The original Stoics, and those made popular by their works such as Zeno, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius could have never dreamt of the speed of information sharing in the modern age of social media. They did, however, have a set of profound mechanisms to help guide themselves and others in their pursuit of the core tenets of Stoicism, which are also known as the Stoic Virtues: Wisdom, Courage, Justice and Temperance. All are interconnected in various ways, and like your average chair, are required to hold a person upright. With even one being left without consideration or maintenance will eventually lead to the fall of the whole. There is no complexity in the goal of the virtues of Stoicism, even in their modern manifestation, simply to apply reason, logic, and objectivity against reality, and develop self mastery while maintaining the social order of things. Not exactly rocket science, but also not a hill easily overcome.

Political violence is a primitive concept which has been around since the dawn of public discourse of ideas. As intelligent as mankind is, as are we violent. The absolutely base level of primitive violence centers around hurting those we do not agree with. This may feel natural, and for the majority of mankind’s history it was the way of things, a natural order. Vengeance may seem as a natural response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, but you must take a step back, and ask yourself a very important question. “What is reasonable?”

Justice is Rational Order while Vengeance is Emotional

The very last thing an intelligent, rational, and self aware person will ever do is have an immediate knee-jerk reaction to any emotion. To immediately act while under the influence of adrenaline from sad or upsetting news is to surrender to anatomy. To act while in an emotional state is tantamount to a juvenile temper tantrum, which will rarely yield positive results. Taking action while under the control of the vengeance emotion may feel empowering but you have given yourself to yet another powerful emotion, passion, which is a fickle master. These reactions will facilitate further chemical responses inside of you while the epinephrine rewards you with repeated internalized emotional fuel. Allowing vengeance to consume you, or dictate your actions, is the same as taking a direct order from the perpetrator of the catalyst action. Are you willing to be an emotional slave to the evil actions of another?

“Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.” (De Ira, II.31) Seneca

To act justly, is to accept the natural order of the universe, and to seek justice is to regulate your own actions. If vengeance mirrors irrationality, then justice is the harmony of reason. To seek justice is to seek Logos, which is often referred to as reason, or rationality. In the stoic lexicon, it has the modern interpretation of fundamental building blocks of the natural order of reality, including reason, and human nature as it aligns with the concept of virtue. To seek rational justice, grounded in reality is to be at one with your true self, without giving into your emotions of passion.

This can manifest in your daily life as not responding to a negative post on social media, or looking to blame others for the events. Grounding yourself in rational thought first, and delaying acting while under the chemical load of emotion may be difficult, but it is that necessity which further develops your personal ability to withstand difficult times.

Separation of Control – The Stoic Application Model

We, as a society, cannot control the assassin, or assassinations. We do, however, control if the institutions we are a part of lean towards mob justice or maintain lawful order internally. Ground yourself in the proper application of punishment and how that applies within your sphere of control. Accept that some things are not within your control, and will never be. The emotional actions of others, and the chaos of passions are beyond your ability to overcome rationally. You must focus on your positions, your thoughts, and your actions.

“Some things are up to us and some are not.” (Enchiridion, 1) Epictetus

There will always be a faction of the political discourse which this will allow themselves to be fueled by emotion, and that will ultimately confuse the scope of their control. This is a recipe for complete failure, as their ambitions become impossible to achieve because they have departed from rational thought, and allowed emotion to blind them to reality.

In terms of politics, there are many degrees to each side of the political “horseshoe” and the political actors, or your own political opinions, must be supported by truth, and cultivated through logic of the natural order of things. Otherwise, you may find yourself on a mountain without any possibility of crossing peaks.

Vengeance Weakens Institutions

An institution, for the purposes of Stoic dialectic is very much like the human body. They decay rapidly when passions are left unchecked. When the internal process is bypassed through emotion based vengeance, the overall legitimacy of that institution is undermined. A society which calls for equal retribution will inevitably revert to tribality and gang-like vendettas. No institution can survive this raw emotional exposure.

“Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues; injustice the foulest of vices.” (De Officiis, I.7) Cicero, while channeling stoic thought

As citizens of the greatest country in all of history we must accept that there will be justice, by the law which we have allowed ourselves to be governed under through the processes from which the Constitution provides. If vengeance dominates this moment in time, in history, citizens will stop believing in the due process of law, and that will directly erode the trust which we must have in order to sustain the American institutions which have existed before us, and will exist after we are all gone.

Every act of vengeance, as is the act of assassination of any political actor, is a simultaneous act against the Republic itself. This American way of life is not to mirror the mob, as it did during the early 2020’s. As rational citizens of this Republic we must not give into emotional responses and calls for vengeance, rather, strengthen the core of American resolve through logically rational discourse, and maintain focus on the voice that was silenced for the great crime of providing moderate conversations and peaceful debates.

Justice Preserves Order

In Stoic thought, we are all citizens of the universal city of reason, as such Justice then is a natural alignment to absolute order of reality. Since this occurred in Utah and the beehive is a deeply significant symbol of that state’s “Industry” motto, which represents hard work, unity, and cooperation between people, as too should the stoic concept of Justice become.

“That which is not good for the bee, cannot be good for the hive.” (Meditations, VI.54) Marcus Aurelius

Rational Justice preserves the hive, while emotion vengeance splinters it. Order is not just stability, it is the germination of reason across the whole. Adhering to the principles of due process after emotionally shocking violence is to demonstrate that order will always overcome passion, and emotionally laced mob rule.

Setting a precedent now, in this emotionally charged moment is the proper course of conduct, as justice will always exist and take an expected time honored form of process. While vengeance may burn down a city, or condemn innocents to suffering, it also destroys the possibility of peace during the next assassination. We expect cities to burn, and lawsuits to fly, but when the shoe is on the other foot, the objective must be rooted in justice and the American way.

Honor is in Restraint

The absolutely most difficult axiom within the Stoic conceptual archetype is the insight that restraint is not weakness but the highest form of strength, in the face of vengeance’s gravity. To seek retaliation is to succumb to the terms of your enemy’s actions. Seneca explained that anger is to allowing a “temporary insanity” to control you, and in this concept allowing an assassin’s action to facilitate unrestrained reprisals against others can be defined as insanity.

“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” (Meditations, VI.6) Marcus Aurelius

We must show that true power lies in restraining of actions after such a significant event. Restraint is not just a power move, it is morality on display, through not allowing yourself to be overcome by emotions of vengeance. Applied properly the political move is to let the processes work themselves out as they naturally would. This allows those in positions of power, as you are with your emotions, to hold onto legitimacy, as no mere emotional event can push unnecessary action.

American politics often requires someone to do something, as fast as possible. That did not work after the Dunblane school massacre in 1996, it did not work during the 1994-2004 Federal Assault Weapon’s Ban, and it will surely not work now. Just as the rioting and looting of 2014, then the upgraded mob violence version of 2020, did not do anything of substance for the nation, as an emotional response will not work here, in this moment of national pain now.

The Stoic View

In the days, and weeks, after a national tragedy stemming from political violence we must focus on what preserves order for the next generation as well as the foreseeable future. Stoicism as a working application of theory to your daily life destroys emotional responses that would enslave a person to vengeance, while developing the confidence to maintain the moral high ground of justice. Always seek to remove emotional responses out of the decisions which may have lifelong, if not generational, consequences and restrain yourself where a weaker person would not have. True virtue is cultivated by actions grounded in honor and restraint is the special additive to that formula.