Austerity: How stoicism masks class power

The asceticism of the elite presents inequality as virtue, while the poor endure real deprivation

- Vashna Jagarnath

The rise of stoicism as a chic cultural trend among the middle and upper classes belies a deeper history of how self-denial and discipline serve as markers of class and tools of power.

Across Silicon Valley and global elites, chief executives and millionaires embrace spartan routines 5am wake-ups, intermittent fasting, cold showers in performative displays of stoic fortitude.

Ancient Stoic texts like Marcus Aurelius's Meditations have become staples of wellness blogs and chief executive book clubs. This contemporary stoicism is touted as a path to personal excellence.

Yet framed against the material realities of most people, the voluntary asceticism of the rich appears less as universal virtue and more as an assertion of elite identity.

This cultural turn is not happening in a vacuum. It emerges amid global polycrisis: inequality, ecological collapse, burnout and political cynicism. In this context, the call to regulate the self resonates with the middle and upper classes especially those seeking to protect their position.

But this turn inward also functions as depoliticisation. It substitutes self-mastery for social transformation, and inner calm for collective action.

More than a century ago, Marx reminded us that the ruling ideas in every epoch are those of the ruling class. Elite stoicism is no exception.

The notion that suffering should be endured in silence, that virtue lies in control rather than critique, forms part of an ideological apparatus that protects the powerful. When stoicism becomes a lifestyle aesthetic, it ceases to be a philosophy of endurance and becomes a moral alibi for injustice.

Stoicism, as it is popularly revived today, also carries a gendered ideal. The image of the stoic man unflinching, unemotional, master of his appetites repeats old patriarchal tropes about strength.