Stoicism Today: Selected Writings (Volume Two) (Volume 2) by Patrick Ussher

Author:Patrick Ussher [Ussher, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781533463661
Amazon: 1533463662
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2016-05-29T22:00:00+00:00

The Internet and the Dinner Party: Cultivating Stoic Calm in the Online World

by Tanya Brodd

Reputations are made and ruined in the blink of an eye these days. A few months ago, in Indiana, USA, a pizza company gave an interview supporting the new Religious Freedom act. The proprietor of the small, family-owned company said they would serve a gay couple who came into their restaurant but they wouldn’t cater for a gay wedding. The interview went viral and the Internet responded in a way that has been becoming increasingly commonplace. Their ‘Yelp!’ site was flooded with one star reviews (they had only had two reviews previously) and by the end of the day they announced they were closing their doors due to threats. In the predictable follow-up to this story, they started a GoFundMe page which raised over $400,000 in 24 hours. Clearly, expressing oneself on the Internet goes far beyond either trolling, the comments section of the newspaper, or Facebook comments. People lose jobs and are made to feel in fear of their safety frequently. Others have been bullied to the point of taking their own lives. On the other hand, it is very easy to express solidarity with whatever cause by joining in on the side we support of any issue. When a bus monitor was the victim of bullying by students hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised to support her and, as it was hoped by many, to shame the students. When a man was shamed for dancing on a subway, strangers halfway around the world offered to throw him a dance party and several pop stars joined in. Any incident, no matter how trivial or huge, can quickly go viral and change someone’s life forever due to a picture or quote on the Internet.

Memes pop up about social issues, political viewpoints, even parenting styles, disabilities and anything else that people have strong feelings about. Navigating this quickly changing world can be very difficult for the modern Stoic and I am no exception. It may seem as though the ancients would have little in the way of advice to offer us today. Yet, in many ways the modern Internet can be thought of as similar to an ancient dinner party. Epictetus, in particular, had a lot to say about this. His words have helped me form an unofficial policy for my own online interaction.

But before I share that policy: Why my own interest in applying Stoicism to my virtual life? At the beginning of 2015, I wrote a story for a blog about disabilities featuring my own children and their struggles with autism. I was really surprised at how quickly this story spread around the Internet. At first, I was reading all the comments and so many were positive. Writing about our journey was something I had wanted to do for a long time and this was my first tentative step in that direction. It was clear that this story really struck a chord with a lot of parents.

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