Stoicism

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It’s all about Stoicism Stōĭc a & n. (Person) having great self-control, fortitude or austerity; (S~) (typical of) Philosopher of ancient Greek school of noted for those qualities and emphasising virtue and ethics.™ OED Whilst trying to avoid being a miserable person. For me, one of the definitions of stoic is the noble yet irrevocably futile attempt to not be horribly dragged down by that most British of sentiments that is bitter, seething class-based resentment. Given that we live in unstable times it’s something that you’ll hit going up or going down on the socio-economic scale.  It could also be something that you experience on Monday morning when you pack your teddy bear and pictures of the baby into a storage box as a security guard who looks like the dictionary definition of sheepish escorts you from the premises, closely followed by the start of your next job that’s a bit shit – that you’ve taken to pay the mortgage. You know that you don’t have ideas above your station, but you’re fucked if you can convince anyone else of the fact. It’s a fact that moving down over can disconcert people, and which can land a person in terrible schtuck with those you end up working with.  Cleverness is anathema to a lot of people on this sceptred isle so if you aren’t spending most of your life editing everything that you utter, the people that you spend most of your time are a true gift. Where does this anti-intellectualism spring from, is it one source in society or is a systemic thing? I’d really like to know why.