Lucretius of...San Francisco?

Pleasant it is, when over the great sea the winds shake the waters,
To gaze down from shore on the trials of others;
Not because seeing other people struggle is sweet to us,
But because the fact that we ourselves are free from such ills strikes us as pleasant.
Pleasant it is also to behold great armies battling on a plain,
When we ourselves have no part in their peril.
But nothing is sweeter than to occupy a lofty sanctuary of the mind,
Well fortified with the teachings of the wise,
Where we may look down on others as they stumble along,
Vainly searching for the true path of life.

Wow. If I didn't know better, I certainly would have thought this was written by someone sitting on the city council of San Francisco (or perhaps on the 9th Circuit Court). But no. Lucretius was a first century B.C. poet and philosopher who espoused the Epicurean school of thought in his work, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things).

Go figure. With all the looking down on others' trials and stumbling, finding pleasure in watching armies battle while you avoid peril, and thinking that "nothing is sweeter than to occupy a lofty sanctuary of the mind," I thought it had San Francisco written all over it.

They don't want their citizens to be able to protect themselves. They think they know better than and should have the right to supercede parents when it comes to their own children. They don't want to have anything to do with our military unless it serves a political purpose or opens a channel for federal funding.

Maybe this Lucretius fellow was a poet, a philosopher, AND a prognosticator. Perhaps if I keep reading I'll find that Lucretius wrote a character who rebukes this self-centered, arrogant philosophy and calls instead for the common sense of consequences for an irresponsible ideology. Is it possible that Lucretius prognosticated San Francisco AND Bill O'Reilly?

Grudgingly cooperating with the Uncooperative Blogger
Glad The Political Teen isn't politically correct
Gettin' the hookup at Cao's Blog
Gettin' red up with The Blue State Conservative
Sit back and enjoy some Euphoric Reality

Bill O'Reilly
San Francisco
Philosophy
Epicurean