Oak Lawn: The Simplest Stoicism

Built from Grant Sterling's Core Stoicism.

Everyone wants happiness. Complete, uninterrupted happiness is both possible and rational to pursue.

The Problem

All unhappiness comes from wanting something and not getting it.

If you desire things outside your control, you will be unhappy. If you desire many things outside your control, complete happiness becomes impossible.

Since complete happiness is possible, desiring things outside your control is irrational.

The Solution

Only your beliefs and will are in your control. Everything else - health, wealth, reputation, others' actions - is external.

Desires come from judgments about good and evil. You want what you judge good, avoid what you judge evil.

Since desires come from judgments, and judgments are in your control, desires are in your control.

Therefore: Stop desiring externals. It's irrational because it's based on false judgment.

Only virtue is actually good. Only vice is actually evil.

Since virtue and vice are acts of will, they're in your control. Everything not in your control is neither good nor evil.

If you value only virtue, you will both judge truly and be immune to unhappiness.

The Positive Side

When you desire virtue and achieve it, you get positive feelings.

Plus you can enjoy:

- Simple pleasures (food, sunsets) without needing them to continue

- The world as it is, recognizing everything unfolds exactly as it should

This gives continuous positive experience every waking moment.

How to Act

To act, you must aim at something. But there's a crucial difference between two types of pursuit:

Pursuing objects of desire = wanting externals (health, wealth, reputation) because you judge them good/bad. This creates attachment to outcomes and guarantees eventual unhappiness.

Pursuing appropriate objects of aim = working toward suitable things (health, knowledge, justice, truth-telling) without judging them truly good. You pursue them because they're fitting and proper, not because you desire them.

Virtue = rationally pursuing appropriate aims without desire for the outcome.

Since you have no desires regarding results (they're externals), you can never be disappointed. Since you're acting rationally toward fitting goals, you're being virtuous. This gives you good feelings while avoiding all unhappiness.

The Complete System

Someone who judges truly will:

- Never be unhappy

- Experience continuous positive feelings  

- Always act virtuously

This is perfect happiness, and it's entirely in your control through correct judgment.

Oak Lawn: Complete happiness through simple truth.