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Stoic advice: what about politics?
[If you’d like to submit a question for this series, send it to epictetus64 at yahoo dot com.]
C. writes: As a Catalan/Spanish/European citizen, my political views and hopes are increasingly becoming tinged with a dark skepticism that operates at two levels. Level one, people. I think that our politicians are quite mediocre at best, when not corrupt. Level two, ideas. I’ve always been leaning to the left, and I’ve strongly supported the independence of Catalonia from Spain. However, at the same time, I’m becoming uncomfortable with populism and nationalism. I think Stoicism cannot by itself be a political ideology or party, in the same way in which you could be Christian and not vote for “Democrazia Cristiana” in 1970’s Italy. Could you offer me some advice from a Roman/Italian/American Stoic?
This is a crucial question, and the short answer is that you are correct, Stoicism is a philosophy, not a political ideology, and should not therefore be used to support a political party. That said, I do believe that there are a number of political positions and ideologies that are not compatible with Stoicism, so the full answer isn’t going to be that short…
In a sense, I see the relationship between Stoicism and politics in a way similar to that between Stoicism and metaphysics: I have argued that Stoic ethics is compatible with a number of…
