Politics across the West is hampered by clashes, discord, and deadlocks:
From the intractable special interests in Louisiana that scuttle efforts to bring necessary economic growth to the State;
To the Irish people’s protests against their government for its insane immigration policy;
To the Leftists of both France and Germany who are trying with all their might to keep the Right from having any influence in government;
To the tyrannical oligarchs who run the EU who likewise never miss an opportunity to abuse the European Right.
There is a particular philosophy at work behind this turmoil; the Metropolitan Bishop of Nafpaktos, Greece, Hierotheos, puts his finger on it – Epicureanism, which has four main principles:
1. Don’t fear God (divine power does not threaten man by nature because he does not concern himself with human things);
2. Don't worry about death (death does not cause anxiety, for there is no afterlife, since the soul is material);
3. What is good is easy to get (good is easily acquired through pleasures); and
4. What is terrible is easy to endure (we can easily endure evil).
This pagan spirit wars against virtue. The compiler of saints’ lives, Reverend Alban Butler of England, shows several examples of this at the end of his life of St Apollinaris of Ravenna (+1st century):
The virtue of the saints was true and heroic, because humble, and proof against all trials. That of the heathen philosophers was lame, and generally false and counterfeit, whence Tertullian calls the latter, Traders in fame. “Where is now the similitude,” says he, “between a philosopher and a Christian? a disciple of Greece and of heaven? a trader in fame, and a saver of souls? between a man of words and a man of works?” And St. Jerom writes: “A philosopher is an animal of fame, one who basely drudges for the breath of the people.” Lactantius severely rallies Cicero, because, though he was very sensible of the vanity of the worship then established, yet he would not have that truth told the people for fear of unhinging the religion of the state. . . . The philosophers did not love truth well enough to suffer for it. Plato dissembled for fear of Socrates’ hemlock; but the Christian religion raised its professors above all considerations present, for the joy that was set before them.
It is no wonder, then, that we have so much trouble in our politics, when the spirit of paganism pervades the West so deeply and widely. Returning to Bishop Hierotheos:
These Epicurean principles that were highlighted above prevail in many people in our days, which instead of medicine it is a great disease, and we cannot characterize this as progress of society, but as regression and life before Christ, especially for Christians!
Philosophy professor Haralambos Theodoridis in his classic work titled "Epicurus" and subtitled "The True View of the Ancient World", analyzes both the depth of Epicurean philosophy and the influence it had on the ancient world, but also on the modern world. He characteristically writes that "epicurean teaching became a unique leaven for later Antiquity, over five hundred years, starting from the early Hellenistic times of Rome, and the swallow of summer for modern years after the theological and idealistic flood that covered the world"!
He further writes that Epicurus reigns in Europe: "It was only natural for the reborn bourgeois intelligentsia of Europe to discover its affinity with the great enlightener of Antiquity. The whole, one might say, of modern science and the most genuine humanism follow the positive, unmythologized and immortal direction that he had mapped out."
Of course, we see this in the entire cultural, social and urban life of our country, where the Epicurean principles that center on man, pleasure, the rejection of the fear of death, the questioning of the existence of the soul after death, dominate everywhere.
The way out of our present miseries lies where it always has, in the Church. Daniil, the new Patriarch of the Orthodox Christians of Bulgaria, explains how this healing comes about:
“The role of the Church is precisely to show people that there’s a way. If a political crisis reaches a dead end and no understanding can be reached, the Church always points to this path, which is towards the Kingdom of God. The Lord has told us: Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” the Patriarch said.
“Our mission can be nothing other than testifying to our entrusted spiritual flock that the Lord Jesus Christ is with us. How will this happen? If we have love among us. This is also the main message we have for our spiritual flock: to love God. If we fulfill this, gradually all other problems will begin to be solved,” His Holiness said.
State power can’t solve the basic problems of man, which are related to the meaning of human life, to the salvation of the human soul, and the Church has shown that in this respect there is no alternative, Pat. Daniil said.
“Where there is alienation and pessimism, this is a consequence of sin. Sin acts in this way to turn us away from God, to discourage us, to stop us on this path. When there are relationships between us of human brotherhood, responsibility, care for each other, this will inevitably bring God’s paradise into our souls and it will become visible around us,” the Bulgarian primate emphasized.
Without the Grace and Love of God permeating a community, big or small, the result is the conflict, increasingly violent, that we all see and experience in government and outside of it. Whether it is the promotion of false gods or no gods (atheism), that is the result, says conservative writer John Horvat:
. . .
The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2024/07/garlington-epicurean-philosophy-and-a-broken-political-system/.
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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