Twice a month, The duty challenges enthusiasts of philosophy and the history of ideas to decipher a topical issue based on the theses of a prominent thinker.
For the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be signed by all representatives of member governments, the words must be chosen. “Immediately and drastically reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, profoundly transform our cities, our modes of transport and our diet. »
This serious and important text, taken from the summary for policymakers, was signed by 195 representatives. Since the first climate conference in Rio in 1992, the presidents of the United States have always protected theAmerican way of life ; we remember George Bush who then declared “we will never negotiate the way of life of the Americans”. However, today, 195 governments agree on a “change in our way of life”. Words are important.
But what should we mean by “lifestyles”? How can we transform our lifestyles? The Greek philosopher Epicurus (-342 to -270) can serve as our guide and inspiration. It can help us not only to find the right words for our present, but above all to reveal to us the principles of our next ways of living our daily lives.
Epicureanism is an old wisdom that never goes out of fashion. And if we enrich it with our new knowledge on hygiene, health and communications, in particular, it becomes a modern philosophy carrying a simple way of life no longer than voluntarily chosen, but reasoned, natural, libertarian and liberating. . A true neo-epicureanism is to be born, a new hedonism which would no longer be based on the pleasures of the unbridled consumption of consumerism, nor on the multiplication of needs created by advertising propaganda, but on a simple arithmetic of needs. In this century of imbalances and alleged shortages and rarities, a new spirit, a new conduct is needed.
The myth of scarcity
A question must first be asked: is man really an animal experiencing limitless needs? Do we live under the obligation to produce ever more, our resources being insufficient?
Several anthropologists, including Claude Lévi-Strauss, Marshall Sahlins, and Leslie White have demonstrated that societies with a “subsistence economy” manage to obtain the minimum necessary and do not experience infinite needs. The adult members of these societies show little concern for accumulating or storing, even if they know how to do it. To be satisfied with what is suitable for health and social balance is appropriate for them. The way of life of these societies clearly proves the fallacy of the “principle of scarcity”. Just because our resources are limited does not mean they are scarce; there is in fact scarcity only to the extent that our needs exceed the means we have of satisfying them. These human attitudes, very originally human, which consist in “desiring little” and “limiting needs” or, more simply, in satisfying only natural and necessary needs are found among the sages of the most civilized societies. Epicurus is one of the big ones.
Epicurus’ Four Remedies
Let’s review the basic principles of this philosopher who has made school. Everything rests on these four famous remedies (the Tetrapharmakos) which show us the path to follow, precisely the path proposed by the IPCC without having to explicitly use the same concepts, but while implying them.
The gods are not to be feared. Whether they are from mythology, Heaven, Olympus, Hollywood or Wall Street, they don’t care about us; their activities are only to be feared by those who believe in them. The exaggerated power of the masters of the world rests only on the trust placed in them. However, future citizens with a reasonable lifestyle will rely on knowledge and not on belief. The financial gurus will no longer have a hold on the autonomous libertarians that we will be.
Death is not to be feared. As long as we live the present intensely with full awareness, “as long as we are there, death is not there; when death is there, we are no longer there. It is only those who care about the future, the ambitious, the thirsty for wealth, power, glory and immortality who fear impermanence and loss.
We can remove the pain. This is even more true today than in the time of Epicurus, who personally suffered from renal colic and who, nevertheless, affirmed that “we suffer more from the idea of evil than from evil itself. Our modern medicine, thanks to palliative care, among others, realizes this Epicurean principle as never before.
You can achieve happiness. The intelligent regulation of human needs and desires brings “from here on earth, a blissful life.” This normalization, the authentic Epicureans call it the arithmetic of needs.
The arithmetic of needs
For a simple, independent life and not to be towed by progress, it must be radically rethought today. Epicurus thought that in his time – 24 centuries ago – the state of civilization was sufficiently advanced so that we had everything necessary to be happy, and that we could, each for himself, stop the march of progress. Now, what was true in Epicurus’ day is even more true today, so that it has become easier to live a happy sobriety by respecting the Epicurean practice of the following three types of needs.
Natural and necessary needs, that is to say those whose satisfactions are, by their nature, limited such as drinking, eating, protecting themselves from the cold, sheltering themselves… can be satisfied simply and without the requirement of superfluity for there to be balance. and homeostasis. “Not enough is enough, too much night! will repeat the citizens of tomorrow, knowing that human beings are not animals with unlimited needs.
Natural and unnecessary needs come to us from nature, it’s true, from culture too, but nothing obliges us to satisfy them completely; sexuality, gambling, aesthetics, the arts, dance, music, poetry, eroticism, communications… can be of great contentment, but nothing forces us to. Asceticism should not be a constraint, Epicurus teaches us: “If there is fish and wine, there is no reason to want only water and bread. The wise green citizen can be a taster, temperate, artist and… celibate.
In this XXIand century, without contravening the recommendations of the IPCC, the neo-epicurean can add to this arithmetic “needs that are not natural, but necessary” because they are determined by the evolution of human civilization. In his time, Epicurus made extensive use of writing and letter messaging, technologies that have improved enormously. We could no longer do without telecommunications, rapid means of transport and certain electronic devices; however, the satisfaction of these new needs would be legitimized but with respect for the human and natural environment.
Unnatural and unnecessary needs such as luxury, wealth, glory, fame, power… are needs whose satisfactions are unlimited, therefore producing scarcity, dissatisfaction and anxiety. These are needs created by “public opinion”, by economic and social pressures, by conformism, by increasingly targeted omnipresent advertising propaganda, always with the aim of making each of us consumers of trivialities. But it is these always unsatisfied satisfactions that complicate life, generate inequalities, create misery and attack nature. It is these insatiabilities that cause the false impression of scarcity. A “scarcity” which is not an intrinsic property of natural resources or of our technical means, but which arises from the unbalanced relationship between our limited means and our exorbitant ends.
Imagine that we would indeed stop desiring without limits, as the IPCC suggests today, without saying so explicitly; our entire capitalist world would collapse. Indeed, if there are no more “infinite needs”, there is no more scarcity. If natural and necessary desires were fully satisfied, prices would be zero and markets useless.
The sober and libertarian epicurean lives the present with confidence, prudence and joy. He takes care of his health first so as not to have to take care of his illnesses later. We all wish to live without aging, but, in the current state of our social urgencies to succeed, we age without living. Voluntary simplicity, happy sobriety, essentialist and minimalist movements — what I call neo-epicureanism — invite us to be gourmets of life, to taste what is necessary and natural and to enjoy its own autonomy and friendship.
It is in this spirit and this conduct, both new and eternal, that we will free ourselves from the illusions and nonsense of neoliberal propaganda disrespectful of human beings and nature.
Epicurus, underground writer of the IPCC report, is said to have concluded: “Let us give thanks to blessed Nature who has made the necessary things easy to attain and the hard to attain unnecessary. »
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