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I think we're on the verge of unprecedented censorship, with the next frontier being banned from financial transactions if you don't have "social credits" acceptable to the major banks. Very scary stuff so it will pay to be as careful as possible.

Godfrey this "live unknown" is a phrase that Epicurean commentators talk about a lot, but I think it needs to be considered VERY carefully. It comes to us without any context in an Epicurean text, I believe through Plutarch (?) (I will look it up after I finish this note.) People who take a very passivist/quietist view of Epicurus construe it strongly as if it were written in stone for all contexts, while I think a more balanced view is that - like most of his doctrines - how to apply it depend…

Still haven't found the cite yet, but this is an explanation of how this doctrine was qualified, from Chapter 4 of EAHP --- https://newepicurean.com/a-tim…fe-the-cincinnatus-model/

Good grief, I hope that THIS is not the only source of this phrase. I am remembering Plutarch but so far this is all I can find: Plutarch, Is "Live Unknown" a Wise Precept? 3, p. 1129A: {Rhetorically addressing Epicurus} Don’t send books everywhere to advertise your wisdom to every man and woman ... What sense is there in so many tens of thousands of lines honoring Metrodorus, Aristobulus, and Chaeredemus, and published with so much industry that they cannot remain unknown even after they’re dea…

This is typical of what I see. From Bailey, it is included in a list with absolutely no context whatsoever. I begin to suspect that the Plutarch reference above (hardly a friendly source) is the only real cite: https://archive.org/stream/Epi…7/mode/2up/search/unknown

I am so glad you asked the question Godfrey - I am reviewing this now -- here is the cite -- https://archive.org/stream/mor…2/mode/2up/search/unknown

(Quote from Godfrey) I have come to think that that is one of the most important aspects of understanding Epicurean philosophy. In the absence of gods or of central points of reference within the universe or of "fate" which would serve as a guarantee that the same action in human affairs would always produce the same result, it doesn't seem possible that it is even possible that there could be a set of absolute rules that applies in all situations. That's a pretty disconcerting realization for t…