Perry Mason, Stoic

The Case of the Shoplifter’s Shoe – Erle Stanley Gardner

Two curiosities feature in this 1938 outing, one minor, one major. Usually Perry Mason is in every scene of a Mason mystery. However, chapter 15 is an informative primer on how district attorneys prime witnesses. That is, the deputy DA coaches a witness on what to say in court. The witness says "I guess" which the DA stomps on. “You don’t want a fancy lawyer to make you look like a dummy, do you?”

The other curiosity is more interesting. Gardner experiments with characterization to the extent that we get a rare glimpse of Perry Mason’s philosophical approach. He seems to be somewhat of a stoic .

Near the beginning of the mystery, at a nice lunch in a department store, Della Street asks the famous lawyer if seeing people are their worst has made him cynical. Quite the contrary, he replies.

People have their strong points and their weak points. The true philosopher sees them as they are, and is never disappointed, because he doesn’t expect too much. The cynic is one who starts out with a false pattern and becomes disappointed because people don’t conform to that pattern. Most of the little chiseling practices come from trying to cope with our economic conventions. When it comes right down to fundamentals, people are fairly dependable. The neighbor who would cheat you out of a pound of sugar, would risk her life to save you from drowning.

Perry Mason, like a stoic philosopher, uses reason and logic to identify and deal with other people’s strengths and weaknesses. Nobody is completely bad, nobody is completely good. Keep expectations realilstic, and never be disappointed. Mason expects people to make mistakes and commit crimes out of greed, lust, hatred, and love. If people make a mistake that attracts the attention of the authorities, they deserve a good defense. Recall also that in a dozen other novels, Perry is never too put out with clients who’ve lead him up the garden path. 

Mason says that cynics start as idealists who have lofty ideas that people should be wise, brave, fair, and restrained. But idealists became cynics when they bitterly conclude that most people can’t drive the speed limit or control their appetites much less apply prudence and self-restraint consistently in daily life. Cynics don’t let go of the unreasonable expectation that they themselves, other people and the whole frickin' world must do this or shouldn’t do that. And they end up constantly disappointed that people are not acting better. Constantly condemning leads to – well, just look at social media.

Mason seems to argue that because of economic and social pressures on people, a philosopher can’t reasonably expect folks to follow the cardinal virtues. For her own tranquility, a philosopher had better expect that people will act in ways that would try the patience of a saint. Expecting this, a philosopher can be prepared for whatever antics a spouse, kid, coworker, customer, or boss will get up to next. The sage had better forbear and remember trouble brings out the best and worst in human nature.

Sarah Breel, Mason’s client, also has an old-school stoicism. This novel is set in 1938 so assuming she is 60, she was born in 1878, probably in a rural area and definitely during the Depression of 1873-79. Also, life expectancy in the US in the late Thirties was such (61.9 for men, 65.3 for women) that people at 60 years old had seen many deaths. Thus, her response to her brother’s murder:

I’m sorry George had to die, but as far as he’s concerned, he’s dead. As far as I’m concerned, I miss him; but when I grieve about missing him, it isn’t being sorry for him, it’s being sorry for me. It’s hard to explain, Mr. Mason. It may seem cold-blooded to you. It really isn’t. I have a great deal of love and a great deal of affection for George. He’s dead. We all have to go sometime.

For Sarah Breel, the fact George was murdered is trumped by the necessary fact of death.

Death happens randomly. Death can rear-end my car when I’m stopped at a light and it can come in the middle of night with a massive stroke. So I might as well live. Reminding myself that someday it’s going to my turn with no choice how and no choice when, I enjoy life. Putting death in perspective, I feel gratitude and awe, here and now, and worry less about what is going to happen.

Stoic Week Wrap-Up, Of Sorts

Monday, November 9, 2015

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. (Viktor E. Frankl)

So ends Stoic Week 2015. I found the morning writing-meditation interesting and easy to do, the evening writing-meditation more demanding because of lack of time. But my two problems were feeling tired and feeling a lack of time. I need to work on this attitude adjustment.

