I wanted to finish sunday’s piece on Epicurus’ asceticism with a lengthy quote from G. K. Chesterton’s Four Faultless Felons. [gutenberg] Chesterton can be relied upon to flip things beautifully on their head, and he does so.
Jean Meslier
“You know,” said he, “my brethren, my disinterestedness; I do not sacrifice my belief to any vile interest. If I embraced a profession so directly opposed to my sentiments, it was not through cupidity. I obeyed my parents. I would have preferred to enlighten you sooner if I could have done it safely. You are witnesses to what I assert. I have not disgraced my ministry by exacting the requitals, which are a part of it.
When someone says “Epicurean” what comes to mind? Usually, it’s hedonism – life spent in the pursuit of pleasure. If we were raised in a christian tradition, we might even hear “Epicurean” as slightly louche or sexually promiscuous. Epicureans, many of us think, are the sort who wear velvet smoking jackets and snort cocaine off the upturned buttocks of prostitutes.
There was some discussion on bread, recently, which got me to thinking about…. Popovers!
Popovers are legendarily difficult to make. It is a false legend, put out by people who want you to not have popovers. Once you know how to make them, you can have them any time and you can impress your friends and be the envy of your enemies. Or, if you don’t have any friends, you can get some, lured in with the smell of cooking popovers.
Terrorism is the process of manipulating the public’s perception through the fear of violence.
It may be that we’re looking at some “parallel construction” [wikipedia] here; this sounds a bit dodgy.
To some of my earlier comments about ‘tradecraft’ – if you’re interested in how good the retro-scope is: you definitely want to read this. [dailybeast]
Voltaire by Houdon
The present births, supposedly, the future. Events are chained, one another, by an invincible fate; it is this destiny that, in Homer, is more powerful than Jupiter, himself.
When I was a kid, the UK police made a big deal out of how they didn’t carry guns, but not anymore. Terrorism is starting to pull the police away from the people and increase the separation between the government and the governed.
It turns out that a large number – possibly several hundred – of the antisemitic bomb threats that have been coming in to Jewish community centers around the US, originate from one very sad puppy in Israel.
I’m not sure what the correct term for this is, perhaps “halo effect” or maybe it’s “transferrence” or just plain old “confirmation bias” but there’s a weird thing humans do, when they notice that someone is knowledgeable about X they sometimes get super impressed and assume that person is also knowledgeable about Y and maybe Z. I think it’s “confirmation bias” – but I’m skeptical of terminology in general.