even if you eliminate gypsy behavior from a city, it will again take over without any hindrance & corrupt it in a few years time... so what is to be done? because from what I can put together only a stoic could babysit such a bunch of chickenshits... yet stoicism is the problem that brought us here.