【每日斯多葛】9月12日

September 12th

BE DOWN TO EARTH, OR BE BROUGHT DOWN

“Zeno always said that nothing was more unbecoming than putting on airs, especially with the young.”

—DIOGENES LAERTIUS, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS, 7.1.22

Isocrates’s famous letter to Demonicus (which later became the inspiration for Polonius’s “To thine own self be true” speech) holds a similar warning to Zeno. Writing to the young man, Isocrates advises: “Be affable in your relations with those who approach you, and never haughty; for the pride of the arrogant even slaves can hardly endure.”

One of the most common tropes in art—from ancient literature to popular movies—is the brash and overconfident young man who has to be taken down a peg by an older, wiser man. It’s a cliché because it’s a fact of life: people tend to get ahead of themselves, thinking they’ve got it all figured out and are better than those that don’t. It becomes so unpleasant to put up with that someone has to drop some knowledge on them.

But this is an entirely avoidable confrontation. If the bubble is never inflated, it won’t need to be popped. Overconfidence is a great weakness and a liability. But if you are already humble, no one will need to humble you—and the world is much less likely to have nasty surprises in store for you. If you stay down to earth, no one will need to bring you—oftentimes crushingly so—back down.

9月12日

脚踏实地，否则就会被现实打下来

“芝诺总是说，没有什么比装腔作势更不得体，尤其是对年轻人来说。”

——第欧根尼·拉尔修，《名哲言行录》，7.1.22

伊索克拉底写给德摩尼科斯的著名书信（后来成为波洛涅斯“忠于你自己”那段演说的灵感来源）也包含了与芝诺相似的告诫。在写给这位年轻人的信中，伊索克拉底建议道：“对那些接近你的人要和蔼可亲，绝不要傲慢；因为傲慢之人的骄横，就连奴隶也难以忍受。”

从古代文学到流行电影，艺术作品中最常见的套路之一，就是一个莽撞而过度自信的年轻人，最终不得不被一个年长而更有智慧的人“挫一挫锐气”。之所以成为老生常谈，是因为这确实是生活中的常见事实：人们往往会得意忘形，以为自己已经把一切都弄明白了，而且比那些没有弄明白的人更优秀。他们变得如此令人难以忍受，以至于总得有人出来给他们上一课。

但这种冲突其实完全可以避免。如果气泡从来没有被吹起来，自然也就不需要被戳破。过度自信是一种巨大的弱点，也是一种负担。但如果你本来就很谦逊，就没有人需要来让你学会谦逊——这个世界也就不太可能为你准备什么难堪的意外。如果你始终脚踏实地，就没有人需要把你——而且往往是以一种极其沉重的方式——重新打回地面。