On the Daily Stoic website, for $30, you can purchase a handcrafted “Memento Mori” medallion. Etched with a skull, an hourglass, and a tulip. A tangible reminder of Marcus Aurelius’s: “You could leave life right now.” Buy the full 8-coin set and save $52. Or perhaps you’d prefer the matching signet ring.
We didn’t revive Stoicism. We just gave it Botox and a business plan. What began as a discipline of judgment, desire, and action is now a polished metal token. This is not a philosophy. This is a commodity fetishism.
What was Stoicism?
Long before Stoicism became a self-help porn, it was a way of life. Founded by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd century BCE as a practical philosophy in response to the personal uncertainty and political instability of the ancient Roman Empire.
Only fragments survived through the three main representatives:
Epictetus, a former slave, whose lectures were recorded by his student Arrian in the Discourses and Enchiridion.
Seneca, a Roman statesman, playwright, and advisor to Emperor Nero, who wrote numerous essays and letters to his friends and family.
Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor who captured his spiritual exercises in the form of personal notes (hypomnemata) to remember and assimilate the fundamental Stoic dogmas into his life. Never intended for publication.
Their works revolved around three main disciplines:
Assent: To critically examine and accept only those impressions that are objective and true. To guard our inner rational “citadel” from false or distorted judgments.
Desire: To align our will with universal Nature. To desire only what is within our control. To embrace all events as necessary parts of a greater cosmic order.
Action: To act justly and selflessly in service to the human community. To perform our duties with integrity.
Stoicism wasn’t inspirational; it was confrontational.
How Marcus Became a Life Coach
His private notes are now everywhere. The transformation of Marcus Aurelius from philosopher-emperor to Instagram motivator selling online courses and merch, reveals the mechanics of philosophical appropriation.
His meditations about the difficulty of living virtuously while wielding power became a source of daily inspiration for entrepreneurs seeking power.
“You have power over your mind—not outside events.” - Dominate your habits to dominate the market.
Social media algorithms favored this content perfectly: short, quotable wisdom from a historical figure.
Marcus Aurelius became a mascot. His marble bust appears on book covers, YouTube thumbnails, and motivational social media posts.
He is no longer the philosopher king trying to live virtuously, but the face of your morning routine feed, trying to sell you the course Wealthy Stoic: a daily stoic guide to being rich, free, and happy.
Now discounted to only $99.00.
He is also excited to announce that:
By the end of this course, you will have a deep understanding of the philosophy of Stoicism and how it can be applied to your financial success ($99.00).
There is finally a way to solidify the lessons of Stoicism by purchasing a signed copy of a daily journal with ethically sourced full-grain genuine leather to protect it from wear and tear ($59.00).
An easy way to keep the important thought of “memento mori” in mind is to buy a Medallion inspired by the Roman emperor himself ($30.00).
It’s not that Stoicism isn’t useful to modern life, but modern life repurposed it to gain profit.
What’s worse, we don’t see this as a complete misunderstanding of ancient philosophy, but as an entrepreneurial genius of Ryan Holiday.
He found a niche and owned it. He took his marketing know-how and shoved as many products as possible down our throats. And we loved it.
The Simulation of Reflection
What is so attractive about this self-help porn? Why does this niche of Stoicism work so well?
I think it sells us a feeling of someone who might be a Stoic.
Someone who studied ancient philosophy deeply and found wisdom that he practices every day. Someone who has figured life out and now focuses deeply on his purpose.
But that is not us, right?
What we actually do is journal in high-quality leather-bound template journals with fancy pens. We perform mental health rather than engage with it. We aren’t practicing philosophy, but cosplaying it. And we feel better for it.
However, Stoicism was never about feeling better. It was about acting justly and selflessly in service to the human community. But feeling better is the product we want to buy.
The supplement that sustains our disconnection from real Stoicism - wisdom, temperance, justice, and courage. Not to prepare us to face death, but to distract us from life.
Why We Choose the Imitation
What if this popularity reveals less about the ancient wisdom and more about our current despair?
We live in an age of anxiety where every interaction is optimized, every moment monetized, every relationship commodified. Traditional sources of meaning like religion, community, family, and craft have been systematically weakened by consumerism.
Into this void steps commodified Stoicism, offering something irresistible: the aesthetic of wisdom without its demands. It flatters our existing values rather than challenging them, promising that we can remain ambitious while becoming “wise."
Why do we prefer this imitation to authentic practice? Because real philosophy requires confronting uncomfortable truths about our lifestyle choices, career priorities, and fundamental assumptions about success.
