Geeky Stoics

“It is not a golden bit that makes one horse superior to others.”

-Seneca, Letters from A Stoic

It’s taken longer than I intended to find a Dragon Ball Z topic for Geeky Stoics. This uniquely popular anime in the United States was my second love growing up, right next to Star Wars. My favorite character is Vegeta, the Prince of Saiyans. He is a total jerk, but it’s something of a novelty as the show grinds on. The whole schtick is that Saiyans are immensely prideful and take their race and blood lineage very seriously.

Vegeta is like most royal-born characters in great stories. He’s privileged, entitled, arrogant, and often whiny, but you like him anyway, because Vegeta is broken down constantly and forced to build himself up again. The reinvention is what makes him interesting.

Humility is one of the more classical virtues that I’m drawn toward in my writing. It was the topic of the first chapter of my 2021 book, How The Force Can Fix The World. In general, we shouldn’t be obsessed with the traits in life that were gifted to us by virtue of being born.

What is gifted to us? Health. Ability. Family. Lineage. Status. Among other things.

Gifts are given to you. You did nothing to deserve them. Awards are earned. Recognition is earned. Gifts are understood to be wrapped with a bow on top and handed to you by the grace of someone else or God himself.

I have a gift for teaching and writing. It would be wrong to strut around acting like I am some self-made man on either of these items. They come naturally to me, and both of my natural talents were strengthened by mentors who entered my life and shared their knowledge freely.

Who am I to be prideful when it comes to these things?

St. Thomas Aquinas (1274 AD) said “Humility removes pride, whereby a man refuses to submit himself to the truth of faith.”

C.S. Lewis said of pride, “Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

Still, Vegeta and his precious pride. "Only a failure abandons his principles and his Pride,” the Prince of Saiyans says in Dragon Ball Super.

Vegeta goes on a series-long journey to reform what his pride is made of. At the start of Dragon Ball Z, it is purely this ethnic radicalism based on lore about Saiyan history. His blood is everything to him.

Blood is cheap.

Geeky Stoics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

But then like I said, he’s broken down. Vegeta is defeated again and again, even killed. His rivals usurp him, namely ones without royal blood, and scoff at his entitlement to praise and honor. Vegeta learns something that we’ve all seen in the real world…..

Success is more often the product of natural talent + hard work. I’m a good writer, but I know damn well there are less-good writers who outwork me by leaps and bounds. Those writers will see greater success in this field than me.

I could sit in my office and be pissed about it, or I can work harder.

Vegeta is never really cured of his Saiyan Pride, but with time and suffering it becomes based on something more real — which is Vegeta’s own special resolve to never stay down. He will always get back up.

The Roman stoic known as Seneca the Younger wrote in his letters,

“No one should feel pride in anything that is not his own. In a man, praise is due only to what is his very own. Suppose he has a beautiful home and a handsome collection of servants, a lot of land under cultivation, and a lot of money earned out of interest; not one of these things can be said to be his own – they are just things around him.” - Letters From A Stoic

Vegeta believes in himself, and that’s a variation of pride we make allowances for in philosophy and culture. No one likes or follows people who don’t believe in themselves.

Vegeta’s Pride becomes something he earned. Something that is his own, cultivated within through trials and defeat. He knows at a certain point that his “special blood” won’t save him.

If you were to take pride in one thing, it might be how well you get back up when smacked down. But even that, in my opinion, comes from a God who made you differently than every person around you. Some people will have to fight their whole life for the resolve to stick up for themselves even once, that’s where you come in.

Their meekness is your call to duty. Your strength should be put to work in service of those who have none.

You’re unique. Listen for that whisper. Notice what you’re good at from the earliest age when it’s easiest to hear these whispers.

It’s what you were made for.

Are you up to date on our YouTube videos?