W

March   3rd

(DIS)INTEGRATION

“These  things  don’t   go  together.   You must    be  a   unified human   being,  either  good    or  bad.    You must

diligently  work    either  on  your    own reasoning   or  on  things  out of  your    control—take    great   care

with    the inside  and not what’s  outside,    which   is  to  say,    stand   with    the philosopher,    or  else    with

the mob!”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.15.13

e’re all complicated people. We have multiple sides to ourselves—conflicting wants, desires, and
fears. The outside world is no less confusing and contradictory. If we’re not careful, all these
forces—pushing and pulling—will eventually tear us apart. We can’t live as both Jekyll and Hyde. Not
for long, anyway.
We have a choice: to stand with the philosopher and focus strenuously on the inside, or to behave like
a leader of a mob, becoming whatever the crowd needs at a given moment.
If we do not focus on our internal integration—on self-awareness—we risk external disintegration.