Not Through Me. Not Through Me.
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Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to The Daily Stoic early and ad-free right now. Just join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Welcome to The Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life.

Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women to help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit dailystoic.com. Not through me. Not through me.

We don't control what other people do. We don't control that they lie. We don't control that they abuse power. We don't control that they cheat on their spouses. We don't control that they attack or persecute. We don't control that they spread misinformation. But we certainly control whether we do those things or rather that we don't do those things. Alexander Solzhenitsyn lived through terrible tyranny and he refused to let it corrupt him. He knew that it was impossible for an individual to fight against pervasive evil and corruption.

But still, he said, our duty was simple. Our credo must be let the lie come into the world, he said, let it even triumph, but not through me. This is Cato during the last days of the Republic. This is Rutilius and Musonius and Agrippinus as they face down the power of the state. This is Stockdale in the Hanoi Hilton.

It can also be us in this moment, whatever the future holds. We must resist the moral inversion that celebrates selfishness and rewards dishonesty. We must resist the cultural forces that encourage cruelty, that degrade truth. We must stand firm, unyielding in our refusal to compromise on what we know is right. We do this personally, by insisting on what's right, by acting right, by living with virtues. Others will do what they will. We will not.

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