Thanks for the break down of Holiday's interpretation of what a liberal and conservative is. I think you hit the nail on this analysis hence the comments defending Holiday's stance. He wrote to his dad about voting for Trump in 2016? He's sounding more like Ezra Klein by the second, who made a plea to vote for Hillary during that election. One of his diatribes against Trump put me off his flavor of stoicism. He said Trump was a failed businessman because he had several business declare bankruptcies. You can hardly be a failed businessman when you've manage to enter the Billion dollar range. You can hate or love the man, I don't care but why lie? Is that a teaching of stoicism. To me it sounds like his stoicism is just to mask his politics. Trump's stance were what the Democrats had just a couple of decades ago before this whack-a-doodle obsession with intersectional identity theory. To which I had no idea Holiday actually joined the fray. What's jarring is his silence about the recent political violence that has happened. A beloved persona in the conservative movement is dead and the actual perpetrator subscribes to the Democrats' most recent ideological fad. If he is to keep his political slant moving forward, now would be a great time to chime in, so that level heads would prevail. Instead it sounds like he's waiting for the party marching orders before he addresses the controversy for fear of a misstep. The man has no opinions of his own. I appreciate his recommendation of George Hays' translation of the Meditations but I find his teachings about stoicism severely lacking.
Thanks for the break down of Holiday's interpretation of what a liberal and conservative is. I think you hit the nail on this analysis hence the comments defending Holiday's stance. He wrote to his dad about voting for Trump in 2016? He's sounding more like Ezra Klein by the second, who made a plea to vote for Hillary during that election. One of his diatribes against Trump put me off his flavor of stoicism. He said Trump was a failed businessman because he had several business declare bankruptcies. You can hardly be a failed businessman when you've manage to enter the Billion dollar range. You can hate or love the man, I don't care but why lie? Is that a teaching of stoicism. To me it sounds like his stoicism is just to mask his politics. Trump's stance were what the Democrats had just a couple of decades ago before this whack-a-doodle obsession with intersectional identity theory. To which I had no idea Holiday actually joined the fray. What's jarring is his silence about the recent political violence that has happened. A beloved persona in the conservative movement is dead and the actual perpetrator subscribes to the Democrats' most recent ideological fad. If he is to keep his political slant moving forward, now would be a great time to chime in, so that level heads would prevail. Instead it sounds like he's waiting for the party marching orders before he addresses the controversy for fear of a misstep. The man has no opinions of his own. I appreciate his recommendation of George Hays' translation of the Meditations but I find his teachings about stoicism severely lacking.
This should have been presented more as a "I disagree with Ryan" rather than "Ryan is wrong." You give quotes and ideas that you disagree with, but leave no room for nuance in terms of letting Ryan's readers/listeners interpret what he is saying for themselves
Appreciate your thoughts on Holiday and his political views. I am new to Stoicism and most grateful for the work Ryan has done and benefiting from it in my personal and professional life. Many have used the Bible to prove liberal ideology and many have used the same Bible to prove conservatism. Is it not the same with Stoicism?
Why can we not study the pursuit of life together, have dialogue about our differences, seek to understand each other, be ok with differences...and at the end of the day still have a beer together and watch a game?
