Re:Why Is Stoicism Having a Cultural Moment?
by tonyedgecombe on Monday October 12, 2015 @08:36AM
(#10374079)
I think it's the opposite, modern day culture celebrates individuals and their achievements as though they created their success on their own, that luck had nothing to do with it. We put people like Zuckerberg on a pedestal when at least some (much?) of their success comes from the luck of having the right parents, being born at the right time, having an interest that happens to be financially valuable and so on.
The downside to this attitude is that we look down on people who weren't lucky, who had the misfortune to be born into an uneducated family, who weren't in the right place at the right time and so on through no fault of their own.
Re:Why Is Stoicism Having a Cultural Moment?
by PierreRochard on Monday October 12, 2015 @09:20AM
(#10374275)
The conclusions you've reached are not uncontroversial in the academic literature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93observer_asymmet...
Re:Why Is Stoicism Having a Cultural Moment?
by segmondy on Monday October 12, 2015 @11:44AM
(#10375230)
I see no reason to throw Oprah into this discussion. If she said that then quote, else cut the rubbish. If anything Oprah was the one that was sued by the meat industry for speaking about Mad Cow disease.
close, but I'd generalize this more and adapt it so that it also relates more to non-US cultures (less Oprah, less suing), and by removing the action (suing) from it and replacing it with what people tend to think, not how they react to it - something like
"Modern-day culture teaches that you are a beautiful and unique person and that any suffering or misfortune you may encounter is somebody else's, or the system's, fault"
At least that is how I perceive the group I think you are targetting here.