Written by Peter Weilnböck
Published on: 2023-03-02
A short comparison of Yolo with facets of Stoicism
I never understood the philosophy of “yolo” in the short time it seemed to be popular. Yes, you only live once. So maybe don’t wreck your body or your life?
But for some time now I have been interested in stoicism. And for almost as long, I have sat on a (at least to me) funny observation. The stoics also follow yolo.
Well kind of.
Similar inspiration at least, but rather different conclusions.
One very common stoic meditation is “memento mori” - “remember death”. The common interpretation of this idea seems to be, that you should keep in mind, that your life is short and that you might die tomorrow.
However, the conclusion is not, that you should try out everything and not care too much. But rather the opposite. If you die tomorrow, can you look back on a live well lived? Can you be proud of you principles and how you chose to live them? Or did you put off your principles until a later point in time that never came?
Memento Mori forces you to truly consider what you want from your life. What really is important to you, and how you want to be remembered. And who should remember you. This is not about fame, but about who you are. And how to be the version of yourself that you truly want to be.
It s a rather difficult philosophy to follow, because it is so practical. You do not just study stoicism, but you live it. And you do not have time to put this off. If you want to be a stoic, you better start now, because there might not be a tomorrow. Memento Mori.
It seems morbid at first, but the more you think about it, the more it puts things into perspective. What is truly important to you. This as it turns out is often surprisingly hard to answer. Often people try to answer this with what they assume they should want, which is just a shortcut that is far less likely to yield the best result in the long run.
In contrast, yolo seems to have only one real goal: to have as many experiences as possible. Which, on its own is fine, but in comparison seems bit shallow.
I for my part try to follow the stoic “Memento Mori”, but I am very much at the beginning of grasping what this truly means.
Somehow I would like to expand upon how being “stoic” in the colloquial use is something quite different from being a stoic (or trying to be one), but I think this really no longer fits my chosen title of “Philosophy - Yolo”, so it has to wait for further exploration of philosophies and their principles.