Tag: Ranting

Achilles, Life, Writing

spEak You’re bRanes

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I retweeted someone’s prescription for modern times a few months ago:

‘Dance like the photo isn’t being tagged, love like you’ve never been unfriended and tweet like nobody is following.’

My basic social media motto is write what’s right for me and worry not (too much) about the reception. It’s my own form of spEak You’re bRanes, the website dedicated to bizarre ranting.

And on the topic of ranting, I got my first ever proper negative comment last week. Someone wrote “What a load of old B……….s!!!” under one of my posts.

When I read it, I laughed – it was funny. Looked at through a more sceptical eye, my blog was indeed a bit earnest. But it made me think…

There is something about Twitter and blogs which – absent a real person – can make us feel like ranting. It’s a bit like shouting at the telly. But as recent lawsuits in the UK have shown, tweeting what you wouldn’t dare shout at the person in real life, can now cost you big.

A healthy disregard for insults is perhaps the carrying cost of a ‘social’ life. I’m still working on being less thin-skinned. A life’s work I suspect. Good old Montaigne to the rescue, with a motto from 400 odd years ago. And not a bad one for for the modern day:

‘I write my book for few men and for few years.’

Before taking myself and any rude comments too seriously, it’s worth remembering – as Montaigne suggests – that almost all of what’s written will soon mulch into the digital biosphere. Maybe digital rantings – like writings – find the audience they deserve.

Achilles, Aristotle, Life

Inner Disposition

Twice this week I made myself feel a lot better by acting to adjust my ‘inner disposition’. Before Christmas I read the Stoic Epictetus’s ‘Handbook’. The translator and expert guide Keith Seddon has produced a simple summary of Stoicism in a flow diagram (above). In the centre is ‘adjusting one’s inner disposition’ which reduces ‘wrong judgements’, ‘debilitating emotions’ and overreaction to ‘external events’ – notably people. The products of an adjusted ‘inner disposition’ are ‘serenity’, ‘peace of mind’ and ‘fearlessness’. 

I associate Stoicism with passivity. Shrugging the shoulders, avoiding situations, retreating to the intellectual ‘cave’ and keeping your head down. I conclude from this week it ain’t necessarily so. Why? Because in both cases I ‘adjusted my inner disposition’ by taking action ‘in the moment’, not reflecting on it too much, and in the process letting go of the ‘debilitating emotions’ almost immediately. 

The first instance was easy. I was fuming about my day at work and the inappropriate behaviour I’d been subject to. I put my iPod on and tapped out a rant (which I kept to myself) on my iPhone. Rant written, fave tunes playing, my ‘inner dispositions’ changed in less than 5 mins. I let go and felt better.

In the second instance, I also wrote a rant, but this time hit Send. Risky. And after an hour with no answer, I started regretting it. But like hitting the reset button, or turning a computer on and off, my head and heart were cleared. So when the time came to deal with the consequences of my rant, I had a better ‘inner disposition’ and we changed the air.

Many of the great thinkers draw on Stoicism. Kierkegaard, who I’m enjoying at the moment, places taking responsibility for your own life as part of his ‘ethical’ stage of life. Aristotle advocates thought and action. Like Achilles though, sometimes I have to act – not think – to achieve ‘serenity’, ‘peace of mind’ and ‘fearlessness’.