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RE: Quit blocking my sun, would 'ya please

in #greek-trail7 years ago (edited)

Great moments you spent.. Alexander has nothing to teach you: he was a cruel, violent egomaniac. You can learn things about how to plan and improvise a battle from his battles, including perseverance (e.g. look at the battle of Tyre). You can learn things about how to lead warriors in repeated battles by force of example (he fought at the front with his soldiers). These aren't the types of lessons useful to anyone other than military historians and, to a lessor extent (since warfare has changed substantially) modern generals. He is hardly a a role model to us but instead proof of vaingloriousness and lack of respect for other humans (he killed his best friend in a drunken rage).

Diogenes is a different case. He viewed himself as above states (like Mos Def apparently), was happy sleeping in a jar, and had no problems criticizing both Alexander and Plato. He was an iconoclast and true to himself. I wouldn't suggest sleeping in a jar, but suspect we all could learn to be more suspicious of authority figures (say, Donald Trump). He disavowed caring about death, got rid of his only bowl when he say a poor boy drinking using his hands, and sounds like a royal pain in the butt to be around, but had a refreshingly simple and honest lifestyle that no one but Indian holy men probably could manage.

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Alexander has nothing to teach you

That is certainly not true! Actually you can learn a lot of things, but I will mention what was more important for me.

On his death bed, Alexander summoned his generals and told them his three ultimate wishes:

  1. The best doctors should carry his coffin
  2. The wealth he has accumulated (money, gold, precious stones) should be scattered along the procession to the cemetery, and
  3. His hands should be let loose, hanging outside the coffin for all to see.
    One of his generals who was surprised by these unusual requests asked Alexander to explain.

Here is what Alexander the Great had to say:

  1. I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that, in the face of death, even the best doctors in the world have no power to heal
  2. I want the road to be covered with my treasure so that everybody sees that material wealth acquired on earth, stays on earth
  3. I want my hands to swing in the wind, so that people understand that we come to this world empty handed and we leave this world empty handed after the most precious treasure of all is exhausted, and that is TIME.

1200px-The_Death_of_Alexander_the_Great_after_the_painting_by_Karl_von_Piloty_(1886).jpg

Just because Alexander the Great was probably a sociopath doesn't mean that we should not remember him and his achievements. What is admired in a person has varied considerably through the ages and we should not judge the past by the values and morals of today.

"What is admired in a person has varied considerably through the ages and we should not judge the past by the values and morals of today."
That's Wisdom right there!! I am horrified at the tendency today, in the news, academia, films, this PC nonsense where historical figures are held up to today's standards and norms. The arrogance is repulsive. What makes these Puritans so sure that future generations will not do the same to them?

There we go! Alexander and the Donald are misunderstood geniuses :-)

Lord Acton covered this well in his oft repeated quote: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." That covers the Alexanders and Caesars of the past, and the Left, Right, and everything in-between of today. We will always have tyrants as long as half the people support Right wing tyrants, and half support Left wing ones. Abraham Lincoln was considered a tyrant by many Americans in his day, only to be lionized and deified later. Same with FDR. Reagan has been sanitized by the historians, just as George W. Bush, the butcher of Iraq has been. They're all monsters. Partisan politics feeds them.

I withdrew my "consent to be governed" from without long ago :-)

My Ruler is my Conscience which I access by going within. I believe my Conscience to be informed by my Creator.

There is nothing more conducive to Liberty than an honest man with a conscience; one who thinks for himself, and resists the herd instinct. Enjoy your travels and stay safe!
I followed you today based on your refreshing outlook, and the Diogenes post. I inherited this pen and ink of Diogenes in his “barrel” from a great-uncle. Done in 1917, its a copy of the Gerome painting.

Fabulous!

Thanks, I think so too.

Why does everyone pick on Donald Trump?

Because he's vulgar and incompetent. Because he's misogynistic, materialistic and short-sighted.

Because he is corrupt and actively encourages nepotism. Because, he's thin-skinned, vain and vindictive. Because, he promotes hatred of immigrants and Muslims and is dividing the US, dangerously, while picking fights with the rest of the world.

And, yet, he might just well be the wake up call we needed:

https://steemit.com/story/@yahialababidi/our-wounds-are-peepholes-to-see-the-world-wound-a-plea-for-global-citizenship

Wow, have you ever been programmed! But I guess it's relaxing to never have to think for yourself.

Hook, line, and sinker.

I’m sorry I had to unfollow you, especially as I admire Greece’s generosity in receiving refugees and their noble, ancient philosophy.

Can you imagine a truly independent thinker, like Diogenes, defending the likes of Trump?

Do you not see the irony that in a post like this you do not understand ‘why everyone is picking on DT?

Because He’s Blocking Our Light!

I have seen interviews with college students in America asking them what they thought of a list of proposals in Bernie Sander's economic package. They all replied that they thought it was "wonderful".

They were then told that they were actually proposals taken from Trump's economic package. LOL

My point is not that Trump is great, or even good. My point is that you have been programmed just like those students in the interview.

Thank you for unfollowing me. I do not enjoy conversing with bots or humans with programmed opinions.

Touche' onceuponatime!!

I’m not a college student, I’m an author of 7 books and, as an immigrant and Muslim living in the Divided States of America, an activist & concerned world citizen.

I urge you to read my personal essay, below, on our wounded world and tell me if you still think I’m programmed:

https://steemit.com/story/@yahialababidi/our-wounds-are-peepholes-to-see-the-world-wound-a-plea-for-global-citizenship

Thank you,
Yahia

I read this:
"Because he's vulgar and incompetent. Because he's misogynistic, materialistic and short-sighted.

Because he is corrupt and actively encourages nepotism. Because, he's thin-skinned, vain and vindictive. Because, he promotes hatred of immigrants and Muslims and is dividing the US, dangerously, while picking fights with the rest of the world."

by you.

For you to say this about someone you have never met, taking your opinions pre-formed from manipulative, agenda driven media (or other even more nefarious sources), tells me much more about you than him. In fact, it tells me nothing about him. It is pretty well a meaningless rant. But it does tell me that, since you call him "incompetent", which by any definition of the word I know he clearly is not, you and I do not share a common language and it would be a tragic waste of my time to read your writings.

@yahialabadidi
Your rant is unoriginal, required no thought, and could have been copied and pasted from a thousand different articles in a hundred different languages. For such a spiritual person you sure carry a lot of hate brother. The spiritual man transcends, the petty man descends......into the cacophony of the zeitgeist.