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StillnessStoic idea

You do not control everything around you. You do control more of your attention, choices and responses than panic usually admits.

Stoic reflection

Philosophy

The story behind the card

The idea is at the heart of Stoicism, the philosophy founded in Athens around 300 BC, and one of its clearest teachers was Epictetus, a freed slave. It was put to a hard test in 1965, when the American pilot James Stockdale was shot down over North Vietnam. He had been given Epictetus's handbook as a student at Stanford, and through seven and a half years as a prisoner of war he held on to its lesson: his captors controlled almost everything, but not his judgement or his conduct.

Türkçe oku
Çevrende olan her şeyi kontrol edemezsin. Ama dikkatin, seçimlerin ve tepkilerin, panik anında sandığından çok daha fazla senin elindedir.

Bu fikir, MÖ 300 dolaylarında Atina'da doğan Stoa felsefesinin özüdür; onu en açık anlatanlardan biri de azat edilmiş bir köle olan Epiktetos'tur. Fikir 1965'te zorlu bir sınavdan geçti: Amerikalı pilot James Stockdale'in uçağı Kuzey Vietnam üzerinde düşürüldü. Stockdale'e Stanford'da öğrenciyken Epiktetos'un El Kitabı hediye edilmişti. Yedi buçuk yıl süren esaret boyunca kitabın dersine tutundu: Onu esir tutanlar neredeyse her şeyi kontrol ediyordu, ama yargılarını ve davranışlarını değil.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Stoicism
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