Ryan Holiday (5:53)

This is the June 2 entry in the Daily Stoic. How beautifully Plato put it. Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditation748 Whenever you.

Daily Stoic Host (6:04)

Want to talk about people, it's best.

Ryan Holiday (6:05)

To take a bird's eye view and see everything all at once of gatherings, armies, farms, weddings and divorces, births and deaths, noisy courtrooms or silent spaces. Every foreign people, holidays, memorials, markets, all blended together and arranged in a pairing of opposites. And actually, let me give you the Hayes one today too. If I recall correctly, he renders this quite beautifully. Plato has it right. If you want to talk about people, you need to look down on earth from above. Herds and armies, farms and weddings, divorces, births, deaths, noisy courtrooms, desert places, all the foreign peoples, holidays, days of mourning, market days, all mixed together. A harmony of opposites. There's actually a beautiful dialogue by the poet Lucien, who is Seneca's Nephew, I believe, in which the narrator is given the ability to fly and see the world from above. Turning his eyes earthward, he sees how comically small even the richest people, the biggest estates, the entire empires look from above. All their battles and concerns are made petty in perspective. In ancient times, this exercise was only theoretical. The highest that anyone could get was the top of a mountain or a building a few stories tall. But as technology has progressed, humans have been able to actually take that bird's eye view and greater Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut, was one of the first people to see the Earth from outer space. And as he later recounted, in outer space you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles away and say, look at that, you son of a bitch. And then I add, many a problem can be solved with the perspective of Plato's view. Use it. I just got off a plane. I'm getting on a plane again shortly, and you look out the window and you see. Sometimes when I fly into Austin, I can actually see where I live and 40 acres suddenly, very small. 1,000 acres, very small. The Tesla factory, one of the biggest buildings I've ever seen in my life. Very small skyscrapers, very small people, minuscule. I think what Edgar Mitchell is talking about is a sort of paradox of it. Everything seems very small, but everything also seems very connected, right? And so wars and international boundaries, these all seem so insignificant, such artificial and petty distinctions. I was recently down in Big Bend national park, and you look over this vast expanse, and it humbles you in that sense. And then also you're like, here is the United States, here is Mexico. Here is the United States, here is Mexico. You're walking on the one side of the river, and then it's just. And we don't have to get into some complicated discussion about immigration, but it's just a reminder. It's like how arbitrary. Someone born over here gets this kind of life. Someone born on this side gets this kind of life. And they'll shoot you if you come across the border with this intention. But me splashing around in the water with my kids, that's totally fine. You realize that all these things we take very seriously are not that serious. And what matters, I think Marcus is saying, when you take Plato's view, is our connection to other people, our obligations as human beings, being good, being decent. Alexander the Great's empire looks very enormous and significant and powerful and important up close. But zoom out. It doesn't seem that different than anything else. And the immensity of the damage that he did in creating it suddenly comes into view as well. So Plato's view is about getting perspective. And it's a reminder that our technology helps give us that view and that we should appreciate. I know if you ever watch the Daily Stoke videos, sometimes we use drone shots. And it's been fun to learn how to fly this drone. But this drone is also expanded my perspective. It's allowed me to see things, even myself, right? From different angles. I never saw what I looked like running from 30 meters above me.

Daily Stoic Host (10:23)

Right.

Ryan Holiday (10:24)

I haven't seen what the angle of the road that I like to run on looks like that way. And it helps you appreciate things differently. It gives you that bird's eye view. And I think it's really important. I think time lapses can do this too. Course, just sitting there and looking at it, climbing up to a high spot, looking at the stars can give you this too. But the Stoics were trying to humble themselves. They were trying to get perspective. They were trying to remember our obligations and connections to other people. They were trying as Annie Duke says, to get to the outside of their problems, outside of the insularness of their viewpoint and their urges and their desires and their emotional reactions. And I just think it's so important. And please do avail yourself with that knowledge. It's very powerful and important, as Marcus says, as Plato does, as Lucian does. And I'll leave that with you now to chew on for the rest of the day.

Daily Stoic Host (11:25)

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