Epicurus lived between about 340 and 270 years before our common era. Like any Greek of his age (for he was Greek) he had a wifey, slaves, concubines and little boys who did what they were told. This allowed him the time to not only get famous but be remembered. Despite very little of his writing remaining, and despite the not unimportant fact that what remains is not in the Vatican library, his ideas and the school of thought they founded have popped up again and again in Western Civilisation's cultural development. Karl Marx wrote his doctoral thesis on "The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature." Democritus was another Greek who invented the atom and by-election. He had very little to do with the modern concept of epicurianism. That's a movement to add carbon footprints and foodmiles to your grub and thus show how above monkeys and other humans your larder fare is. Epicurius wasn't really a gluton or else Dante when writing his Inferno guide to hell would have put him with the obese. Instead Dante put Epicurius in Canto X at the 6th Circle. That was or is or would be (depending on how you understand Dante) just three circles away from the bad-man-prince-of-darkness devil himself. Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote 19th century pulp fiction about the bad-man-prince-of-darkness devil's son, cited Epicurus in his work "The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil". Nietzshe wasn't gay, the word meant something else then.

But I'm not here on this comment to dish western philosophy or pot it in a hermetic jar.

oh no.

I'd just like to wonder at the Epicurian sentiment which Jefferson expressed in his declaration of independence. It was a very wonderful text which he wrote in 1776 and because nobody else had written a good alternative, it became the founding document and legalistic shiboleth fetishised totem of all Americans to this very day.

oh yes.

Nobody turned around and suggested Thomas Jefferson be excluded from the group paintings of slave owning men who had signed the document. He was with the "in crowd". But it is pretty certain he didn't really like all the people who in time put their grubby names on his text. This is often the way with declarations. Take my advice and don't write them. Most people who bought a copy of the Declaration or who wanted to be seen in a big oil painting signing it, as I've already mentioned, were slave owners, & quite probably on their way to one of Dante's circles (if you believe in that sort of thing). They didn't sign up to an Epicurian triad. They probably didn't even know Jefferson was ripping Epicurus off. They wanted their paws on a bit of paper which told the King of England to fuck off. They figured that would give them a better slice of Ohio. They were mostly correct as well. Soon enough they brought Jefferson's name through the scandal sheets because he had a baby with a woman who had high melanin content and was under their laws of self-evident equality "a slave".

Otherwise he would have been a president of the USA.

Just like Obama.

Happy July 4th!
For me it is the day Scientologist movie stars finally kick reptilian alien ass.

"The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did it would prove a serious threat to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square." - Oscar Wilde.

Thankfully Mick Jagger witnessed the 1968 riot and wrote a song "Street Fighting Man".

There has been no riot on the square in the 50 years since.

Yes, freedom and independence have always had their limitations and caveats...and that's why we're inviting you all to come and discuss/debate this concept with us. For us, the freedom of 10s of 1000s of people (including the 800+ held now or at some point at GTMO) have been undermined by the war on terror in the name of safeguarding "our freedom". Held without trial or charge, tortured, with no access to legal or medical assistance or their families...is this freedom as we know it?

Thanks for the 1968 reminder too - protesting on a weekly basis outside the US Embassy (6-7pm on Fridays), we are all too aware of how unwelcome protesters are outside the embassy of the land of the free and the home of the brave...

See you there!

I just noticed the two URLs are joined, should read  http://www.guantanamo.org.uk/ and www.peopleincommon.org

Also, I've just set up a Facebook group for the 4th-10th July and beyond proposed picnic programme, you can access it by searching under the name Freedom Picnic Campaign.

Pls join up, forward around and if you feel the urge, get picnicking!

Best wishes. M