1 hr 22 min

Season 1, Episode 18: Bailey Ireland Blokes Don't Talk

    • Mental Health

Summum bonum. Amor fati. Memento mori. Do the ultimate good. Love fate. Remember death .

Many men in 30's, 40's and beyond, turn to stoicism as a path to a more fulfilling interaction with life. Do what you should, when you should; accept that you don't control the outcome; know that you are ultimately fragile and that life is finite. Accepting this as a man entering one's post prime, feels like a deep exhale. It feels like learning something we biologically know.

But what does stoicism offer a young man barely entering the prime of his life? And, even if he holds the wisdom to believe the merit of the principle, he surely couldn't have been tested thoroughly enough by life to resonate with the deep evolutionary truths of the message surely; could he?

Bailey Ireland is a very interesting young man. He has been raised with optimism & enthusiasm in the face of significant adversity, and now exudes acceptance, compassion, and a healthy lacing of ambition. 

Author Steve Biddulph in his book 'The New Manhood' identifies 5 Truths of Manhood, in a list the could be considered a stoic antidote to the absence of coming of age initiations. His list reads:

1. You are going to die.
2. Life is hard.
3. You are not that important.
4. Your life is not about you.
5. You are not in control of the outcome.

At 18 Bailey already knows and accepts these truths, and moves forward into life with excitement, not fraudulently unbreakable, but simple anti-fragile. 

Summum bonum. Amor fati. Memento mori. Do the ultimate good. Love fate. Remember death .

Many men in 30's, 40's and beyond, turn to stoicism as a path to a more fulfilling interaction with life. Do what you should, when you should; accept that you don't control the outcome; know that you are ultimately fragile and that life is finite. Accepting this as a man entering one's post prime, feels like a deep exhale. It feels like learning something we biologically know.

But what does stoicism offer a young man barely entering the prime of his life? And, even if he holds the wisdom to believe the merit of the principle, he surely couldn't have been tested thoroughly enough by life to resonate with the deep evolutionary truths of the message surely; could he?

Bailey Ireland is a very interesting young man. He has been raised with optimism & enthusiasm in the face of significant adversity, and now exudes acceptance, compassion, and a healthy lacing of ambition. 

Author Steve Biddulph in his book 'The New Manhood' identifies 5 Truths of Manhood, in a list the could be considered a stoic antidote to the absence of coming of age initiations. His list reads:

1. You are going to die.
2. Life is hard.
3. You are not that important.
4. Your life is not about you.
5. You are not in control of the outcome.

At 18 Bailey already knows and accepts these truths, and moves forward into life with excitement, not fraudulently unbreakable, but simple anti-fragile. 

1 hr 22 min