Bad people will always exist. Don't let them waste your opportunities too.
Cruel people have always been with us. Incompetent leaders have always been with us. People have always tried to undermine our institutions, turn us against each other and fill the hole in their soul with power, fame or influence. And these people do enormous damage. Rome burned under Nero. Catiline sent a mob to try to overthrow an election he lost. These people kill and destroy and waste.
So yes, that makes us angry. It worries us. It consumes a lot of our attention and energy. But it's worth pointing out that these people, whom we spend so much time thinking about, don't spend one second of their lives thinking about us. Do you think Nero even knew Epictetus existed? He certainly didn't gossip or speculate or complain about him.
That's why Epictetus understood that the key to his sanity and his freedom, and in the end to triumphing over someone like that, meant focusing less on them and much more on himself. The Stoics weren't apathetic. They just knew the trap of confusing emoting about a problem with doing something about it. They knew how easily bad people could consume our every waking second, at the expense of both our happiness and our effectiveness.
Much of what happens in politics, in empires and in the world is not up to us. Day to day, only our own actions are: how we treat people, how we run our businesses, what we think about. We must make sure we aren't letting bad people make us bad people. Governments can take a tyrannical turn, but we don't have to give up control of our thoughts and moods.
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Let them be awful. Let them waste the opportunities they have to do good in this world. Just don't let them waste your opportunities, too.
Our power lies in the only empire we control: ourselves.
TRY THIS TODAY
Notice how many minutes you spend today reading, talking or worrying about people who will never know you exist. Give the same amount of time to something that is yours to change.
Much of what I've learned about Stoicism comes from Ryan Holiday. Find more of his writing at dailystoic.com and ryanholiday.net.
While I have edited much of this content, there are some cases where I have taken Ryan Holiday's words directly. I've included them because I think they are powerful and will be helpful for you. They are also helpful for me, and I've put them here so I can learn and understand more myself.
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