I had been watching and reading too much of the news cycle; my mind was a cracked and scrambled egg.
So, I picked up a very old book as a means of trying to put my Humpty Dumpty brain back together again.
I started reading excerpts from the Roman Lucretius, and slowly I felt more at ease, as though I was picking up on a long-lost conversation with an old friend. I imagine Lucretius himself felt he was speaking with a long-lost friend when he wrote "On the Nature of Things" as an ode to the Greek philosopher Epicurus.
Though only fragments of Epicurus' philosophy have survived from antiquity, his influence has proved to be monumental to us moderns. His thoughts inspired many Enlightenment thinkers such as Pierre Gassendi, John Locke and Isaac Newton and even appear to have intuited the insights of classical liberals and modern libertarians from Thomas Jefferson to Friedrich Hayek to Ayn Rand.
So, who was this Epicurus?
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher who claimed the cosmos was eternal and merely material, made up of atoms and void. Yet, breaking with his predecessor Democritus, he considered the universe indeterminate.
In the realm of ethics, Epicurus taught that the purpose of human life was the pursuit of happiness, which could be achieved by the measured study of the natural world and adherence to a prudent and temperate hedonism.
He considered friendship as the utmost means of securing wisdom, saying, "Friendship dances around the world, bidding us all to awaken to the recognition of happiness.”
He advised men to avoid vain ambitions such as the pursuit of fame, exorbitant wealth and political power for their own sake. Rather, he thought wise men would be "strong and self-sufficient" and "take pride in their own personal qualities not in those that depend on external circumstances."
To Epicurus, pain is a natural evil and pleasure a natural good, with the ultimate pleasure being the absence of bodily pain and the tranquility of the mind.
From his letter to Menoeceus:
“When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do by some through ignorance, prejudice, or willful misrepresentation. By pleasure, we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is not an unbroken succession of drinking-bouts and of revelry, not sexual lust, not the enjoyment of the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the greatest tumults take possession of the soul.”
Nevertheless, because Epicurus claimed the ultimate aim of happiness is to find pleasure, many of his contemporaries and later critics would uncharitably accuse him of advocating debauchery, one even saying he “vomited twice a day from over-indulgence,” and that his understanding of philosophy was wanting.
One might hear the very same smear today from mainstream American partisans in regard to libertarians, i.e. libertarians are simply libertines who barely understand life and are too drunk on utopian dreams to see clearly. In this same vein, many reproached Epicurus for his aloof stance on politics as apathetic and his notion of justice as too transactional.
“Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit,” wrote Epicurus in his Principal Doctrines, “to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.” Elsewhere he wrote, “We must free ourselves from the prison of public education and politics.”
This is only scratching the surface, but the more I have studied Epicurus, the more I have found peace of mind. The more I immerse myself in his teaching, the more I can feel my cynicism melt away.
Of course, Epicurus alone is not enough to cure the cynicism in my heart, but by heeding his advocacy of prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice and friendship, I suspect I am halfway there.
I am pleased to say, “I too am an Epicurean,” just as Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend in 1819.
In fact, Mr. Jefferson goes on in his 1819 letter to William Short to show a penchant for synthesis and thoughtfulness rarely seen in American politics today:
“I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us. Epictetus indeed has given us what was good of the stoics; all beyond, of their dogmas, being hypocrisy and grimace…But the greatest of all the reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by its lustre from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the diamond from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man…Epictetus and Epicurus give laws for governing ourselves, Jesus a supplement of the duties and charities we owe to others.”
How remarkable that here we have Mr. Jefferson, in a single letter, spotlighting the 2000-year balancing tension at the bottom of Western civilization — a synthesis of Greek, Roman and Christian virtue guided by the light of reason and God’s grace.
Put simply, the Greek and Roman virtues are prudence, temperance, courage and justice; the Christian virtues are the virtues of faith, hope and love — but the greatest of these is love.
By this standard, American politics has largely lost its balance, in my estimation. Our daily news cycle shows us an outright cynical game enough to scramble anyone’s brain. Where are our prudence and temperance in the face of false binary choices and ultimatums offered by the political propaganda? Where is our courage and hope in the face of our so-called leaders’ fear-mongering? Where are our sense of justice and love for those both foreign and domestic who wish to live differently and at peace? Where is our faith in something beyond this fallen world?
Life without reason, indeed, produces monsters, but reason without hope in our character as a people, without a willingness to dream beyond the whims and vain ambitions of the political moment, without an enduring faith in God, produces an arid landscape for the mind. Little can grow in such a climate other than resentment, apathy and conflict.
So, my message is to keep your wits about you, don’t let the airwaves scramble your mind, and remember the proud traditions of your ancestors long gone but never quite dead.
Pick up a very old book once in a while, and you may be reminded to seek happiness with zeal – in friendships and long conversations, in the pleasures nature’s God has provided us, in the fruits of our reason and our faith, and in the avoidance of our vain ambitions for power over others.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and currently, the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 9 am-12noon. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback please email newsandviews931@gmail.com. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
