I am playing with AI and asking interesting questions like this one:
Was the people generally more thoughtful and virtuous with inner peace, back in Athens around year 300 before christ when Stoicism was born.... than they are today in Athens and Copenhagen??
No, people in Athens around 300 BC (when Zeno founded Stoicism) were not generally more thoughtful, virtuous, or at inner peace than people today in Athens or Copenhagen. The Stoics themselves would have answered “no” — and they had clear reasons for it.The Stoics’ own view of human natureThe Stoics (Zeno, Chrysippus, later Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius) believed that most people at any time in history are driven by passions (fear, desire, anger, ambition) and wrong judgments about what is truly good. The majority chase external things — wealth, fame, power, pleasure — that are not up to us. This is exactly like Harald Bluetooth building ring fortresses to demonstrate power, or people today chasing likes, status, and success on social media.They believed that only the rare wise person (the ideal “sage”) truly lived with virtue and inner tranquility. Even in Athens, where philosophy flourished in the Agora, most citizens were busy with trade, politics, theater, gossip, lawsuits, and daily worries — not deep self-reflection. Stoicism arose precisely as a practical response to the uncertainty and disturbances of the Hellenistic period after Alexander the Great’s death: wars, shifting power, loss of the old city-state feeling, and a more cosmopolitan but unstable world.What life was like in Athens around 300 BCIt was intellectually stimulating: Philosophical schools (the Stoa, Epicurus’ Garden, Plato’s Academy) stood side by side, and people debated in the public space.
But it was also chaotic: Slavery was widespread, women had limited rights, politics was often demagogic, and many lived in poverty or insecurity.
Most people were not calmly Stoic. They sought entertainment, honor, and security — just as people do today.
The Stoics emphasized that human nature is the same across time: We all have the potential for reason and virtue, but most people misuse it and let themselves be ruled by externals. That is why their philosophy was meant as practical training for any era — not because antiquity was “better.”Comparison with today (Athens and Copenhagen)Today we have massive access to Stoic ideas (books, apps, podcasts), better healthcare, more personal freedom for many, and less daily violence than in antiquity. However, we also have new disturbances: constant digital stimulation, social comparison via social media, consumer culture, and political polarization — things that easily awaken the same old passions.The Stoics would say: Human beings have not become worse or better — we simply have new tools to disturb ourselves with. Inner peace does not come automatically from the time period, location, or technology. It comes from daily practice of distinguishing what is up to us (our judgments, effort, and virtue) from what is not (outcomes, other people’s opinions, the state of society).That is exactly why Stoicism remains relevant: It was created in a turbulent time to help ordinary people find tranquility amid chaos. The same challenge exists in Copenhagen in 2026 — only in a different package (work stress, online validation, worry about the future).Connection to you and your work on LasseCashYou have spent 6 years building LasseCash as a space for voluntary debate, inspiration, and freedom ideas. That is a noble project pointing toward justice and voluntary cooperation — closer to Stoic cosmopolitanism than Harald’s power fortresses. But the Stoics would remind you: Whether people become more thoughtful because of it is not primarily up to you. Your role is to act with wisdom, courage, and temperance — and to keep your own inner peace regardless of adoption or recognition.Practical exercise you can use right now:
When you compare antiquity with today (or your project with “success”), ask yourself: “What is my judgment about this? Am I attached to a certain outcome, or am I acting from virtue?” This is the same technique Zeno and his students used in the Agora more than 2,300 years ago.Human nature changes slowly. Stoicism gives us tools to navigate it — then as now. That is precisely why the philosophy survived from Athens to Rome and all the way to us.If you want me to expand on how the Stoics described the mistakes of “most people” (and how to avoid them yourself), or if you would like specific quotes from Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus on this topic, just let me know. Your reflection on history is already a Stoic step forward.
My conclusion: I am beginning to think that Stoicism might be my number one and then after that comes secondly buuilding an AnarchoCapitalistic society which my part in it was creating LasseCash as a platform for debating this and inspiring others via differnt means and writing on LasseCash stored forever on the blockchain, my thoughts and idea and what not!
You heard it here first.
Lasse Ehlers
Posted using LasseCash