Commodified philosophy, by contrast, must remain comfortable enough to sell. It can challenge us to wake up earlier or maintain better habits, but it cannot question whether our entire system is designed to make authentic human flourishing nearly impossible.
We cling to ancient quotes on our feeds because we can't stand the noise of modern content creators and the stupidity of the self-help industry.
Stoicism works not because it frees us, but because it flatters our desire to be free while keeping us safely imprisoned in the same patterns that created our dissatisfaction.
On the Second Death of Stoicism
Stoicism died twice. The first death was historical. The ancient Rome fell, and philosophical schools dissolved.
The second was ideological. We thought we resurrected it, but we recreated it as its opposite.
It now lives only in form, not content. An ugly wax figure of Marcus Aurelius in a cheap tourist-trap museum of self-optimization.
This second death is more complete than the first. Ideological inversion corrupted the source material itself, making authentic recovery more difficult.
What does this reveal about us?
It’s important to remember that stoicism didn’t fail us. We failed stoicism.
We were desperate for wisdom, but allergic to pain. We didn’t want to transform; we wanted the illusion of transformation. We didn’t fear death; we feared inconvenience. We wanted to buy symbols and promises instead of facing reality. Stoicism was just a convenient vehicle.
The New Grindset Gospel
What’s worse, the vehicle that was borrowed by the self-help industry got stolen by Hustle culture. And it didn't just steal Stoicism, it weaponized it. The ancient quotes were ripped out of their context and used for precisely opposite purposes
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” - Own less so you can invest more.
“He is most powerful who has power over himself.” - Dominate your habits to dominate the market.
“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.” - Surround yourself with winners.
Stoicism was stripped of its moral essence and reengineered as the grindset gospel. It started innocently. Original quotes were examined through business success stories. That quickly turned into a prosperity cult promising better ROI through detachment.
Hustle Culture turned Stoic philosophy into an aestheticized weapon, fueling ambition while pretending to tame it.
The irony is profound: people joined Stoicism to find meaning beyond the daily grind, only to be encouraged to grind harder. Hustle culture didn't misunderstand Stoicism. It deliberately inverted it, using the authority of ancient wisdom to justify the desire for profit.
This was precisely the last nail in the coffin of Modern Stoicism.
Rediscovering Authentic Practice
Don’t reject Stoicism, because Instagram got to it first. You can ignore curated insights. Ancient texts are still here, uncorrupted by their commercial interpretations.
The three disciplines still work, but only if practiced seriously:
Question each impression before you believe it.
Desire only what depends on you.
Act with justice to serve others, but let go of the recognition and outcome.
This isn't content to consume but practice to undertake. It's not about feeling better but about living better.
Start by reading primary sources: Epictetus's Discourses, Seneca's letters, and Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. The new translations are quite enjoyable to read.
Conclusion
Marcus Aurelius never intended to become a life coach. His private struggles with virtue and power were never meant to optimize your morning routine.
The second death of Stoicism is our responsibility, and so is its potential resurrection.
The choice remains: we can continue purchasing symbols of wisdom, or we can undertake the difficult work of living the wisdom. Original philosophy offers profound resources for human flourishing, but only if we're willing to practice it rather than perform it.
If you want it, it’s yours. But it may ask of you more than buying a medallion.
My husband has this medallion and keeps it in his pocket everyday 🤣. Great post. I had some of these feelings about Stoicism being way too commercialized. I always thought it was kind of a spinoff from Buddhism as well.
Not sure I have ever read something on this platform that has resonated more. A nice affirmation that I'm not crazy.
When I found myself, by accident, immersed in 'startup', self-help, woke-spiritual and content creator cultures, I was exposed to the sentiment you're talking about. The sentiment goes far beyond the false impression of Marcus Aurelius that has circulated online today, but you could not pick a more perfect figurehead, and victim, of our generation's need to whitewash flawed social values with symbols of purity... being philosophy, self-help, personal development, spirituality, etc.
You have also correctly exposed the flawed modern gurus who essentially manipulate, knowingly-or-unknowingly, these symbols of purity and positivity, for purpose of career gain, of establishing their own thought-leadership, status and position of influence. In a way, they have exposed people to these philosophies and enabled them to stumble upon their original text, but in the least efficient way possible-- by constant obfuscation and defiance of the core of these messages.
Marcus Aurelius' notes were never to be published. Modern content-creators and entrepreneurship leaders use these notes on their journey to find attention.
I hope this piece is preserved. It speaks directly to one of the most profound forms of fakeness of our time. I am sure I will personally return to it many times in the future, given it exposes a sub-culture I find most sinister.
Well Done.