This Substack is going premium, we hope you'll stick around.

I’ll be brief, because I know the decision to take any free content “premium” is contentious and largely seen as self-serving, “selling out”, or gatekeeping.

I want the writers contributing to this publication to generate income as a result of their intellectual labor. It’s not fair for me to ask them to write for free, nor is it fair that they be expected to by those who derive joy and betterment from their labor.

I feel we writers have a responsibility to the cosmopolis, as Stoics, to create worthwhile and meaningful literature for it. For the writers of this blog, specifically, that literature comes in the form of articles and thought pieces about Stoicism.

I feel also that those in the cosmopolis who appreciate and benefit from the literature we create, have a responsibility to help us afford the time we require to create it.

In a Just world, and in concerns to this sort of content, the writers write for the readers, and the bulk of readers elect to patronize (as in support) the writers. It is supposed to be a symbiotic relationship that skews slightly in the favor of the readers as some readers cannot afford to patronize the writers, but if most readers are providing support there’s room in the margins to allow for some free readership.

But this is not a slight skew:

And let me say, lest it be assumed that my thoughts here arise from sour grapes, that this is about what is Just within the context of the writer/reader relationship. It is not Just for the writer to be expected to write without receiving compensation for their labor. It is not Just, either, for the reader to be forced to patronize a writer they do not derive any benefit from.

This is what the decision comes down to, enforcing a Just relationship and accord between the writers of this publication and the readers who value the work of those writers.

Your decision to click the button below and subscribe to this now premium Substack, comes down to just one thing: whether or not you benefit from our labor as writers enough to justify patronizing us appropriately. If the answer is no, that’s no crime. If the answer is yes, press the button.