Ancient Greeks and ancient medicine

Social media isn't as fun as it used to be. The news isn't getting me as excited. My previous paradigm of being a pseudo-political junkie just isn't giving me the excitement and fun it used to. Which is good.

I'm reading more and consuming deeper content (I hate that we call entertainment/learning "content"). It feels like a period of growth. Like a retreat from the sun into the shadows. A place to stay for a while and regroup.

I say this as a recommendation to everyone. Take a step back, read an old book, and watch a well-made show on Netflix. Tucker Carlson will be there when you get back.

Aristotle

I'm still on my ancient Greece kick and am reading Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle either for the first time or for the first time in a while. I don't remember.

It's great. It should be required reading for all high school seniors. It's the guide to living the good life in 200 pages.

A section jumped out to me. It was on magnificence. Magnificence is the domain of great or rich men. Essentially men of means. Your average bloke doesn't have the capacity for magnificence. It's okay he can still live a virtues good life. 

But the magnificent man is he who "spends what is fitting on great occasions...the magnificent man is like a skilled artist; he can see what a case requires and can spend great sums tastefully." My first thought when reading this passage is how our billionaires suck. Our titans of industry are not magnificent. They have poor taste. They're miserly. They're selfish. "The magnificent man does not lavish money on himself, but on public objects; and gifts to strangers bear some resemblance to offerings to the gods."

Our great men don't believe in God or gods. So they make offerings to themselves. This is not a magnificent man. This is a vulgar hedonist wearing cheap sunglasses wearing an even cheaper woman.

Drugs man...🙄 

I'm listening to a stupid audiobook about psychedelic drugs. It's called The Immortality Key. Don't waste your time with it.

The author and everyone else in this space, i.e. Graham Handcock, have daddy issues, which makes them quasi-anarchists. They hate the current order. They hate the Catholic Church. And it comes through in their writings.

The book has two central points. 1. Ancient civilizations used psychedelics in their religious ceremonies and 2. Christianity, but really the Catholic Church, is evil because it suppressed an ancient religion. my thoughts on both points:

Point 1, This is such an obvious statement it insults me that the author thinks this is a surprise. The first half of the book treats this like a grand revelation. Dude, the word is φαρμακεία. Whenever the Bible mentions magic and sorcery, it almost always refers to psychedelics or magic potions. The story of the Bible could be boiled down to God and his chosen people against the Pagan sorcerers.

It's not some big revelation that the ancient Greeks, and probably the modern Greeks, love to do drugs. It was the norm.

Point 2, This is what religions do. Get over it. 

A final thing about this book: he talks about climate change and feminism a lot. This book is supposed to be about ancient civilizations and drug use over the last several thousand years. Those topics don't need to come up, and he gives himself away in doing so.

Now I find the topic of psychedelic drug use interesting. I'm a devout Catholic, and the strongest drug I've ever taken was a 9% IPA that I chugged at the Philadelphia international airport before getting on a plane because I have a fear of flying. So I'm not a drug guy. My interest in the subject is simple: What if what druggies see on their trips is to be taken seriously?

The ancients took it seriously. The Catholic Church takes it seriously. Most cultures and people that have existed have taken psychedelic experiences seriously. In fact, the only people who don't take it seriously are the people taking the drugs and yelling at us that we don't take it seriously.

It's obnoxious. And it's clear these people haven't grappled with the arguments from people who oppose them. They, like all atheists, are undefeated against strawmen.

What I'm consuming this week:

• Nicomachean ethics by Aristotle (book)

• The Walking Dead on Netflix (TV series)

• The Immortality Key (audiobook)

• The Sovereign Individual (book)

• Helsreach (audiobook about Warhammer 40k)

• Never Finished by David Goggins (audiobook)

I don't have any good podcasts at the moment. People got too good at them and they're getting boring.