The Moral Leader

1
The Moral Leader

• Stockdale and Stoic Philosophy

2
The Prisoners Dilemma

• We speak of this as a game we play to
  understand politics and international relations
• For CDR James Stockdale, who studied
  international relations at Stanford, it ceased to
  be a game on 9 September 1965
• Parachuting from his damaged A-4 over North
  Vietnam, he recalls thinking I am leaving the
  World of Technology, and entering the World of
  Epictetus

3
Why Study Stockdale

• VADM Stockdale is justifiably famous for his
  heroic conduct while spending eight years as a
  POW in North Vietnam (four years in solitary
  confinement)
• But we are not prisoners?
• We are not training future officers primarily for
  such an ordeal
• What can we learn from a prisoner?

4
The World of Epictetus

• Vivere militare to live is to be a warrior
• But Epictetus himself was (for a large portion of
  his life) a slave
• Marcus Aurelius, a soldier and emperor
• Cicero statesman, orator, defender of the
  Republic, proponent of natural law
• Paul of Tarsus, a theologian and prisoner for
  Christ
• Soin what sense for these, or for us, is life
  like being a warrior??

5
Epictetus on Life as a Warrior (I)

• Do you not know that life is a soldiers
  service? One must keep guard, another go out to
  reconnoiter, another take the field. If you
  neglect your responsibilities when some severe
  order is laid upon you, do you not understand
  into what a pitiful state you bring the army?
  The Discourses

6
Epictetus on Life as a Warrior (II)

• When the Ship is at anchor, if you go on shore
  to amuse yourself, your thought ought to be bent
  toward the ship and perpetually attentive, lest
  the captain should call, and then you must leave
  all these things, that you may not have to be
  carried on board the vessel, bound like a
  sheepIf the captain calls, run to the ship,
  leave all these things, and never look behind.
  Enchiridion VII

7
Stockdales take-away

• Epictetus compared philosophy lectures to a
  hospital, where one learned the meaning of pain
• Stockdale responded If Epictetuss lecture room
  was a hospital, my prison was a laboratory a
  laboratory of human behavior. I chose to test his
  postulates against the demanding real-life
  challenges of my laboratory.

8
Stoicisms Prison-analogy (I)

• Life is not fair. Liberty is infringed, rights
  are not respected
• The common good is sacrificed to greed,
  selfishness, incompetence and corruption which
  breed cynicism (and sometimes despair)
• Virtue is forgotten duty is neglected
• The laws seem unjust and ridiculous the rules
  that govern the world are inappropriate and
  arbitrary sole purpose is to make your lives
  miserable

9
Stoicisms Prison-analogy (II)

• There is no clear connection between merit,
  performance, and reward
• Good person may work hard, have exceptional
  abilities, do his/her duty, accomplish much, but
  be ignored, passed over, even humiliated or
  punished
• Others may defy rules, shirk their duty, do as
  little as possible, be totally devoid of
  character, but yet be recognized and rewarded
  (Punks War, CDR Ward Mooch Carroll)

10
Stoicisms Prison-analogy (III)

• Those who make the rules, hand out rewards and
  punishments, may seem more like enemies than
  friends, accusers rather than mentors, like
  jailors, rather than teachers
• The world of Epictetus is a world in which
  there are arbitrary restrictions, no freedoms, no
  clear relationship between cause and effect, no
  clear rhyme or reason the way of things
• Idiocy, punctuated by cruelty

11
Stockdales Challenge

• Sowhat are you going to do about it?
• Wallow in self pity?
• Sell out? (Prison finks)
• Isolate yourself? Sink into Cynicism?
• Orstruggle to maintain your dignity and build a
  community of loyalty and devotion to duty?

12
The Doctrines of Epictetus

• There are things that are in our power, subject
  to our control our attitudes, opinions, aims,
  desires our character
• There are other things, important things, that
  affect us, but over which we have no control at
  all our body, our property, our reputation, how
  the world works, what others think
• Stoic ataraxia the business of the warrior is
  to learn the difference, do our duty and accept
  with equanimity those things that are beyond our
  power

13
The Sayings of Epictetus (I)

• Men are disturbed not by things, buy by the
  views which they take of thingsDemand not that
  events should happen as you wish, but wish them
  to happen as they do, and you will be well
  (VIII)
• Sickness is an impediment to the body, but not to
  the will, unless the will itself pleases.
  Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to
  the will. Say this to yourself with regard to
  everything that happens. (IX)

14
The Sayings of Epictetus (II)

• Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or
  blows who affronts, but the view we take of these
  things as insulting. When, therefore, anyone
  provokes you, be assured that it is your own
  opinion which provokes you. (XX)
• Let death and exile, and all other things which
  appear terrible, be daily before your eyes, but
  death chiefly, and you will never entertain an
  abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything.
  (XXI)

15
Survival Training

• The Enchiridion was a handbook carried by Roman
  soldiers
• Stockdale, in his West Point lecture, compares
  its teachings to Kant on duty (without regard for
  consequences)
• Gen. Chuck Krulak (USMC, retired) identifies the
  integrity of the Roman soldier (his armor
  without, his character within) as the historical
  legacy of the profession of arms
• What, finally, is this legacy that your
  professional ancestors have bequeathed to you?

16
Conclusion

• Marcus Aurelius, in his Meditations, cites
  Socrates words as summarizing the warriors
  tradition
• in truth, wherever a man has placed himself
  thinking it the best place for him, or has been
  placed by a commander, there in my opinion he
  ought to stay and to abide the hazard, taking
  nothing into the reckoning, either death or
  anything else, before the baseness of deserting
  his post Meditations VII 45
• Not on my watch! It begins with me! Its up
  to me! The world may command or compel the
  outside only I command from within
• In this course, we have been engaged in
  archaeology, working backward through time to
  uncover these foundations upon which your
  profession rests