Thanks for the rundown on Holiday. Firstly, I've enjoyed these books he's authored: Discipline is Destiny & Daily Stoic. I'm a fan of history. Fascinated by pre-modern man who figured out most things...there's nothing new under the sun. Therefore, I think the Stoic content is helpful/useful to further understanding and enabling objective thinking. Here's the rub with Holiday. I'm aware of his position on being cancelled by the Naval academy for censoring about 600 DEI books and his video on Nero & Nasisim, which he uses Trump's 2016 presidency as a comparison. I could not sit through the entire hour long videos of each of these. Holiday doesn't get it. He uses a controversial book argument brought up by President Eisenhower saying he wished more people read Mein Kampf. I get it. I'm a 34 year retired Army Colonel and I've read Sayd Qutb's Milestone book to understand radical jihad as I was an Iraqi National Police military advisor and hundreds of pages to understand the Oriental region. Understanding radical socialism and radical Islam is gaining intelligence on your enemy. This does not compare to "brainwashing" impressionable military cadets to ditch a merit based system for DEI social experiment. There is no room for this in those commissioned to defend the Constitution of the United States. Next, ALL politicians are narcissists (Dark Triad Personality Traits). Full Stop. Fact. I joined the Army as at the end of the cold war. Having served under the presidencies of Clinton, W Bush, Obama, Trump & Biden, all excluding Trump have been foreign policy disasters. Biden, by far the worst of the bunch both domestic and foreign policy. Clinton handed us over to the Chinese (if one wants to understand China then study the Khan dynasty), W Bush bled the treasury and youth on bad intelligence (criminal). Obama perpetuated it and the list is too long. Trump is transactional and unpredictable (that's how to win wars). One must not be a reflexive voter. One must weigh the facts and empirical evidence (not emotions), then make an informed decision. I know I'm likely writing to folks who already think this way. However, I have association with people my age & whom I thought knew better and really don't understand how to make an informed decision for POTUS.
I think this was a good read. Perhaps most interesting is your suggestion that young people are longing for time tested systems for dealing with life’s contemporary problems. I think Holiday provides that with the stoic literature and in a way the medium for providing those things is his independent contribution that goes beyond the teachings of the stoics. The few times he speaks about politics, I think he is conserving the stoic way in light of the Trump movement which takes liberties away from such principles. He has a great video using the stoic principles and the story of Nero and Seneca to help his followers deal with the contemporary problem of Trump’s destructive path. I think that’s pretty profound. My only critique of your article is that I reject the idea that conservatives have a more developed system of caring for their souls than progressives. I just think most of the loudest voices have done little or no soul care, and there are folks on both sides using systems of Christianity and other forms of spirituality to care for their souls. They just aren’t the squeakiest wheels.
Thanks for the good read to start the morning. I’m glad you are in conversation with Holiday’s ideas. Looking forward to more reads.
Thanks for the break down of Holiday's interpretation of what a liberal and conservative is. I think you hit the nail on this analysis hence the comments defending Holiday's stance. He wrote to his dad about voting for Trump in 2016? He's sounding more like Ezra Klein by the second, who made a plea to vote for Hillary during that election. One of his diatribes against Trump put me off his flavor of stoicism. He said Trump was a failed businessman because he had several business declare bankruptcies. You can hardly be a failed businessman when you've manage to enter the Billion dollar range. You can hate or love the man, I don't care but why lie? Is that a teaching of stoicism. To me it sounds like his stoicism is just to mask his politics. Trump's stance were what the Democrats had just a couple of decades ago before this whack-a-doodle obsession with intersectional identity theory. To which I had no idea Holiday actually joined the fray. What's jarring is his silence about the recent political violence that has happened. A beloved persona in the conservative movement is dead and the actual perpetrator subscribes to the Democrats' most recent ideological fad. If he is to keep his political slant moving forward, now would be a great time to chime in, so that level heads would prevail. Instead it sounds like he's waiting for the party marching orders before he addresses the controversy for fear of a misstep. The man has no opinions of his own. I appreciate his recommendation of George Hays' translation of the Meditations but I find his teachings about stoicism severely lacking.
Thanks for the break down of Holiday's interpretation of what a liberal and conservative is. I think you hit the nail on this analysis hence the comments defending Holiday's stance. He wrote to his dad about voting for Trump in 2016? He's sounding more like Ezra Klein by the second, who made a plea to vote for Hillary during that election. One of his diatribes against Trump put me off his flavor of stoicism. He said Trump was a failed businessman because he had several business declare bankruptcies. You can hardly be a failed businessman when you've manage to enter the Billion dollar range. You can hate or love the man, I don't care but why lie? Is that a teaching of stoicism. To me it sounds like his stoicism is just to mask his politics. Trump's stance were what the Democrats had just a couple of decades ago before this whack-a-doodle obsession with intersectional identity theory. To which I had no idea Holiday actually joined the fray. What's jarring is his silence about the recent political violence that has happened. A beloved persona in the conservative movement is dead and the actual perpetrator subscribes to the Democrats' most recent ideological fad. If he is to keep his political slant moving forward, now would be a great time to chime in, so that level heads would prevail. Instead it sounds like he's waiting for the party marching orders before he addresses the controversy for fear of a misstep. The man has no opinions of his own. I appreciate his recommendation of George Hays' translation of the Meditations but I find his teachings about stoicism severely lacking.
