Cato was the kind of person you could trust with the job of cleaning up the notoriously corrupt province of Cyprus. Rutilius Rufus was that kind of person, too. It's why they ultimately framed him on corruption charges—he was getting in the way of the looting. And Marcus Aurelius was that kind of person. It's why he was never 'stained purple' or 'Caesarified' by power. He was a man of integrity, who had rules that he followed that were far stricter than whatever the law allowed.
Harry Truman is the modern model for this ideal. He's the main character in part one of Right Thing, Right Now (which hopefully you will preorder…right now). "If it's not right, do not do it," Truman underlined in his well-worn copy of Meditations, "if it is not true, do not say it. . . . First do nothing thoughtlessly or without a purpose. Secondly, see that your acts are directed to a social end."
Even though Truman often desperately needed money, even though politics was incredibly corrupt at that time, even though he came up through the Kansas City political machine, he tried to follow Marcus's teachings. "I was taught that the expenditure of public money is a public trust," he explained, "and I have never changed my opinion on that subject. No one has ever received any public money for which I was responsible unless he gave honest service for it." Politicians around him grew rich, but Truman's clothing business failed. He was punctilious about paying back every penny he owed. He refused special compensation for his family when their farm was affected by a road he oversaw. As president, he refused to 'frank'—-get free postage—on letters he sent to his sister because they were personal and not professional.
"In all this long career, I had certain rules I followed, win, lose or draw," Truman explained. "I refused to handle any political money in any way whatsoever. I engaged in no private interest whatsoever that could be helped by local, state or national governments. I refused presents, hotel accommodations or trips which were paid for by private parties . . . I made no speeches for money or expenses while I was in the Senate. I lived on the salary I was legally entitled to and considered that I was employed by the taxpayers, and the people of my country, state and nation."
When the Stoics talk about justice, this is what they're talking about. Of course, they also care about improving the world, they cared about big picture issues, but as always, they wanted us to focus on what we control. And what is that? Ourselves. Truman didn't control the times he lived in. He didn't control the decay and corruption of his time. Neither did Marcus or Rutilius or Cato. But they did control whether they were the exception to that rule. They controlled whether they stood out, whether they were a small light in the darkness.
We have that same power today. We can be good. We can be honest. We can be decent. We can live and act with justice.
Right Thing, Right Now—available to preorder right now—is not a series of political statements or admonishments about all this is wrong with the world today, but a book about practical strategies about how to be a better person from guys like Truman. How to be more honest and kind to those around you. How to be your own referee in the game of life.
If you've gotten anything out of these emails over the years, it would mean a lot if you supported this book. We have some exciting bonuses if you preorder the book, including a signed page from the original manuscript (full of Ryan's handwritten changes) and a special welcome video from Ryan explaining how writing the book changed him as a writer, plus a preview of his next book on wisdom.
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