Talk:Doctrine 40/@comment-3069206-20100918001224

I think this is Epicurus at his most sardonic.

Yes, you might be happy with your huge security. You might enjoy your parties behind your electric fence and high walls. You might be delighted with your comfortably exclusive life.

However, you can't expect to be genuine friends with your neighbours. They'll not shed any tears when you die.

This is a surprising sentiment from Epicurus, I think. It reads to me almost like an envious remark - perhaps directed to a smug and secure acquaintance of his.

After all, he's been saying, in earlier doctrines, how important it is to be self-sufficient. He has talked about not having a fear of death. He has also spoken about the value of having friends.

This person, smug and secure, has managed all Epicurus precepts. All he has is the fear of having no neighbours at his funeral.

Is Epicurus really, really saying that there's a value in having lots of mourners at your funeral?

It might have been important, in his time, but surely Epicurus would have seen it as an empty feat, when you are dead.

It does seem to me that this is the least Epicurean of his sayings. Maybe that's why it is the 40th.

What he really, I think, is saying is: Don't be a smug bastard.

He can't put his finger on exactly why it's wrong to be a smug bastard, but he doesn't like it.

Fair enough, really, nobody likes a smug bastard. But, in Epicurean terms, what's the real problem?