It seems silly to read that Cato had practice wearing ratty clothes and walking barefooted and bareheaded. How much courage does that take? To defy convention or people glancing askew?
Well, it turns out, quite a bit.
Look at the backlash that’s going on right now in the United States. People are afraid. Not of the pandemic… but of wearing masks. Because they think they’ll look stupid. Because they don’t want to look different or change how people act around them. Because they think it’ll be inconvenient or uncomfortable. There are some folks on the extreme end of the spectrum who deep down are so afraid of what people will think of them that they’re trying to label the people who do wear masks as “cowards.” Even in the early days of the virus, it’s likely that health and government authorities were reluctant to advise mask use for fear of looking like they were “overreacting” or freaking people out.
Meanwhile, over at The Atlantic, we have the facts:
Models show that if 80 percent of people wear masks that are 60 percent effective, easily achievable with cloth, we can get to an effective R0 of less than one. That’s enough to halt the spread of the disease.
Life presents us with all sorts of dilemmas. Every choice we make has a risk. Ask a question—you can learn or possibly be thought of as dumb. Leave a steady job to start your own venture—you could succeed or you could fail in front of everyone. Speak what you feel is the truth—you could make a difference or you could get yelled at. Take safety precautions—you could protect yourself and your family or you could look foolish.
It would be wonderful if this weren’t the case. If no right behavior ever drew judgement or raised eyebrows. But that’s not how the world works. It was a fact of life in ancient Rome and it’s a fact in the modern world. Which is why you have to cultivate real indifference to what other people say or think. It’s why you have to practice swimming upstream and against reservations—even against your own.
You cannot care what other people think. You have to do what’s right and what’s smart. Wouldn’t you rather be laughed at than dead?
P.S. This was originally sent on July 21, 2020. Sign up today for the Daily Stoic’s email and get our popular free 7-day course on Stoicism.
