Posted by Ion Saliu on June 28, 2000 (0 WE).

That is, "philosophy and wine; why not?"
I talked several times about the supreme principle of life: FearSurvival. My sketchy thoughts in this regard are the stuff the CompuPsychology page is made of. I said how FearSurvival created Philosophy in Ancient Greece. Probably natural catastrophes put in contact many populations of many religious beliefs. FearSurvival forced people to doubt religious faith. They realized there were so many gods and so little comfort for humans. The humans also realized that gods everywhere reflected the worst in humans. There was one common thread in all beliefs: the gods used their power with the utmost cruelty. Actually, that’s how humans behave at their worst. Philosophy was born from this doubt.

But why was philosophy born in Greece?, I asked myself. There must have been another element that stimulated reasoning. I believe I had the best explanation when I remembered the god of wine: Dionysus. The classical Greeks really celebrated him! No other god has ever been more joyfully celebrated than Dionysus (and his Roman replica, Bacchus). I made two more associations: “Wine unleashes the tongue” and “In vino veritas” = “The truth is in wine”.

All these made me strongly believe that philosophy was born in Ancient Greece because of wine, in addition to FearSurvival. The Greeks needed real courage to express their doubts outside religious frameworks. Wine gave them the courage to doubt, therefore reason; reason, therefore exist. I read again Plato’s Symposium, the great Dialogue of Love as a Universal virtue. They could not separate philosophy from wine during Socrates’ life (probably hundreds of years before that and after Socrates). One should go beyond the fact that “Symposium” describes a gathering of homosexual men. I have myself a problem with homosexuality. It ignores an essential principle of life: The unity of the opposites male and female. But nobody should use their power with cruelty against different behaviors. Just go back to wine. You can see how important wine was for philosophy back then. My, did they drink wine back then, or what? By the barrel! Wine was the fuel of the classical Greeks to reason and express their thoughts.

We need sometimes to take a strong, very strong position on some issues. To that goal, we need strong will, real courage to express our position. I did an experiment not long ago, over the past days (something like between June 18 – June 25, 0 WE). I made available a so-called lotto wheel and generated a heated debate in rec.gambling.lottery. The debate would have died soon, hadn’t I have used very strong words. I cannot duplicate such language, unless I use, guess what, wine. Actually, I used distilled wine at that time (a.k.a. cognac or brandy). I also needed it as medicine against my tooth infection. Even when some participants in the forum tried to soften me, I kept “hitting” them with strong language. The fact is, the results were remarkable. Many surpassed themselves and came up with their best ideas in the lottery field. I gained myself new perspectives. I pondered at this idea: wine stimulates reasoning. It gives courage, for one thing. It also intensifies the mental energy. More brain energy undoubtedly leads to new ideas. More courage, on the other hand, makes possible the expressing of new ideas. Now they seem to have a withdrawal in r.g.l. There are no longer strong viewpoints…
I will delve more deeply in this subject at a later time.

Speaking of new ideas, it was announced this week that the human genome project was completed. It is a very important achievement in human history. What bothered me was U.S President Clinton’s reaction: “The human genome represents the code GOD used to create life.” Clinton and God?! Clinton to make God the Chief Scientist of the Universe? I think it is a hypocritical statement. Clinton believes in god? NOT! It is the statement that falls into the same category as another famous one. Remember 1998? He pointed his “white plastic finger at us” (per Jimmi Hendrix): “I never had sexual relationships with (…) Miss Lewinsky…” I wonder how an intelligent man, married to such a brilliant woman, can behave that childishly?

See now how effective wine is in expressing the truth? I was not afraid to attack my “king”. The same way, the classical Greeks did not fear attacking, verbally, their kings or gods…

Long live wine! Why not?

Resources in Philosophy, Humans, Humanities, Ideas, Truth.
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