[T]he life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it. (Seneca)

I have to work on where I can save time in order to read and think more. I also have to work on minimizing distractions. IE and Firefox are taking to crashing on me all the time so maybe this is a blessing in disguise to turn to them less and thus save time. I also have to work on feeling that I am tired. I signed up for all this damn work, now I have to do without crying the blues about it.

The other point that I will take from Stoic week is related to time-management – where I pay attention. More reading books, less reading or watching news. Less distractions too: more music, less talk radio. I control what I pay attention to. 

Of course, it’s too early to say what Stoic Week has done for me. I hope I can keep up the writing habit, and I wonder if I can keep up the habits of mind

Stoic Week #7

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Football star, counterfeiter, and prison dentist Billy Cannon on his days as a teenage mugger

We were not only stupid. We were criminal. We took advantage of people in awkward situations. We would rob them with threats of violence. We knew it was wrong. But it was fun, and it was profitable. Luckily, no one got injured. But I got embarrassed. My family got embarrassed. The people we took advantage of got embarrassed (USA Today,  Sports, Friday, November 6, 2015 – you never know where you’ll read something provocative).

Enough to make a stoic, novice or expert, boggle. Tick off the lack of stoic virtues. Stupid – a lack of good sense – to risk arrest and the dangers of imprisonment just for money to piss away on fun. Fun and profitable – and sure beats an honest day’s pay for an honest day at work. Cowardly for overgrown boy football players to threaten people with violence. And the utter lack of fairness for the strong to be stealing from the weak. No sense of self-control to know something is sinful but keep doing it anyway. 

To top this, we get two profoundly misguided ideas. One, “lucky” because nobody was physically injured, maimed, disabled, disfigured, etc. As if victims of crime do not suffer psychological harm such as anxiety, depression and other symptoms of PTSD, some for extended periods after victimization occurred. Two, unluckily the perp and the perp’s family were humiliated by arrest and imprisonment and consequent damage to their precious reputations. As if reputation were in our control. Honor cultures, I confess, puzzle me.

The Stoics and near-Stoic Cicero said human beings had better follow natural laws, which arise from reason. Cicero said,

For you must accept that in no other kind of debate is it possible to make apparent what has been granted to man by nature, what a wealth of excellent possessions the human mind contains, what gift we were born and brought into the light to cultivate and work out, what it is that binds human beings together, what natural association there is between them. For only when all this has been explained can the source of laws and justice be found.

All human beings share a spark of divinity and the gift of reason. We live in communities that share laws against behavior that causes harm to members of the community. But I need to study up on what the Stoics would advise about youth getting on the wrong track willfully, knowing full well they are doing wrong and gleefully resistant to appeals to their reason, their god-given propensities to wisdom, courage, temperance, and fairness.

Stoic Week #5

Friday, November 6, 2015

Say to yourself first thing in the morning: today I might meet with people who are meddling, ungrateful, aggressive, treacherous, malicious and unsocial. All this has afflicted them through their ignorance of true good and evil. But I have seen that the nature of good is what is right, and the nature of evil what is wrong; and I have reflected that the nature of the offender himself is akin to my own - not a kinship of blood or seed, but a sharing in the same mind, the same fragment of divinity. Therefore I cannot be harmed by any of them, as none will infect me with their wrong. Not can I be angry with my fellow human being or hate him. We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. So to work in opposition to one another is against nature: and anger or rejection is opposition. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1)

We control our mental life. That is, our responses to obnoxious people depend on ourselves. Insufferable people don’t make us feel peeved, dismayed, put out, despairing of the human animal. We make ourselves feel upset. People are not unbearable, they don’t act in unbearable ways. We choose to let their behavior get to us. We choose to say to ourselves, “I can’t his face. I can’t stand his foul opinions.”  We choose to dismiss their behavior with a shrug, “So it goes. He thinks he’s right. I won’t let him make me angry or implicate me in his attitude. And who am I to educate him that his acting is such a way will damage his own self-interest in the long run? He’ll learn on his own.”

Marcus is talking about negative visualization. Without ruminating, we had better rehearse the worst case scenarios. The border is going to have a long wait. The border guard will be an officious dolt. The guard will pull us over for a long inspection. They guards will look us will that empty bland expression that they think is professional but normal people think is disturbing.

