Neo-Epicurean Life Hacks

[bennyboy]

Power comes with other stressors, however. Just look how quickly today's presidents and prime ministers age. It might be a life of a peasant is superior than that of a prince in terms of hedonic yield.

I'd argue that almost any peace-bringing arrangement that depends on external circumstances fits the same bill: to accept one's own fate, including the "suffering" that comes with it is better than to act in a way that one expects will bring happiness.

In my correspondence with Michael A. Aquino he confirmed that the original priesthood of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan had a more restrained behavioural philosophy close to Epicureanism (Aquino's own ethic is more Stoic), and current Church of Satan leader Peter H. Gilmore has described his ethics as Epicurean.

I don't know them personally, but I know that LaVey himself and some of his followers gave interviews which showed perhaps not humility, but definitely a no-nonsense simplicity in their answers. I like Marilyn Manson as a spokesperson for that brand of Satanism, as well.

Epicurus would have agreed with modern happiness research that, once a certain threshold of income is reached and a person is out of absolute poverty, social ties matter more than wealth in terms of securing happiness. Financial security is of course still highly important, but there are also other factors to consider.

That doesn't really seem like a philosophical position. I think 90% of people would tell you that they feel a little more money would free them, but a lot more would weigh too heavily on them.

For myself, I'm certainly not a strict Epicurean and differ on several points with Epicurus (and some dogmatic followers of him I have run into online). I find the highly pragmatic nature of (neo-)Epicurean philosophy quite refreshing though (combined with parts of Stoicism, which I will get into at a later date), and wish to develop it in a less dogmatic and more modern way.

In the end, my real issue with you right now is that I don't know what is different about (neo-)Epicureanism than what I already do, or than the majority of people I already know already do. You've described the use of wisdom to analyse various forms of information, with decisions based on what will benefit the self. Sounds like almost everyone I know, though different people succeed with this approach in varying degrees.

What piece am I missing that makes Epicureanism unique or rare enough to merit the term "life hack" ?