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Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation,

but also reading a passage from the book, The Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Steve Enhancelman.

And so today, we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics, from Epititus Markis Relius, Seneca, then some analysis for me, and then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works.

Why aren't you virtue signaling? It's become kind of a reactionary refrain popular on social media and internet comment sections.

We see someone talking about a social cause. We hear someone concerned about something going on in the world. We watch someone trying to do some good and we pounce.

Virtue signaling. We spit the words out like venom. We type them out on our keyboards with a little extra force. We shout them at their perpetrators as if it means something.

Now, of course, virtue signaling does exist. It's true in violation of the course to a practice of showing rather than telling some people would rather talk about what a good man is like instead of, you know, being one yet in a world filled with so much injustice and blatant shamelessness.

This also seems like a rather silly thing to be upset about because isn't the one thing worse than virtue signaling the outright rejection of virtue altogether.

Now, certainly, Seneca could be accused of virtue signaling. He was a public figure and an admired stoic who wrote beautiful philosophical essays, but whose conduct often fell short of the principles explored in those very essays.

Seneca was ambitious. He liked worldly things. He made pragmatic compromises. But again, isn't this better than the alternative? Isn't pragmatism preferable to pure evil? Does anyone really prefer Nero's approach?

Virtue signaling we might say is necessary, but not sufficient for the virtuous life. We begin with a commitment to virtue and earnest commitment to doing the right thing, to serving the common good, to philosophical ideals.

Will we always be consistent with it? Always live up to our own standards? We can try. But almost certainly we will fall short.

We also have to understand that this is true for others. Virtue is hard. Stoicism is a tough prescription. Getting our heart in the right place is a good first step.

And then with time with practice, hopefully we get better at it. Judging other people for falling short, for talking more than acting, then dismissing virtue altogether as a result.

Equating it with phoniness or naivete because apparently signaling about virtue is worse than doing nothing at all. What does that accomplish?

So send your virtue signals. Just make sure you're actually backing them up and leave others to their own struggle to do the same.

Or better yet, help them back it up rather than backing them into a corner for daring to wish out loud for a better world.

Not good nor bad. Shout out to my wife Samantha. It is her birthday today. I'm recording this in advance. It's not technically today. Who knows what we'll be doing.

I'm probably going to take the day off, spend some time together. But in the meantime, I'll give you the entry.

There is no evil in things changing just as there is no good in persisting in a new state. Marcus Aurelius is 442.

And I'm reading to you today from the Daily Stoic 366 Meditations on Wisdom Perseverance in the Art of Living by yours truly.

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