Feel the dismay up to a point. Then back off. Dispute fear. Will these things really happen? What is the probability even one will happen, much less two or three? There’s no reason to think the magnitude of such things happening is high either. They pull us over, we lose time, we feel upset if we allow ourselves to. Are these things really horrible? No, obviously not. So be grateful for whatever happens. If there are no waits, sail through and be thankful. If there are long waits, welcome it as a chance to practice stoic self-control.

Seneca says take a couple days a week to expose yourself to negative emotion so you inoculate yourself and you can act despite those emotions

Stoic Week #4

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control. Under our control are conception [the way we define things], intention [the voluntary impulse to act], desire [to get something], aversion [the desire to avoid something], and, in a word, everything that is our own doing; not under our control are our body, our property, reputation, position [or office] in society, and, in a word, everything that is not our own doing. (Epictetus, Handbook 1)

Epictetus, I think, is saying that we choose how we describe the world to ourselves. We filter reality through our unique template, our master for how the world is put together and works. We can choose the stencil that we use.

We can choose how we plan and proceed. We can decide to delay, but we should be careful that we have rational reasons for doing so since procrastination comes out of unreasonable fears and demands the world be such and such a way.

Desire and aversion can be both natural to us – I hate having sticky fingers, I like the color yellow. But the attitude we adopt, our wanting and avoiding are our power. We had better not allow greed, anger, and lust to gain footholds.

We have no power over our station in society. A series of bad moves, a string bad luck can strip us of everything we find important. Losing everything or nearly everything or everything we think important may not be a likely or probable prospect. But the consequences could be great, if we allow anger and anxiety to rule our attitude about losing.

Our reputation is totally under the control of other people. We can’t control what other people think of us. What people think of us, then, is none of our business. And had better not be worried about.  As for property, ask any homeowner if she controls her property and she’ll “If only.” Water – mere water – is the enemy. 

Also, property can be stolen by thieves or seized by authority. It can even be destroyed by mistake – witness the homeowners who’ve gone on vacation, only to return to find their houses demolished because a developer got an address wrong. Stuff has a tendency to rule people – witness hoarders or widowers who resist tossing anything related to the deceased wife. 

Better not to own anything.

Stoic Week Day #3

Wednesday, November 4, 2015, 4:50 ~ 5:00

Early in the morning, when you are finding it hard to wake up, hold this thought in your mind: ‘I am getting up to do the work of a human being. Do I still resent it, if I am going out to do what I was born for and for which I was brought into the world? Or was I framed for this, to lie under the bedclothes and keep myself warm?’ ‘But this is more pleasant’. So were you born for pleasure: in general were you born for feeling or for affection? Don’t you see the plants, the little sparrows, the ants, the spiders, the bees doing their own work, and playing their part in making up an ordered world. And then are you unwilling to do the work of a human being? Won’t you run to do what is in line with your nature? (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.1)

I consider myself blessed that I almost never find it hard to wake up and get out of bed in the mornings. When I awake, my brain gets up to speed almost immediately in contrast to the poor souls I noticed when I lived in a dormitory who stumbled about for an hour or before they woke up.

What does happen to me, however, is that when I am tired, I dread to think about the things I have to do. I feel put upon, irrationally thinking what a sordid and unfair world it is that sternly expects me to work instead of sitting and reading or listening to Chick Webb.

Marcus’ advice here about doing the work of a human being comes in handy when I dread having to work . The work I have to do is to contribute to the teaching and research missions of the university. While tedious routine is a part of those missions, the goal is worthy and my work isn’t silly or useless. Also, I signed up to do about 9 to 12 hours of extra work for extra pay; I had better work to be able to say to myself that I earned that pay. I signed up, I have to take responsibility. The other point is, getting ready to teach requires that I not procrastinate, not waste minutes at time.

William Faulkner said “It's a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can't eat for eight hours; he can't drink for eight hours; he can't make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work. ” I disagree that the fact of work is a shame. I agree with Marcus that it is natural for us human beings to work though the satisfactions and disappointments of work have to be balanced carefully. And certainly more than a few people get handsomely compensated for making this world a sweltering hell for the rest of us.

But work is a social activity – we do it with other people in situations where we put our respect for people, sense of fairness, and benevolence to the test. Work – at least, the work of angels like teachers and air traffic controllers - is what gives the world order.

