Philosophical advice

If I were a Ukrainian, should I not be angry at the Russians?

Anger, Seneca says, is temporary madness. But surely if your country is invaded and your family killed, you are entitled to be angry?

a woman and two children walk on a street to leave Ukraine after crossing the Slovak-Ukrainian border, image from timesofisrael.com

D. writes: Things here in the UK and Europe are — as you are aware — getting grimmer by the day. A great many innocent people are being killed and we currently have around 4–5 million refugees moving into EU countries. The level of human misery is unimaginable.

One image, in particular, sticks in my mind; a father pulling the body of his dead child from the rubble of a building which had just been struck by a Russian missile. In this situation I think that anger — even rage — is an appropriate and perfectly healthy response.

I know that Stoics tend to down regulate human emotions and they have a particular problem with anger (especially Seneca). But in limit situations, I think righteous anger can be — and often is — an adaptive response which is also enabling. Since the conflict in Ukraine started, I have heard so many Ukrainian soldiers say that what sustains them in the fight is anger (controlled), fueled by an abiding hatred for their Russian invaders.

Difficult questions I know. No doubt Ryan Holiday would say the Ukrainian father should tell himself that the death of his child “was the best possible thing that could have happened to him” But I wonder what real Stoics would say.

Well, I’m not a real Stoic, but I’ll do my best to answer the question. It’s both difficult and very important. Let me begin by disagreeing with Ryan Holiday. He is referring to a famous quote by Epictetus:

“If you kiss your child or your wife, say to yourself that it is a human being that you’re kissing; and then, if one of them should die, you won’t be upset.” (Enchiridion 3)

Although Epictetus here comes across as a bit of a psychopath, he was actually being coherent with his own philosophy and understanding of how the world works. According to the ancient Stoics we live in a providential universe governed by the logos, a universal substance that infuses the cosmos with rationality. Therefore, whatever…