Epicureans should not dip their toes into party politics, but stay on the sidelines, tending their gardens. But today’s news that 550,000 residents of DC are to continue to be denied the right to vote illustrates just why Epicurus told us to stay clear of politics in the first place. Excuse the rant, but I …
The reason much of Africa and the Middle East is not, and probably never can or will be, democratic is the tribal attitude of the population. Where you seek power only to benefit your own tribe and followers, you will always need repressive government. Epicureans should approve of approve of democratic forms of government (where …
Somebody once said that religion is basically a question of making you feel better about yourself. If so, there isn’t much wrong with that. Let those who get reassurance from it get on with it undisturbed. Where it is potentially distasteful is when missionaries at home and abroad try to "convert" the unbelievers, sometimes offensively, …
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American women like quiet men. They imagine they are listening. To be serious though, hard as it is to be a genuine Epicurean, one of the defining characteristics of the Epicurean garden was, and ought to be, the fact that you shouldn’t simply expound, you should listen. By actually listening, in contradistinction to simply hearing, …
The focus of Epicurus’ ethical writings [what little we have] is on the individual and his self-interest. But there is far too much in the Principle Doctrines and the Vatican aphorism about friendship and justice for one to characterize his philosophy as purely, or even predominately self-regarding. So, if were one to read only The …
