Peter Edman
Speaking of out-of-print Readings, in response to the news this morning of the death of Adm. James Stockdale (1923–2005), here is a quote from his essay “The World of Epictetus,” which appeared in The Atlantic 241 (April 1978): 98-106.
Stockdale was a philosopher, professor, vice-presidential candidate, Navy admiral, prisoner of war, and recipient of the Medal of Honor. May he rest in peace. The World of Epictetus was the fifth Trinity Forum Reading; Os Guinness wrote the foreword and Admiral Stockdale kindly granted us reprint permission.
When I ejected from the airplane on that September morn in 1965, I had left the land of technology. I had entered the world of Epictetus, and it’s a world that few of us, whether we know it or not, are ever far away from.
In Palo Alto, I had read this book, not with contentment, but with annoyance. Statement after statement: “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view that they take of them.” “Do not be concerned with things which are beyond your power.” “Demand not that events should happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen and you will go on well.” This is stoicism. It’s not the last word, but it’s a viewpoint that comes in handy in many circumstances, and it surely did for me. Particularly this line: “Lameness is an impediment to the body but not to the will.” That was significant for me because I wasn’t able to stand up and support myself on my badly broken leg for the first couple of years I was in solitary confinement.
Other statements of Epictetus took on added meaning in the light of extortions which often began with our captors’ callous pleas: “If you are just reasonable with us we will compensate you. You get your meals, you get to sleep, you won’t be pestered, you might even get a cellmate.” The catch was that by being “reasonable with us” our enemies meant being their informers, their propagandists. The old stoic had said, “If I can get the things I need with the preservation of my honor and fidelity and self-respect, show me the way and I will get them. But, if you require me to lose my own proper good, that you may gain what is no good, consider how unreasonable and foolish you are.” To love our fellow prisoners was within our power. To betray, to propagandize, to disillusion conscientious and patriotic shipmates and destroy their morale so that they in turn would be destroyed was to lose one’s proper good.
What attributes serve you well in the extortion environment? We learned there, above all else, that the best defense is to keep your conscience clean. When we did something we were ashamed of, and our captors realized we were ashamed of it, we were in trouble. A little white lie is where extortion and ultimately blackmail start. In 1965, I was crippled and I was alone. I realized that they had all the power. I couldn’t see how I was ever going to get out with my honor and self-respect. The one thing I came to realize was that if you don’t lose integrity you can’t be had and you can’t be hurt. Compromises multiply and build up when you’re working against a skilled extortionist or a good manipulator. You can’t be had if you don’t take that first shortcut, or “meet them halfway,” as they say, or look for that tacit “deal,” or make that first compromise.
Readers may also be interested in
Fodder, Character and Ethics, Good and Evil, Wed 06 Jul 2005
Greed is the logical result of the belief that there is no life after death. We grab what we can while we can however we can and then hold on to it hard.
Sir Fred Catherwood
A Cultural Manifesto and Showcase
China, Tibet, and the Olympics
Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith by G. K. Chesterton.
On its 100th anniversary, this book is just as helpful and provocative as ever.
Orthodoxy: Georgetown’s Father Schall reviews G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy on its 100 year anniversary. “In coming to believe in Christianity, Chesterton, as he tells us, did not read a single Christian book in the process. Rather, he read book after book of those who maintained that Christianity could not possibly be true. After he had read many of these tractates, he suddenly realized that the intellectual opponents of Christianity were constantly contradicting themselves about what they were opposing. Chesterton, the most logical of men, figured that anything so odd as to be opposed for the exact opposite reasons must either be quite strange or, in fact, rather normal and true.” A helpful introduction to a lovely book. (James V. Schall, SJ, InsideCatholic.com , 2008 05 05)
Where Were Obama’s Friends?: Friendship under fire: “As for the supersized candidates, what strikes one most about them is their ‘aloneness.’ They look so solitary. Indeed, it is possible that the old and honorable notion of ‘standing with’ a candidate like Obama simply didn’t occur to his famous supporters this week. Everyone has become used to watching celebrity stars and athletes take it in the neck on their own. Even someone running for the nation’s presidency looks like just another personal crack-up.” Makes one pause. (Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal , 2008 05 01)
There’s no way you’re going to convince me: Catholic professor Scott Carson covers the current debates on evil between N T Wright and Bart Ehrman on Beliefnet: “[H]aving had a look at this most recent exchange I have to say that it continues to astound me how simplistic and thoughtless the popular treatment of the problem has become. . . . It’s as if generations of sophisticated and complex theological and philosophical argument amount to nothing when compared to the emotional attitudes of a single individual living in a highly particularized time and place. . . . Just as atheists and agnostics are often—perhaps way too often—tempted to assume that believers only believe for emotional or psychological reasons, so too, it seems rather obvious to me, every non-believer almost certainly has emotional and psychological reasons for not believing that will trump any and every legitimate argument posed against them.” (extensive links from the article to the primary sources) (An Examined Life , 2008 04 27)
The Way We Weren’t: “The fifties really were a time when the culture broadly affirmed Christianity as a Good Thing. I was there. I saw it; I heard it. And yet some kind of demurral is strongly indicated: some sign of recognition that no human society, whatever its good intentions and methods, has lived unburdened, unencumbered by the crushing weight of human fallenness. Good as life may appear to have been in the cities and universities of France and Italy in the thirteenth century, or amid the sweaty fervor of the camp meetings in nineteenth-century America, or among the fierce faith of the emancipators, always human pride and general nuttiness were there to spoil the broth.” (William Murchison, in Touchstone , 2008 04 23)
• Not on Sale (2008 04 14)
• Seven New Deadly Sins, Suitably Updated (2008 04 10)
• The Pope Comes to America (2008 04 09)
• Both Read the Same Bible (2008 04 09)
• Muslims Outnumber World’s Catholics (2008 03 31)
