-Definition Essay- Stoicism: Choice from Indifference

People say that your emotion could be the most powerful weapon to harm others, and it could be the most harmful weapon to yourself at the same time. Over centuries, any religions have taught and teach to control this weapon for peaceful life for everybody. Buddhism can be an example of these religions since the point of the teaching of Buddhism on freedom from emotion for eternal happiness. Like believer of religions, non- believers teach other to control it. Some of them say we have to be indifferent to emotion, stoicism for peaceful life, and they also say it is a simple way to live peacefully. Even it is and simple way, people do not know how to do it and even do not know the word stoicism. We can get the information of what stoicism is by origination of the word, an example from movie, and comparison with an animal.
Some people may ask, “Where did the word stoicism come from?” The origination of the word might help to those people who have question to understand what stoicism. So first, let us look at the origination of the word stoicism. This word originated from one of philosophies, which was popular during the time of Rome. The name of this philosophy is stoicism. The teachers of philosophy taught, “That self-control, fortitude and detachment from distracting emotions, sometimes interpreted as an indifference to pleasure or pain, allows one to become a clear thinker, level-headed and unbiased,” from Wikipedia. Nevertheless, as time passed, the definition of stoicism ended up as “stoical behavior,” the state of being indifferent to emotion. The word stoicism has come to the word as it passed trough this course.
Second, looking at stoics’ behavior might help people to understand what stoicism is; but nowadays, many people are stoics, so we cannot see how stoics behave. Nevertheless, we can see it in the movie Equilibrium. The Third World War has occurred in this movie, and the war has made the lands barren. Survived people started to find the reason why the war happened; they concluded that the emotion such as desire causes antagonism between groups and countries and this led to the a war. With their conclusion, people started to find ways to control their emotion and have created the pill called ‘equilibrium.’ This pill has power to make people to be stoics. In the movie, people seem to be like robots. They do not talk to each other during work because they are indifferent to loneliness and boredom, they do not fight because they are indifferent to anger, and they do not smile because they are indifferent to joy. They have not concern with their environments but only participate in their work.
Last, comparison between stoics and an animal can be of another help. Stoics are like a goldfish in a basin. Many people will ask why stoics are like a goldfish, but they are similar in many ways. If you look at a goldfish in a basin, it probably swims around freely. It makes its own way without any restrictions; nothing can takes away freedom of choice from a goldfish. At the same time it does not restrict others freedom or choices. It is just has peaceful life. Stoics make their own way too. They pursue the best choice for them and others, so they do not allow their emotion to affect their choices. With the choices they made, they do not interrupt others’ work and do not restricts their freedom. Both a goldfish and stoics make choices that does not affect to the others.
As we looked through origination, example, and comparison of the word stoicism, we could see the behavior of stoics and the true meaning of stoicism. In the movie and comparison with a goldfish, we can see the behavior of stoics, which lead to the real meaning of stoicism. Stoics are indifferent to their emotions and make choices that is good for both others and themselves, so they never interrupt others. Moreover, the origination of the word, we can know that stoicism is “stoical behavior.” At this point, we can conclude that stoicism as the state of being indifferent to emotions to make choices, which is good for everybody. Nevertheless, being stoicism can make you as a robot, which lives without heart. Whatever you choose to be stoicism or not will make you up indeed.