The Stoics Always End Up Ruling the Epicureans

“From Zeno of Tarsus to Paul of Tarsus was but a step.” – Will Durant

The farther you look back into history, the farther you can see into the future.

I have a minor in Philosophy, and about the only things I remember are a class in Buddhism and a class in Greek philosophy, which also meant Greek history. And pretty much all our intellectual ideas came out of Greece – about 2500 years ago.

The Greeks discussed everything and they figured out solutions for every problem people have. Even our country was founded on what some of the Greeks thought – and some of their intellectual Roman descendants, such as Cicero.

Epicurus was not an Epicurean, not in the degraded modern sense as someone who devotes his life to pleasure. But much of the Manosphere, as it stands today, is Epicurean in the degraded sense. One only needs to read the sites of the foul Roissy and Roosh. Both of whom are degraded (I suspect Roissy is a Jew, and there is a good reason Christianity overwhelmed Judaism, just the way Stoicism always beats Epicureanism).

Epicurus thought the purpose of philosophy was to free men from fear, although the modern degraded ones think its purpose is to free men from all responsibility.

I recently pointed out that the more ridiculous ideas in the Manosphere will never last and will be transformed by the Alt Right, which is in many ways Stoic (and what most people perceive as “Stoic” is not what it originally was). Although “Alt Right” is its current name or sooner or later it might get another one.

This is one of the reasons I think Trump will win. In some ways he comes across as a Stoic (at least compared to the brain-damaged, drug-addled, alcoholic, degraded Bush and Clinton crime clans). He certainly uses some Stoic ideas (“making America great again” is the same thing as freeing the people from fear), which resonates with the American people.

For that matter, “conservatives” (the real ones) are far more Stoic than liberals, all of whom are Epicureans. That’s the real divide between them, although today I hear discussions about the modern equivalents of K and r reproductive strategies.

What we’re dealing with here, ultimately, is ethics – what is the good life? (Not surprisingly, the Stoics influenced early Christianity). And not surprisingly, our degraded “elites” barely have any ethics, unless one wants to consider love of money and political power ethical.

The good life certainly isn’t devoting your life to sex and women as “plates” (the ancient Greeks – and Christianity even today – realizes that those who devote their lives to physical pleasure always become degraded. This I have seen more than once).

The ancient Stoics clearly saw the basic problem of their age – the collapse of the theological basis of morality. They tried to fix it by bridging the gap between philosophy and religion. It sort of worked, for a while. Then, ultimately, Christianity showed up and transformed everything.

Our degraded Epicurean “elites” – all of who have money, drug and sex problems – no longer believe in religion. That’s for the unwashed masses. Hence Brak Yomama’s comment about people in Flyover Land clinging to “their guns and religion.”

Possibly the oldest problem in the world is class warfare – when the greedy and power-mad grain control of the government and crush everyone else. This never lasts and sooner or later this kakistocracy is always overthrown. Sometimes they lose their heads or end up hanging upside down by their heels from a lamp post.

As that modern saying tells us, history may not repeat but it does rhyme. And no great nation is ever conquered until it has destroyed itself. We’re not anywhere near there yet but our “elites” are doing their best to bring it on.