The PWI Required Reading List

I haven’t heard or read one statement from Vox in which he denigrated any race when talking about race.

The answer isn’t white supremacy because white supremacy simply isn’t true. Whites are not superior, but whites are the only tribe willing and able to maintain Western civilization because they are the only tribe that truly values it. The answer for those who support Western civilization, regardless of sex, color, or religion, is to embrace white tribalism, white separatism, and especially white Christian masculine rule.

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-milright-is-inevitable.html?m=1

This is necro posting for sure, but I wanted to flesh out your interest in Ryan Holiday’s work. Overall, I feel that he has done a service for Stoicism as a philosophy of life (much like CrossFit has brought P90Xers and joggers to the way of the barbell, but one who’s truly interested in progressing as a Stoic shouldn’t limit themselves to his work.

However, I don’t feel a stoic should stop there. Nancy Sherman’s Stoic Warriors seems particularly up your alley. It’s a wonderful philosophical study of the US military.

Holiday is particularly influenced by Marcus Aurelius, who himself was an acolyte of the stoic great Epictetus. His Enchiridion ( or Handbook) is in the public domain via Librivix in most podcast apps. It’s a great summary of his maxims in 50 minutes. If you’re looking for an in depth study of Mediations, Hardot’s Inner Citadel is hard to beat.

Sinaca’s 124 moral letters are also fantastic and lend themselves to daily study. He is the best writer among the stoicism (Graver and Long’s translation is the best I’ve come across).

Finally, How to Be a Stoic and a Guide to the Good Life are excellent intros written by reputable philosophers.

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Absolutely, if you’re into stoicism then you can definitely dig a lot deeper than Holiday.

Don’t get no deeper than Zeno of Citium booooiiiiiiiiii

I’ll show myself out…

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Don’t forget Cleanthes and Chrysippus! I kid.

I do find it tragic that many major philosophical works have been lost to history or only remain in fragments. The Stoic corpus is relatively light on primary sources and contemporary secondary sources. I read recently that Augustine (an intellectual giant in the early Christian church that immensely impacted the religion’s philosophic development) was converted to philosophy and platonisism by one of Circero’s lost works. What an outsized impact on the history of the West.

Apologies if I came across as condescending (The scotch was flowing as I relished Bama’s defeat last night). I just wanted to share some additional works you might be interested in. Stoicism is a very interesting topic and one I think a lot of lifters here could get behind. There are a lot of parallels and mutual benefits between training the body and the soul.

Not just the philosophical work. The missing volumes of Livy would be invaluable, but alas, appear to be no more.

You’re absolutely correct! I’ve been wanted to revisit the classic histories lately (Herodotus, Thucydides, etc.). What secondary sources do you prefer for Livy? I’ve only been exposed to Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy.

I’m a bit of a neophyte, to be honest. I merely know from a semester of college how much we gleaned from Livy (practically everything) and have some experience with the translated primary text (penguin edition volumes 1-5)

Edit: Oxford tend to be excellent, but I have not read this yet.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/romes-italian-wars-9780199564859?cc=ie&lang=en&

I have, it really is excellent but make sure to read Livy’s history with awareness of his political bias, much like all great Roman philosophers (Seneca cough cough)

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Came across this in my daily surfing prior to settling in to work. Good read and a tl;dr:

Just b/c someone has authority doesn’t mean you ought to blindly follow everything that comes out of their mouth (this is something I preach to most people almost daily - I’m sure I fall prey to the fallacy from time to time myself).

Not at all, no worries.

I’ve just realized that Vladimir Sorokin’s Day of the Oprichnik has been translated into English. This dystopian satire is a must for those looking to understand Russia.

Moscow, 2028. A cold, snowy morning.

Andrei Danilovich Komiaga is fast asleep. A scream, a moan, and a death rattle slowly pull him out of his drunken stupor—but wait, that’s just his ring tone. And so begins another day in the life of an oprichnik, one of the czar’s most trusted courtiers—and one of the country’s most feared men.

Welcome to the new New Russia, where futuristic technology and the draconian codes of Ivan the Terrible are in perfect synergy. Corporal punishment is back, as is a divine monarch, but these days everyone gets information from high-tech news bubbles, and the elite get high on hallucinogenic, genetically modified fish.

Over the course of one day, Andrei Komiaga will bear witness to—and participate in—brutal executions; extravagant parties; meetings with ballerinas, soothsayers, and even the czarina. He will rape and pillage, and he will be moved to tears by the sweetly sung songs of his homeland. He will consume an arsenal of drugs and denounce threats to his great nation’s morals. And he will fall in love—perhaps even with a number of his colleagues.

For a book written in 2006 it’s remarkably prescient - let’s just say that Sorokin’s actually not-so-far-fetchedly-dystopian Russia is protected by great walls.

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Ordered ‘Extreme Ownership’ By Willinck, meant to ask it before I ordered, ha! Thoughts from those who have read it?

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I enjoyed it … if you like his podcast you’ll like the book … it’s structure is him and Babbit (co-author) lead each chapter with a battlefield example of the characteristic they’re addressing, then follow it up with a real world business example from their consulting business, then kind of a break down of the components.

It’s similar in structure to how Robert Greene structures his books. It’s very applicable to someone looking to understand this leadership concept (Extreme Ownership).

I actually started listening to Dichotomy of Leadership today on the way into work … similar structure to Extreme Ownership.

I’m positive you’ll gain some insight from the book. It’s presented very well and easy to digest the concepts and how they can apply to life in general…

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It’s on my never ending list!

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This is what I’m looking for, for sure, I need to get back into the habit of reading, want to read something that isn’t ‘pointless’ and hell, maybe I’ll start reading it to the girls for their bedtime story :joy:

Willink has written a couple books that deal with discipline, etc, for young kids called Way of the Warrior Kid if you want to present something for your kids.

I listen to his Ask Uncle Jake podcast from time to time … from what I’ve gleaned, his advice is age appropriate so no graphic battlefield stories haha

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Ya, I’m getting the dragon one as an Easter present for the boys.