1 Goal (Ethics).
10 random takeaways.
1.
TST uses the Five Thieves to guard happiness. A traditional Sikh idea, the Five Thieves are lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego. They are a common floor for noticing what steals peace from the inside. They also serve as a hook into Sikh thought and the pursuit of lasting happiness.
2.
Quote:
- Friedrich Nietzsche.
- 1882.
Nietzsche’s idea of Eternal Recurrence asks us to treat life as if it will repeat endlessly. Not as fate or punishment, but as a measure of affirmation. Would you embrace your choices, struggles, and values again? If not, the task is clear: walk through life more deliberately, honestly, and fully.
3.
From History:
New Look
The modern focus on Epicureanism is its dichotomy of pleasure. Manage pleasure before pleasure manages you. Epicurus wants you to prefer long-term pleasures over short-term ones. Take control of your choices, stay clean, sober, and productive and choose to let go of unnecessary fear and anger. To take control of your life, practice the simple pleasures that support flourishing and loosen the grip of immediate pleasures that quietly control you.
4.
Column summary:
When identity hardens around a model of reality, disagreement feels like threat and persuasion becomes tribal. Wisdom begins with recognizing that worldviews are tools, not territory. Healthy societies — and healthy individuals — respect limits, question authority responsibly, and separate belonging from belief. The series was a case study in social physics, but the mechanisms apply to all of us.
5.
Quote:
- Reinhold Niebuhr.
- 1930s.
Just like the Serenity Prayer, Stoicism focuses on the Dichotomy of Control within the “good intent-good results” framework. Your good intent, such as a thoughtful actions, in general will lead to virtue and a moral life. And it’s very true, there are elements beyond one’s control like stormy weather, rolling dice, and a cosmic landscape. You are the moral agent to your life. Your central and only focus is on things that you can control. Sure, feel free to influence the rest.
6.
From History: Reference Date: 2200 CE (+/- 50 years)
To live well, get ahead of the future in your own lifetime. Do not force religion to fight science, and do not force science to answer every question of meaning. Let empirical claims answer to evidence, rational ideas handle indirect but coherent truths, and spiritual stories help shape identity, morality, suffering, and hope. Then, with humility, let go of the disproven ideas you are ready to release.
7.
TST Term.
Do not let roles, expectations, or old scripts make important choices for you. Ask whether the decision is genuinely yours, whether you accept responsibility for it, and whether it moves you toward the person you are trying to become. Authenticity matters, but it must remain grounded in truth, responsibility, and flourishing.
8.
Quote:
- Thomas Aquinas.
- circa 1265.
For centuries, Just War Theory has attempted to temper the rush to war by requiring legitimate authority, just cause, and right intent. Life does not always give us peaceful people or clean choices. Sometimes you must respond. But living well means resisting the urge to escalate. Situational ethics reminds us that a proportionate response protects dignity, limits damage, and keeps pain from multiplying. Even when you must push back, do not let someone else’s wrong turn you into more of the same.
9.
From History: 6 Dec 1865
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, but it left one major exception: forced labor could still be used as punishment for a crime after conviction. That exception mattered. It ended chattel slavery, yet it also left a legal opening that shaped prison labor and later systems of coercion. Today we sill have forced prison labor including chain gangs.
10.
The Earth has enough resources for every person to live with dignity. The problem is not that nature failed to provide. The problem is how human systems distribute, waste, hoard, and prioritize those resources. People have a yearly income and they accumulate wealth. It is sad that a dozen billionaires now own as much wealth as the poorest four billion people on Earth. The fact that global billionaire wealth has surged to an all-time high of over $18 trillion is not just unfortunate, it reveals something is broken.
The End. Refresh for another set.