This should have been presented more as a "I disagree with Ryan" rather than "Ryan is wrong." You give quotes and ideas that you disagree with, but leave no room for nuance in terms of letting Ryan's readers/listeners interpret what he is saying for themselves
Appreciate your thoughts on Holiday and his political views. I am new to Stoicism and most grateful for the work Ryan has done and benefiting from it in my personal and professional life. Many have used the Bible to prove liberal ideology and many have used the same Bible to prove conservatism. Is it not the same with Stoicism?
Why can we not study the pursuit of life together, have dialogue about our differences, seek to understand each other, be ok with differences...and at the end of the day still have a beer together and watch a game?
Thanks for the rundown on Holiday. Firstly, I've enjoyed these books he's authored: Discipline is Destiny & Daily Stoic. I'm a fan of history. Fascinated by pre-modern man who figured out most things...there's nothing new under the sun. Therefore, I think the Stoic content is helpful/useful to further understanding and enabling objective thinking. Here's the rub with Holiday. I'm aware of his position on being cancelled by the Naval academy for censoring about 600 DEI books and his video on Nero & Nasisim, which he uses Trump's 2016 presidency as a comparison. I could not sit through the entire hour long videos of each of these. Holiday doesn't get it. He uses a controversial book argument brought up by President Eisenhower saying he wished more people read Mein Kampf. I get it. I'm a 34 year retired Army Colonel and I've read Sayd Qutb's Milestone book to understand radical jihad as I was an Iraqi National Police military advisor and hundreds of pages to understand the Oriental region. Understanding radical socialism and radical Islam is gaining intelligence on your enemy. This does not compare to "brainwashing" impressionable military cadets to ditch a merit based system for DEI social experiment. There is no room for this in those commissioned to defend the Constitution of the United States. Next, ALL politicians are narcissists (Dark Triad Personality Traits). Full Stop. Fact. I joined the Army as at the end of the cold war. Having served under the presidencies of Clinton, W Bush, Obama, Trump & Biden, all excluding Trump have been foreign policy disasters. Biden, by far the worst of the bunch both domestic and foreign policy. Clinton handed us over to the Chinese (if one wants to understand China then study the Khan dynasty), W Bush bled the treasury and youth on bad intelligence (criminal). Obama perpetuated it and the list is too long. Trump is transactional and unpredictable (that's how to win wars). One must not be a reflexive voter. One must weigh the facts and empirical evidence (not emotions), then make an informed decision. I know I'm likely writing to folks who already think this way. However, I have association with people my age & whom I thought knew better and really don't understand how to make an informed decision for POTUS.
I think this was a good read. Perhaps most interesting is your suggestion that young people are longing for time tested systems for dealing with life’s contemporary problems. I think Holiday provides that with the stoic literature and in a way the medium for providing those things is his independent contribution that goes beyond the teachings of the stoics. The few times he speaks about politics, I think he is conserving the stoic way in light of the Trump movement which takes liberties away from such principles. He has a great video using the stoic principles and the story of Nero and Seneca to help his followers deal with the contemporary problem of Trump’s destructive path. I think that’s pretty profound. My only critique of your article is that I reject the idea that conservatives have a more developed system of caring for their souls than progressives. I just think most of the loudest voices have done little or no soul care, and there are folks on both sides using systems of Christianity and other forms of spirituality to care for their souls. They just aren’t the squeakiest wheels.
Thanks for the good read to start the morning. I’m glad you are in conversation with Holiday’s ideas. Looking forward to more reads.