Ryen David

Sky High

Tetrapharmakos

It was originally a compound of 4 drugs (wax, resin, tallow, pitch), but in the case of Epicurus it is meant metaphorically and only that… and the healing refers to the healing of the soul.

Don’t fear god,
Don’t worry about death;
What is good is easy to get, and
What is terrible is easy to endure

Don’t fear god
As a prelude to “Don’t worry about death,” the concept of “god” in Epicurus’ time was incompatible to Epicurus’ beliefs. The worrying about whether or not the gods are concerned about the actions of human beings and the amount of observance and worship ascribed to them, was the general relationship of man’s belief to the gods’ purpose and temperament. But Epicurus and many other Greeks at the time conceived the gods to be a hypothetical state of bliss rather than higher bodies of judgment; they are undestructable entities that are completely invulnerable, enviable to mortals, and, most importantly, unconcerned about anything beyond the bliss and happiness they represent. They are mere role models for human beings “who emulate the happiness of the gods, within the limits imposed by human nature.”

Don’t worry about death
As D. S. Hutchinson wrote concerning this line, “While you are alive, you don’t have to deal with being dead, but when you are dead you don’t have to deal with it either, because you aren’t there to deal with it.” In Epicurus’ own words, “Death means nothing to us…when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist,” for there is no afterlife after we die. Death, says Epicurus, is the greatest anxiety of all, in length and intensity. This anxiety about death impedes the quality and happiness of one’s life by the theory of afterlife: the worrying about whether or not one’s deeds and actions in life will translate well into the region of the gods, the wondering whether one will be assigned to an eternity of pain or to an eternity of pleasure.

What is good is easy to get
Sustenance and shelter, these things can be acquired by anyone—by both animal and human—with minimal effort, regardless of wealth. But if one wants more than one needs (over indulgency, gluttony, etc.), one is limiting the chances of satisfaction and happiness, and therefore creating a “needless anxiety” in one’s life. “What is good is easy to get” implies that the minimum amount of necessity it takes to satisfy an urge is the maximum amount of interest a person should have in satisfying that urge.

What is terrible is easy to endure
The Epicureans understood that, in nature, illness and pain is not suffered for very long, for pain and suffering is either “brief or chronic…either mild or intense, but discomfort that is both chronic and intense is very unusual; so there is no need to be concerned about the prospect of suffering.” Like “What is good is easy to get,” recognizing one’s physical and mental limit and one’s threshold of pain—understanding how much pain the body or mind can endure—and maintaining confidence that pleasure only follows pain (and the avoidance of anxiety about the length of pain), is the remedy against prolonged suffering.

Marvin Gaye "What's Going On / What's Happening Brother"

You Are Already Naked

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”  —  STEVE JOBS, in a commencement address at Stanford, 2005.

Watch The Throne

It’s a mad world out there.

The police state and the greatest transfer of wealth upward in human history….which is still accelerating.

Watch The Throne is symbolic of how most people in the 1st world are being treated:
“Convince the broke to invest in the rich.”

Create a shared experience so that they can give money to wealthy people that are openly mocking them about having more than they do.

For the sake of a shared experience, sell people on the idea that if they work hard enough, they can become rich. Then as banks and politicians collapse the economy by treating markets like gambling casinos, use the people’s tax money to finance the playing without paying. The only consequences are for the poor. Loss of jobs, loss of security. You cannot afford health care.

For the sake of a shared experience, sell people on the concept of home ownership - “purchasing” land that nobody really owns with an underlying right of refusal. So if you miss some payments - no home. Don’t pay taxes - no home. It’s only your “right” to own it until they exercise eminent domain.

For the sake of a shared experience, force media to showcase false equivalencies as valid. Fair and balanced means trumpeting failed far-right ideologies where the only thing that trickled down is poverty. The only thing running for office is fascism. The only right you really have is the right to agree, to acquiesce. To road to slavery paved by conservative and libertarian manifestos where corporations are people and money makes freer speech. Class warfare waged and won by the wealthy.

The streets were watching once. Indeed. Now?

Watch The Throne.

#firstworldproblems

Yep

Tyler Durden & Fight Club Redux.