“Right Things, Right Now: Good Values, Good Character, Good Deeds” by Ryan Holiday
This is the third book out of the four-part Stoic virtue series of Courage, Discipline, Justice, and Wisdom.
In this neatly organized book, the author, Ryan Holiday, breaks down the trait of justice into several chapters with the following themes: keep your words, tell the truth, take responsibility, be your own referee, be good and not great, be an open book or transparent, be decent, do your job, keep your hands clean, integrity is everything, realize your potential, be loyal, choose a north star (something to reach towards), the importance of timing, the importance of being kind, see how the other half lives, you have to help, start small, create alliances, be powerful and sometimes show power, practice pragmatism, develop competence, the importance of giving, grow a coaching tree, look out for the little guy, make good trouble, climb your second mountain (second act in life), don’t do things for the recognition, give them hope, be an angel, on forgiveness, make amends, the great oneness, expand the circle, find the good in everyone, give the full measure of devotion, love wins, and pay it forward.
As usual for his writing style, Holiday uses plenty historical examples to make his excellent points, from political figures as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Mahatma Gandhi; to writers and poets like Walker Percy, Hesiod; sportsperson like golfer Patrick Reed, runners Abel Kiprop Mutai and Ivan Fernandez Anaya, tennis player Arthur Ashe; whistleblower like Frank Serpico and Cynthia Cooper; dancer Martha Graham; architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller; to many more historical figures such as Mother Teresa, Carl Jung, Ponticus, Florence Nightingale; and of course the usual Stoic heroes Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Chrysippus, Cato, and others.
This time around, however, the book feels too repetitive, rushed, and while he mentions a lot of historical figures Holiday only uses the same selection of US-centric historical examples for his core arguments. Most notably Harry Truman, who is mentioned almost in every single chapter of the book, even more so than the Stoics, and so much so that the book could become a semi-autobiography of him.
And what’s with the extra effort to portray Truman as a near-saint figure? The truth is, Truman remains the only world leader in history that decided to use atomic bomb to inflict mass casualties on the enemy’s population. He is also responsible for “curbing” the spread of communism in Greece and Turkey, or in an unfiltered words, he’s staged a war in Europe to kill the organic spread of an ideology that happens to oppose US interests. But of course these huge chunk of Truman’s history are not mentioned in the book.
Moreover, throughout the book Truman is characterized as a principled man who champions justice, honesty, and selflessness, among others, which are undoubtedly true. But there’s also another side of the man, one that made a controversial decision based on the lobbying by a close friend Jacobson, which turned him into an accomplice to a brutal neo-colonial project. But in the book, it got brushed off under the label of “loyalty” to a friend. Also not mentioned in the book is Truman’s racist tendencies, where he often used racial slurs, told racist jokes, and called Martin Luther King Jr. a troublemaker. Pretty ironic since the Civil War movement is the second most dominating story in the book. What’s with the whitewashing?
If I didn’t follow Holiday for years and read 12 out of 15 of his books, I would probably get easily misled to think that he’s building up Truman’s image only to justify some of his sins and their spillover effect till today, most specifically his one decision told in the chapter “create alliances.” Decision that becomes this one elephant in the room that Holiday didn’t mention but addresses everything around it: like the chapter “keep going back” that lists all of the brutal events throughout history, which was even elaborated in chapter “make amends”, but Holiday then conveniently forgot to mention this 1 brutal event in both cases (an event that other modern Stoic Donald Robertson is boldly vocal about).
I mean, if you don’t want to discuss current affairs, that’s understandable. But why discuss everything about current world politics, also saying that you’re divesting from Belarus because the country supports Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, even went to a great length to paint this victimhood picture of one side, only to completely ignore what they’ve done ever since? The things written in chapters “be an angel”, “you have to help”, “the great oneness”, and “find the good in everyone” confirm this.
What happened with all the things preached in the book about courage in the face of unfairness, about not being indifferent and not choosing the safe option of being “neutral” while ignoring the huge injustice that is actually happening? Is this why the book was delayed by half a year after something happened just before the usual launch date for the Stoic virtue series? Is this why the content (not the organizational) of this book is kind of messy and unlike his other works that are meticulously researched and neatly written with good flow, because it was heavily edited halfway through?
Nevertheless, to be fair it isn’t so much about what has been said, but what has NOT been said. And Holiday already has a big deposit in my credibility bank that he deserves the benefit of the doubt. And when we see the book from a personal-development lens, in the end of the day it is a good book. It teaches us to ultimately become a decent human being with a clear conscience, someone who has integrity and a great sense of fairness, and will act accordingly even though sometimes our actions to do the right things will cost us.
“It’s not virtue signaling to push back against cruelty and indifference,” Holiday remarks at his conclusion. “It doesn’t make you a “social justice warrior” to speak out for kindness and fairness and inalienable rights. But even if it was, is anything better to be a warrior for than justice and or anything better to signal than virtue? What has to happen to your brain to be opposed to those things?” Yes Ryan, what has to happen?
THE CHAOS THEORY 