There’s plenty of evidence that pilgrimages accelerate the spread of infectious diseases. The Kanwar pilgrimage in India, which attracts millions to the river Ganges, has led to some of the worst mass cholera outbreaks in history; the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca was blamed for a deadly outbreak of bacterial meningitis in 2000. So it was …
Large numbers of people, mostly in the mid-West, refuse to wear masks in public places within and without buildings, claiming that doing so infringes upon their “liberty”, and that mask searing and social distancing is at the “discretion” on the individual (ah! the individual!). This, notwithstanding the raging virus that is filling hospitals and killing …
The laws are laid down for the sake of the wise, not to prevent them from doing “wrong , but to keep them from being wronged” (The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series). Happiness and blessedness do not belong to abundance of riches or exalted position or offices or power, but …
Continue reading ‘A few quotations from works on Epicurus’ »
The Monmouth University Polling Institute conducted a poll in 2019. One thousand people were interviewed about their attitude towards religious fundamentalism, ethnocentric prejudice, and their political views and affiliations. The book written on the subject, “Authoritarian Nightmare: Donald Trump and his followers” by John Dean and Bob Altermeyer, was reviewed in the Washington Post on …
Teen girls’ self-harm crisis Back in 2018 The Guardian ran an article about social media and a rise in school work being blamed for the doubling of U.K. hospital admissions of teenage girls for self-harm. According to British National Health Service figures, in the two decades since 1997, the number of girls under 18 admitted …
