{"id":9212,"date":"2012-11-15T04:35:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T04:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2012\/11\/15\/epicurus-has-some-sex-advice-for-general-petraeus-et-al\/"},"modified":"2012-11-15T04:35:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T04:35:00","slug":"epicurus-has-some-sex-advice-for-general-petraeus-et-al","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2012\/11\/15\/epicurus-has-some-sex-advice-for-general-petraeus-et-al\/","title":{"rendered":"Epicurus Has Some Sex Advice for General Petraeus, et al."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Epicurus (circa <\/em>341-271 B.C.) wrote the following to a disciple:<\/span><\/p>\n

I understand from you that your natural disposition is too much inclined toward sexual passion. Follow your inclinations as you will provided only that you neither violate the laws, disturb   well-established customs, harm any
\none of your neighbors, injure  your own body, nor waste your possessions. That you be not checked  by some one of these provisos is impossible; for a man never gets<\/em>  any good from sexual passion, and he is fortunate if he does not<\/em>  receive harm<\/em>. (Italics added, Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican<\/strong> Sayings<\/strong>, trans. R. M. Geer, Macmillan, 1987, pp. 69-70)<\/span><\/p>\n

Had Bill Clinton heeded this advice, kept his penis in harness, and his paws off the overweight intern, he might have left office with an impressive legacy indeed. But instead he will schlep down the  centuries tied to Monica like Abelard to Heloise — except for the fact that he got off a lot easier than poor Abelard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Closer to home is the case of Robert Blake<\/a> whose lust led him into a tender trap that turned deadly. He was very lucky to be acquitted of the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakeley. Then there was the case of the dentist whose extramural activities provoked his dentist wife to run him down with the family Mercedes. The Bard had it right: "Hell hath  no fury like a woman scorned."<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has secured himself a place in the annals of libertinage while wrecking his career.  Ah, those sophisticated Frenchmen<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

And let's not forget Eliot Spitzer <\/a>and now Generals Petraeus and Allen.<\/span><\/p>\n

This litany of career-ending, family-destroying woe can be lengthened ad libitum<\/em>. My motive is not <\/span>
Schadenfreude<\/em>, but a humble desire to learn from the mistakes of others. Better that they rather than I should pay my tuition in the school of Hard Knocks.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Heed me, muchachos<\/em>, there is no more delusive power on the face of the  earth than sex. Or as a Turkish proverb has it, Erkegin sheytani kadindir<\/em>, "Man's devil is woman." <\/span><\/p>\n

And conversely.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Epicurus (circa 341-271 B.C.) wrote the following to a disciple: I understand from you that your natural disposition is too much inclined toward sexual passion. Follow your inclinations as you will provided only that you neither violate the laws, disturb   well-established customs, harm any one of your neighbors, injure  your own body, nor waste your … Continue reading “Epicurus Has Some Sex Advice for General Petraeus, et al.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sage-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}