Stoic Prison Gangs
Tomorrow’s events:
Stoic Breath w/ Steve Beattie. Every Wednesday @ 7:00 AM ET. RSVP here.
Emotional Effector Patterns w/ Laura Bond. November 4th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Social Design Club w/ Freyja and Joe Edelman. Every Wednesday @ 1:30 PM ET. RSVP here. Join the club here. 90 mins.
The Narratives Project w/ Shaun Cammack. November 4th @ 8:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Newly posted events:
Shadowplay w/ Arran Rogerson and Alyssa Polizzi. Every Friday @ 6:00 PM ET for the month of November. RSVP here.
Willow Monastic Academy Launch Party! w/ Jasna Seishin Todorović. November 7th @ 1:30 PM ET. RSVP here.
Getting Senseful With the Steward w/ Peter Limberg. November 8th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Applying Improvisation to Make Connections w/ Chris Sams and Paul Z Jackson. November 10th @ 1:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Ontological Design w/ Daniel Fraga and Owen Cox. November 17th @ 2:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Earth Regeneration w/ Luea Ritter and Freya Yost. November 19th @ 10:00 AM ET. RSVP here.
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November 3, 2020
I feel like musing on an idea the daemon gave me a few years ago. The idea was to create Stoic prison gangs.
I was moved watching this documentary called “The Work.” The film was set in Folsom Prison, and men from outside the prison had an opportunity to visit the prisoners, and engage in group therapy with them. It was intense. The documentary gave us an opportunity to hear, and more importantly feel, the issues and pains that come with being an "unfree man.”
I am listening to Johnny Cash at the moment, and of course I am listening to the album where he played at Folsom Prison. I was always touched by the fact that Cash went there, and how he put a show on for those unfree men. What a sweet badass that man was.
When running the Stoic group here in Toronto, the thought of starting a men’s support group for prison inmates did cross my mind. Jeff Traylor did something like this in Ohio, and wrote a book about his experience called The Epictetus Club: Lessons from the Walls.
I would like to develop a Stoic modality that would not only help reduce recidivism, but also heal trauma in these men, and ultimately teach them virtue. I am too Christian to give up on these men, and I do not like how society has given up on them, despite the fact some did do terrible things. I believe in redemption, and besides, it is not strategic to throw away all that potential.
Those who have the “storm in their blood” do have a lot of potential.
Imagine prisons all over the world having programs that give men the opportunity to view their penitentiary as a monastery that builds virtue, and gives them the opportunity to practice their Stoicism. I am crazy enough to see the following come true: Stoic prison gangs all over the world, supporting the transmutation of stormy blood into virtuous thumos.
The world needs good men, and maybe for us to get good men we need to give bad men a second chance.
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