Sometimes it can feel like you’re surrounded by small-minded idiots. Especially when you’re trying to do something new, important, or good. All of a sudden, you’re dealing with insane red tape, incompetence, or worse, vehement protest from people who plain don’t know what they’re talking about. 

We can feel this in the course of ordinary life too. Certainly Marcus Aurelius did. He opens Book Two of Meditations with a pretty accurate picture of people: They’re surly, aggressive, dishonest, mean, pedantic, stupid… and they constantly get in the way of people (us) who are not those things.

Put together, it’s enough to make us nod our heads to that famous Jonathan Swift quote: “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”

Except this is not a very Stoic or productive way to live. Because it makes it other people’s fault. Even Marcus realized that. For all the negativity in that first quote, what he really believed and tried to live by was this idea: “Blame yourself or no one.”

Instead of getting angry at other people’s poor execution, focus on the deficiencies in your instruction. Instead of resenting their protest, examine whether you’ve been persuasive enough. Don’t get mad about red tape—think about all the bad ideas this process actually has helped stop. Be forgiving of other people’s stupidity or rudeness—because you’ve been plenty guilty of it yourself at one time or another. 

The world is not conspiring against us. It is not filled with dunces. If anything, we are the dunces for not focusing our energy on the only things that matter: Our decisions, our attitudes, our actions.

P.S. This was originally sent on February 9, 2021. Sign up today for the Daily Stoic’s email and get our popular free 7-day course on Stoicism.