I was talking about the fad for Stoicism, which assimilates Stoicism and everything else to the happiness industry. On the surface there's an obvious connection since Stoicism is virtue theory which is directed towards making people happy. But even genuine Stoicism doesn't support the kind of happiness that consumers have in mind. Still, Stoicism is more moderate than Cynicism, so with enough cherry picking, Stoicism is feasible for this propaganda.
I see from your bio and from some of your articles that you're interested in human progress. That's an interest we share, and the relation between Stoicism and progress is worth exploring. I'm currently writing an article on it.
In that article I address the difference between two senses of "natural." We can be anti-wilderness while still following our "nature" (by being members of our type). You're equivocating there, as did the Stoics. The notion that people aren't anomalous in the universe isn't based on vanity, although it certainly can make us so, as it motivates our Faustian ventures. The notion's based, rather, on an understanding of emergent properties and on observation of history and of the Anthropocene. The "extra dimension of culture" is largely what frees us from animal instincts and thus from the wilderness. Culture is an emergent niche that evidently leads to nature's displacement, to the transformation of a planet into a machine or into an artificial habitat, a refuge from nature's indifference.
Regarding centrism, I was following the IEP article on Stoicism. That's where the case is made: " Zeno came to elaborate a philosophy that was both of clear Socratic inspiration (virtue is the Chief Good) and a compromise between Polemo’s and Stilpo’s positions, as the first one endorsed the idea that there are external goods—though they are of secondary importance—while the second one claimed that nothing external can be good or bad. That compromise consisted in the uniquely Stoic notion that external goods are of ethically neutral value, but are nonetheless the object of natural pursuit."
How could you know that I've "persuaded no one"? You understand that Stoics aren't supposed to let themselves get carried away by emotion, right?
