Things Simply Are

[DISCLAIMER]

When providing psychoeducational lessons to improve one’s mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”), I often address the matter of morals and ethics. I’m continually surprised by the sheer number of people who don’t know what these terms mean.

A moral is a person’s standard of behavior or belief concerning what is and isn’t acceptable for the individual and other people. As such, morals generally relate to what’s considered good, bad, right, wrong, or otherwise acceptable or unacceptable.

An ethic is a set of moral principles, especially those relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct. Whereas morals relate to what is thought of as pleasing or displeasing behaviors and beliefs, ethics – based on morals – are the social rules by which we pledge to live.

This distinction relates to mental health, in that what you believe is good or bad largely influences how you react to situations. Regarding this topic, I find it helpful to consider what one source says regarding the manner in which I also approach mental health care:

The moral guillotine, posited by David Hume, is one of the major foundational problems in ethics, or, perhaps, more properly (because it is foundational) meta-ethics.

The problem as I see it goes like this:

1. Ethics seeks to discover facts about the world and use these facts to make proscriptions about the way we ought to behave.

2. This involves two different types of statements: positive (descriptive [presenting observations about the characteristics of someone or something]) and normative [of, relating to, or determining norms—a principle of right action binding upon the members of a group and serving to guide, control, or regulate proper and acceptable behavior—or standards: prescriptive—laying down rules or standards).

3. It is not clear how reasoning about positive statements can lead us to any conclusions about normative statements.

This is also called the is-ought problem.

When providing lessons on mental health, I differentiate between description (is) and prescription (ought). Similarly, the above source considers proscription (the act of proscribing—to condemn or forbid as harmful or unlawful). Regarding this matter, I’m reminded of a book.

As Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is informed by Stoic philosophy, this blog entry is part of an ongoing series regarding a book entitled The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

Given what you’ve learned about description and pre- or proscription thus far, I invite you to consider a quote by ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus (page 126):

What is bad luck? Opinion. What are conflict, dispute, blame, accusation, irreverence, and frivolity? They are all opinions, and more than that, they are opinions that lie outside of our own reasoned choice, presented as if they were good or evil. Let a person shift their opinions only to what belongs in the field of their own choice, and I guarantee that person will have peace of mind, whatever is happening around them.

In consideration of Epictetus’s outlook, I invite you to think about what opinions you hold regarding the gallows humor drawing used for this post. It depicts a person whose head is about to be cut off using a guillotine, as the executioner has placed bowling pins at the end of a ramp.

Photo credit, fair use

The inference is that once the executed individual’s head has rolled down the ramp, a game of bowling is engaged. Will the decadent’s head knock down none, some, or all of the pins? The only way to find out is to execute the person.

I find the cartoon funny. You may not. If you don’t, have you perhaps violated Hume’s guillotine by unhelpfully demanding what ought and ought not to be considered humorous? If so, you may benefit by what authors of The Daily Stoic have to say about your prescriptive view (page 126):

Opinions. Everyone’s got one. Think about all the opinions you have: about whether today’s weather is convenient, about what liberals and conservatives believe, about whether so-and-so’s remark is rude or not, about whether you’re successful (or not), and on and on.

We’re constantly looking at the world around us and putting our opinion on top of it. And our opinion is often shaped by dogma (religious or cultural), entitlements, expectations, and in some cases, ignorance.

I argue that it’s a matter of mental health to become aware of how proscriptive opinions sabotage success with personal interests and goals. Otherwise, you’ll perpetually line up at a proverbial guillotine while others watch to see whether or not you bowl a strike as your head rolls.

Things don’t have to be this way—which is another method of saying that things preferably ought not to be this way, as this is a matter of description. Thus, I invite you to consider the wisdom presented to you by authors of The Daily Stoic, as they conclude by stating (page 126):

No wonder we feel upset and angry so often! But what if we let these opinions go? Let’s try weeding (ekkoptein; cutting or knocking out) them out of our lives so that things simply are. Not good or bad, not colored with opinion or judgment. Just are.

Rather than self-disturbing with unproductive pre- or proscriptive beliefs about how I find it funny that a cartoon depicts the potential for “knocking out” bowling pins with a severed head, perhaps you could try “knocking out” your unhelpful opinions. After all, things simply are.

What is is that I find gallows humor funny. What unhelpfully ought is that you may believe my sense of humor ought not to be different than your own. However, that sort of opinion violates Hume’s guillotine. Thus, you can un-disturb yourself by accepting what merely is.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

References:

Daily Stoic. (n.d.). Translating the Stoics: An interview with “The Daily Stoic” co-author Stephen Hanselman. Retrieved from https://dailystoic.com/stephen-hanselman-interview/

Holiday, R. and Hanselman, S. (2016). The daily stoic: 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living. Penguin Random House LLC. Retrieved from https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-daily-stoic-366-meditations-on-wisdom-perseverance-and-the-art-of-living-d61378067.html

Hollings, D. (2024, June 2). Blame. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/blame

Hollings, D. (2023, April 22). Control. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/control

Hollings, D. (2025, October 3). Control and influence: A soft center and coated in a candy shell. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/control-and-influence-a-soft-center-and-coated-in-a-candy-shell

Hollings, D. (2022, October 31). Demandingness. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/demandingness

Hollings, D. (2022, October 5). Description vs. prescription. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/description-vs-prescription

Hollings, D. (2022, March 15). Disclaimer. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/disclaimer

Hollings, D. (2025, September 8). Entitlement. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/entitlement

Hollings, D. (2025, May 20). Evil. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/evil

Hollings, D. (2025, March 9). Factual and counterfactual beliefs. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/factual-and-counterfactual-beliefs

Hollings, D. (2023, September 8). Fair use. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/fair-use

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Hollings, D. (2025, January 26). Ignorance. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/ignorance

Hollings, D. (2025, May 23). Inference chain. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/inference-chain

Hollings, D. (2024, January 2). Interests and goals. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/interests-and-goals

Hollings, D. (2024, October 14). Irrational expectation. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/irrational-expectation

Hollings, D. (2025, May 18). Irreverent communication: Use of sarcasm, snark, and cynicism. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/irreverent-communication-use-of-sarcasm-snark-and-cynicism

Hollings, D. (2023, September 19). Life coaching. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/life-coaching

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Hollings, D. (2024, July 7). Non-dogmatic preferences. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/non-dogmatic-preferences

Hollings, D. (2024, November 18). Opinions. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/opinions

Hollings, D. (2024, July 10). Preferential should beliefs. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/preferential-should-beliefs

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Wikipedia. (n.d.). Black comedy. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_comedy

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