The Price of Getting What You Want | Episode 431

If you attain something without integrity, the thing you attain will always have power over you.

In The Hobbit, Gollum’s relationship with the Ring begins with murder. Bilbo’s begins with pity and mercy. Both possess the same corrupting object, but it does not shape them in the same way.

In this episode, I use Bilbo and the Ring to explore the Stoic concept of preferred indifferents: money, power, status, health, and possessions. These things may be worth pursuing, but they cannot make us good—and how we acquire them matters far more than whether we acquire them at all.

Every compromise leaves something behind. Eventually, we may discover that we no longer possess the things we wanted. They possess us.