The impotence of politicians: their obvious collaboration with irresponsible and immature religions and their clergy ... the endless stream of words from the majority of intellectuals and academics from their schools and universities... all these showing off before the crowds in display of their great thirst for power... the stoicism and miserable acceptance of fate that one sees everywhere in the majority of members of so many organizations... the dedication to idealism and imagination rather than to facts of reality, displayed by all those who follow them ... all this lead to the decadence we see whichever way we look!
When in this state civilization is confronted with the real pain of a devastating pandemic, everything collapses like a tree that has no roots, no trunk, and no leaves. That is to say, the existing rot explains everything: the cause, the result, and the consequence that leads to the breakdown of our modern societies.
All these phenomena Epicurus saw in his own time, and called out as boasting or arrogance -- some others call it "hubris" against Nature, which they view as their Nemesis - their enemy. To have an enemy or a Nemesis is not a teleological fact or a necessity - it is not a thing of idealism. Our real Nemesis is our inability to have prudence, that is, to realize and to predict that in life things are not going always going to be "milk and honey."
Thus, we can no longer measure rightly those who are our friends and those who are not. Prudence is what makes us capable and ready to act to remove that which is painful. It is for that reason that all virtue flows from prudence, which teaches us that no one can live life pleasantly without prudence, honesty, beauty, health, and justice...and of course also without real friends.
No, thrice no! Politicians and Religionists are not our friends when we are faced with great need. Politicians and Religionists harm us because we are only means to their end - their thirst for power, fame, and money. Politicians and Religionists are concerned only about pleasure for themselves, and for themselves only.
It is well known then, that the Politicians and Religionists take for themselves the best doctors, the best beds in the best hospitals, the accurate and rapid tests for Covid-19, and the most effective remedies. The Politicians and Religionists weather the storm in high fashion, while we the people die like flies in the streets. Politicians and Religionists are clinging to their ideological chimeras, and as a result they are totally unable to predict the nature of the virus we face and to provide rapid solutions.
This we see now, at the time of our greatest need, and even when the virus subsides, we must not forget what we have seen. The Politicians and Religionists would do well to remember Epicurean Doctrine 35:
"It is not possible for one who acts in secret contravention of the terms of the compact not to harm or be harmed to be confident that he will escape detection, even if, at present, he escapes a thousand times. For up to the time of death it cannot be certain that he will indeed escape."
