In the aftermath of the 9/11 Al Qaeda attack I remember writing that America should take care not to over-react to that singular act of terror. Over-reaction could only play into the hands of the perpetrators and make matters worse. Here is a portion of what I wrote.
“Though far from possessing the capacity to emulate them, I think I admire the Stoics most of all the philosophers. Probably we would all like to be able to approach disaster, illness, bereavement and eventually death with the unflinching restraint of the Stoics. Certainly it must be very rare for any man or woman not to need the strength of a Stoic sometimes in a lifetime since, the truth be told, we really have about as much control of what is going to happen to us hour by hour, day by day, as one of the Stoics remarked, “as a dog tied to the tail of a cart – he can run a little from side to side, and bark loudly,
