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Stoic q&a: shouldn’t Stoics be charitable toward other people’s behaviors?
G. writes: I have a question regarding the “MeToo” movement and the reaction of a Stoic at the rage of others.“MeToo” has recently arrived in my country and there are many famous people who have been charged with rape and various forms of sexual harassment. What saddens me is the reaction of my folks: many of them think that those criminals must suffer. They must be raped, ridiculed, beaten up, and subjected to other not so humane punishments, which the many call justice.
To my part, I embrace the Stoic view. I think that these criminals are “sick” in their ability to arrive at correct judgments, and from this point of view the proper response is pity for those who misbehaved, accompanied by measures to protect society from them. Such measures should not be based on an “an eye for an eye, a hand for hand” approach. It makes me sad when I hear people say that these criminals are not humans. I think that this view is not only wrong but also very dangerous, because regarding people as sub-humans opens the way to the justification of atrocities. Marcus Aurelius famously said that the best form of revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury. I think that we should treat the criminals with the dignity accorded to every human being, no matter what.
However, when I share my views with others they treat me like a lunatic. They think that I condone the rapists, murderers, etc. of the world. They just won’t listen most of the time. How do you deal with this blind rage in the heart of people?
This is a very good question, which goes to the heart of the Stoic attitude toward human failings. Your letter was prompted by the sudden arrival of #metoo in your country, but the question is much broader than that: how should we behave toward people who do bad things? The Stoic answer is both clear and unambiguous, for instance in Epictetus:
“This man who has fallen into error and is mistaken about the most important matters, and thus has gone blind, not with regard to the eyesight that distinguishes white from black, but with regard to the judgment that distinguishes good from bad —…
