Empedocles & the Modern Human

Alright, so this is going to go a little bit differently this time. Usually I write these little entries with more of a expository quality to them, but the combination of ideas created in my mind is so fresh that its' want to be written was strong enough to stave off the sands of sleep. I found this comparison to be a useful tool in time of turmoil, such as the one we currently seem to be living nationally, if not globally.

First, facts. But this time instead of facts we are working with ideas and the instruction of an ancient life. Read further only with a slight suspension of ordinary personal biases, and the concrete logistics of the modern world.

There once lived a man in Acragas, a city on the southern coast of the island of Sicily. He was a bright man, and enjoyed both science and politics. This, as it usually did in those days, led to a rival political faction exiling him, starting his life as a wandering sage. He is said to have performed miracles. His mysticism hiding whether by science or magic. I'll let you decided which. He eventually met his end, by choice, inside a volcano. Or so it is said. Nevertheless, in his wanderings he mused and thought. He taught that air was a separate substance by holding a bucket upside down in water, and even extrapolated this to explain respiration.

This man believed in the four elements; earth, air, fire, and water, and that each of these things was everlasting and could be combines in different mixtures to produce the phenomenal world, that which humans observe. This mixtures, 'governed by chance and necessity' (B.Russell; History of Western Philosophy : p.55), were constantly combined and separated by the forces of love and strife. In this cycle, love combined while strife separated.

While I hope a sharpened mind, without bias would find this to be [phenomenologically] outrageous. It is sometimes important in times of great chaos and fear-mongering to allow some belief in what is outrageous.

As cliche and soft as it sounds we must find this love in ourselves to combine, to lose sight of the separating strife and honor this love by finding the similarity. By uniting our common aspirations and spreading this anti-poison to reverse the effects of bigotry and small-minded selfishness.

Seeing the news and observing the act that we put on the worlds stage, I know that we must do it soon if we are going to fulfill the oath of our forefathers and foremothers. To honor our fallen, those who gave everything to fight against subversion and for liberty. We must do this if we are to make a world that our children can, or will want to, live in. A place where all humans are created equal.

So, show love. Even in the most insignificant ways, you can cultivate a combination. Hold doors. Say please and thank you. Use your blinkers. Listen more than talk. Help a neighbor. Look for the similarity, and allow your love to bring the world forward out of chaos and others will follow.