Friday
Today’s topic is relationships, and how in Stoic philosophy, relationships are incredibly significant. They believe that everyone should work virtuously to build a worldwide community of rational, social animals (essentially humans) who treat each other like family. This care extends beyond just the people you know, including those who already love you, those whom are indifferent towards you and those who display hatred towards you. This is because a truly virtuous person understands that other people behave in violent and aggressive manners when they do not understand what is truly important in life. The goal is to form a community of brothers and sisters that form the whole of mankind.
I quite simply do not see this as being possible. Maybe if we were perfect humans, all educated and practiced in how to be good, understanding people, then through cooperation, we could make it work. But ultimately, if someone comes up to me, starts yelling at me, and maybe even physically threatens or hurts me, then I would of no doubt be angry, and I think in reality, everyone would. I am by no means a violent or aggressive person, but I would not be able to withstand abuse and be fine with it, even if I knew that they were making mistakes in judgment. I wish I could, but I am not perfect – if I were, I would be able to have clear reasoning and judgement regardless of the situation. Also, I extremely struggle to understand how you can treat everyone you meet with the care and regard that you treat your family with. To me, some people deserve it for what they have done, but others are just strangers who never have and never will show consideration or care for me; it’s not their fault though. Doesn’t treating everyone like family undermine the very importance, meaning and significance of family? They are special to me, but what do they become if everyone else is too? I guess this is the kind of selfish behaviour that adds to my list of flaws. I think it is incredibly hard to trust strangers and random people in the ‘community of humankind’, due to the insecurity and mistrust that everyone has for each other. Yet how can I be expected to trust a random person, knowing that they will abuse that very trust for their own gain? It is this mentality that has grown in society that makes the Stoic ideals of relationships extremely difficult to implement in individuals. If it cannot be used in individuals, it is even harder to make successful in a community.
