ISIS, Saudi Arabia – is there much difference?

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A Saudi Arabian court  has  sentenced to death Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh for apostasy (apostasy?) and other blasphemy-related offenses, including promoting atheism, in his 2008 poetry collection, Instructions Within.  The 35-year-old was released on bail only to be arrested again on January 1, 2014, when he was sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes. After his attorneys appealed, judicial authorities decided to re-try his case before a new panel of judges, who sentenced Fayadh to death in November 2015.

According to Human Rights Watch, prosecutors charged him with a host of blasphemy-related charges, including: blaspheming “the divine self” and the Prophet Muhammad; spreading atheism and promoting it among the youth in public places; mocking the verses of God and the prophets; refuting the Quran; denying the day of resurrection; objecting to fate and divine decree; and having an illicit relationship with women and storing their pictures in his phone.

Isn’t it amazing how the “My religious views are a 100% right; yours are totally wrong” crowd keep popping up in history.  The West had the same type of thing with the Inquisition.  With the glut of oil and the need to use less of it anyway, do we need to kow-tow to this horrible Saudi regime and its  Wahabi backers, who are the cause of  a lot of the radicalization of Sunni moslems?  Epicureans proudly affirm human freedom of thought.  May this moment pass.

Life after death

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“Why do the Epicureans think they are offering any palliative. To be told one perishes completely and forever, soul, as well as body, is hardly a robust consolation.” (Cicero)

Poor Cicero!  So like a politician.  The short-term thinking!    Let me put his mind at rest:

I don’t know where exactly you are, Cicero, but I can assure you you have been re-cycled.  It could be as a flower or a favourite cat.  You could be part of the thinking bit of an astrophysicist’s brain, or it’s possible that your atoms have found their way into the blood and bones of the next species to dominate the Earth when we humans have managed to blow it up.  In any case those atoms of yours are immortal.  Think of the adventures they have had, and will have.  They came from stardust and will take a myriad of forms in millions of years to come, not necessarily on this planet. So much more interesting than the boring life of bliss, honey and harps you seem to yearn for and which the Roman version of car salesmen were promising you.

Air conditioning

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Boris Kingma of Maastricht University has published, in Nature Climate Change, a study on central heating and cooling  The study shows that in offices across the Western world, the standard thermostat has been set since the 1960s to suit the metabolic rate of an 11-stone, 40-year-old male. The ideal temperature for the average woman is 24.5°C; while men, who burn energy faster, prefer 22°C.

This, publicized in Britain, caused a storm from the ladies in the media.  Catherine Bennett wrote a furious article in The Observer saying, “We live in a “man-made world”: everything from building layouts to the 40-hour week to “pointlessly confrontational” news interviews are designed with the male in mind”.  This included office temperatures.

But  the furore conceals a serious problem.  As the climate warms, the amount of power used for air conditioning goes up, undoing all the good things people are doing to reduce emissions in other ways.

Epicureans have to be totally behind what was agreed in Paris with regard to climate change, imperfect  though it is.  We are bequeathing potential chaos – the food, water and flooding problems , political upheavals, mass migration – to future generations.  Like the politicians, we too are imperfect when it comes to changing our habits and outlooks, but a pleasant life will be impossible if we don’t do our best. Most people are too preoccupied and busy to think about it.  Epicureans can set an example.

Delaying retirement (or never properly retiring)

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A study published recently in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease finds that working in one’s 60s and 70s is associated with better physical and mental health.

Epidemiologists from the University of Miami analyzed data from more than 85,000 adults age 65 and older. (The mean age was around 75.) In general, people who kept working were nearly three times as likely to report being in good health as those who had retired.

Compared with white-collar workers, blue-collar workers still on the job were 15 percent less likely to report multiple chronic diseases, like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. And all types of workers, in the service sector or white collar workers, part or full time, reported better mental health, compared with those who were retired or unemployed, although it couldn’t determine whether working leads to good health or if it’s good health that keeps people working.

“It’s kind of the chicken or egg problem,” Caban-Martinez says. “Maybe poor physical health is not allowing people to be in the workforce.”  (2015 NPR website)

Well, yes.  But you don’t have to work in an office, or similar, to get the same effect. What you need is a structured day and an occupation that challenges you and gives you satisfaction. Sometimes, it is only when faced with retirement that you discover talents that were never discovered by parents or educators.  In my own case the result is a busy “retirement” that involves no monetary income, but which is rewarding in ways money can’t buy. You never know what lurks within the human brain, and unfortunately schools are not always good at uncovering it, which is partly what they are there to do. Do you think school did a good job at “bringing out” your own talents?

Words of the wise

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“To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves”.  (Aldous Huxley, quoted in The Times)

Yes, those who repress free thought in China, try to force their extreme religious ideas on others, support guns for everyone (and so on, ad infinitum), all these people genuinely believe they are right, that they fulfill a vital public service, or even believe that they are carrying out the will of God.  How one combats this has always been a conundrum.  Regrettably, everything starts young and in the schoolroom.  What we should be advocating to youngsters  is the humanist, gentle, decent ideas of Epicurus and others who believe in freedom, not license; consideration, not bullying; sharing, not selfishness; enjoyment of life, not hunger and stress; sufficiency, not excess.  Were you taught this when young or shown it by example, or is it common sense?  I would like to think you can teach good behaviour and citizenship, and set a good example.