Being an informed citizen without consuming cable news

Executive overview

Consuming news constantly is not the same as being informed. The Stoics had no cable news — they read books, held conversations, and observed the world directly.

Genuine understanding comes from history and human psychology, not breaking headlines. Generals like Mattis reach for history books, not Twitter feeds, when crises emerge.

News gives you trivia; books give you the big picture.

James Stockdale and Stoicism in practice

• Stockdale was introduced to Epictetus as a graduate student at Stanford
• Shot down over Vietnam, he entered captivity thinking: "I'm leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus"
• Spent seven years as a POW, most of it in solitary confinement
• Built a secret language among prisoners to maintain solidarity and console those who broke under torture
• To avoid being used as propaganda, he inflicted a near-mortal wound on himself rather than comply
• His example proves Stoicism is not ancient myth — it survived into modern times and produced real heroes

On being informed without watching the news

• The media has convinced us that consuming news is the only path to being informed — it isn't
• Heavy news consumers know the most trivia but often miss the big picture
• For understanding US-China tensions, reading Thucydides on Athens and Sparta yields more insight than reading tweets
• Mattis reread the history of the Korean War when that conflict re-emerged — history repeats its patterns
• Books, conversation, and studying human nature outperform breaking news for genuine understanding
• Watch debates only if you're undecided; otherwise it's just bad entertainment

Seneca on complaining (Daily Stoic, Feb 8)

• Seneca: "You cry, I'm suffering severe pain. Are you then relieved from feeling it if you bear it in an unmanly way?"
• Acting out — yelling, crying, throwing tantrums — does not relieve the underlying pain
• The question to ask yourself mid-freakout: is this actually making me feel better?
• It might feel better for two seconds; in the long run, it almost never does
• Apply the standard to yourself first before using it on others

Non-Stoic books that shaped Ryan Holiday's thinking

• Man's Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl; one of the greatest books ever written
• The War of Art — Steven Pressfield; the concept of the Resistance blocking creative work
• Thich Nhat Hanh's Taming the Tiger Within — Buddhist perspective on inner peace
• Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power, Mastery, 33 Strategies of War — not as a playbook, but to recognise how power operates around you

How a Stoic responds to bullying

• Marcus Aurelius: "The best revenge is to not be like that" — understand the bully's pain rather than react
• His boxing metaphor: when someone cheats in the ring, you don't complain — you adjust and stop sparring with them
• For bullying directed at yourself: endure without reacting, don't set yourself up to be abused repeatedly
• For bullying directed at someone else: intervene — courage and justice demand it
• Cato's example: he broke up older kids caging a younger child and simply ended the game