Stoic Week Day #2

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

You must train yourself only to think the kind of thoughts about which, if someone suddenly asked you, ‘what are you thinking about now?’, you would at once answer frankly, ‘”this” or “that”’. So from your reply it would immediately be clear that all your thoughts are straightforward and kind and express the character of a social being who has no concern with images of pleasure, or self-indulgence in general , or any kind of rivalry, malice or suspicion, or anything else you would blush to admit you were thinking about. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.4)

“You must train yourself….” Marcus, like Albert Ellis, knew that even with the best intentions, we human beings will backslide. We attempt to put courage, wisdom, temperance, or justice to practical use in our daily lives, in our mundane affairs that are nevertheless important to us. But stuff happens and we fly off the handle at little things , cringe at the thought of retirement, go  all gooey inside when negatively visualizing chemo, assisted living, one’s friends suffering and dying. Thinking like a stoic, then, takes practice, endless exercise, constant repetition. I think this is where Epictetus’ and others’ maxims come in – they are pithy enough to memorize and bring to bear when needed, which is pretty damn often.

“all your thoughts are straightforward and kind” The meditations are notebooks so I imagine that Marcus wrote them when he had a minute and didn’t edit them. Still, if I had to describe ideal thoughts in a nutshell, I guess the key attributes of thoughts would indeed be “frank, honest, open” and “generous, thoughtful, considerate.” Note that “intelligent” “deep” or “profound”  or “witty” are not included – I don’t have to be smart or insightful to be a Stoic. Practice, man, practice being open with one’s own self, by not kidding ourselves, and being kind to one’s self, not self-downing because of failure, not getting pessimistic at setbacks, not getting defensive at criticism.

“express the character of a social being” The stoics assumed that we would be active in the world, not meditating away the hours alone on a mountain top, or observing the rule of silence in some remote fastness. Having no concern “with images of pleasure, or self-indulgence in general , or any kind of rivalry, malice or suspicion…” comes out of dealing with other people with respect and fairness. It does harm to ourselves and others to be perpetually jealous, spiteful, and suspicious.

There’s a part of me that, however, that wonders about the possibility of making straightforward thinking a habit. I am so prey to crooked thinking, unwarranted assumptions, half-digested information, lame prejudices. It’s hard to control one’s thoughts, fears, hopes, frustrations. Also, there’s a Pollyanna-ish, Goodey Two-shoes flavor to this, that makes Sarcastic Me – there’s malice, again, hiding behind a mask or knowingness,  that snotty feeling of “I know how the world works, I got a bead on things” – spite saying , “Yeh, whatever floats your boat. Keep the Golden Rule for more than two minutes at a time, then get back to me.”

Practice, man, practice.

Stoic Week Day #1

Monday, November 2, 2015, 4:49 ~ 5:05

Be like the headland on which the waves break constantly, which still stands firm while the foaming waters are put to rest around it. ‘It is my bad luck that this has happened to me! On the contrary, say, ‘It is my good luck that, although this has happened to me, I can bear it without getting upset, neither crushed by the present nor afraid of the future.’ (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.49)

“I can bear it without getting upset.” Re this dental emergency, whatever happens, I can deal with it. Let’s say the dentist can’t do anything with it and I have to go to class looking like a Jack O-Lantern. It’s embarrassing but so what? Embarrassment won’t kill me.

He fixes it but I get poor results, I look deformed or disfigured. There’re lots of people running around that they don’t like their own looks and other people even discriminate against them because of their looks, their deformity, their disfigurement. But the probability of poor results is not high. And if I am disfigured, I won’t like it, but it won’t be horrible. My teeth aren’t me, the most important feature of me, the part that makes me, me.

The dentist has to have me coming and coming over a period of time. What a hassle. But it’s a hassle that has an end. And in three months I won’t even remember coming and going.

The procedures will hurt. Again, who remembers the mild and moderate pain of most dental pain after it stops? Nobody. And doesn’t comfort feel better after physical discomfort goes away? Savor not feeling hurt.

I can bear it without getting upset. Maybe it has been good luck that this happened to open Stoic Week. It shows me practical results from the get-go.