【每日斯多葛】9月9日

September 9th

NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF

“But there is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominate.”

—SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 13.12b

In the early days of what would become known as the Great Depression, a new president named Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in and gave his first inaugural address. As the last president to hold office before the Twentieth Amendment was ratified, FDR wasn’t able to take office until March—meaning that the country had been without strong leadership for months. Panic was in the air, banks were failing, and people were scared.

You’ve probably heard the “nothing to fear but fear itself” sound bite that FDR gave in that famous speech, but the full line is worth reading because it applies to many difficult things we face in life:

“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

The Stoics knew that fear was to be feared because of the miseries it creates. The things we fear pale in comparison to the damage we do to ourselves and others when we unthinkingly scramble to avoid them. An economic depression is bad; a panic is worse. A tough situation isn’t helped by terror—it only makes things harder. And that’s why we must resist it and reject it if we wish to turn this situation around.

9月9日

唯一值得恐惧的，是恐惧本身

“如果我们任由恐惧占据上风，那么生活就失去了意义，而我们的痛苦也将没有尽头。”

——塞内卡，《道德书信》，13.12b

在后来被称为“大萧条”的早期阶段，一位名叫富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福的新总统宣誓就职，并发表了他的第一次就职演说。由于罗斯福是美国宪法第二十修正案获得批准之前最后一位就任的总统，当时总统还要等到3月份才能正式上任——这意味着美国在几个月的时间里都缺少强有力的领导。当时恐慌弥漫，银行接连倒闭，人们普遍感到害怕。

你大概听过罗斯福在那篇著名演说中的那句名言：“我们唯一值得恐惧的，就是恐惧本身。”但完整的句子更值得一读，因为它同样适用于我们人生中面对的许多困难：

“让我坚定地表达这样一个信念：我们唯一必须恐惧的，就是恐惧本身——一种没有名称、没有理性、毫无根据的恐怖，它会使我们无法采取必要的行动，把退却转化为前进。”

斯多葛主义者知道，真正应该害怕的是恐惧本身，因为恐惧会制造痛苦。与我们为了逃避所恐惧的东西而不假思索地仓促行动、进而给自己和他人造成的伤害相比，那些我们所恐惧的事情本身往往显得微不足道。经济萧条当然很糟糕，但恐慌更糟。一种艰难的局面不会因为恐惧而得到改善——恐惧只会使事情更加困难。因此，如果我们希望扭转局面，就必须抵抗恐惧、拒绝被它控制。