Luke Slattery - "Reclaiming Epicurus' Ancient Wisdom" and Video

I don't think i have seen mention of the book, but Luke Slattery's video comes up regularly:

https://www.lukeslatteryauthor.com/epicurus

I have not seen him as having lots of promise due to comments like this:

The video is professionally done but as I was listening to it in the background I pick up things like "...withdrew into his garden...."

So I personally don't recommend this video, but commentary on it is definitely worthwhile for pointing out the issues, so that people who come across it can more easily see the issues.

Given how often Luke Slattery comes up I have moved these comments to a special thread under modern works.

I also smiled sarcastically when I saw this clip:

Of course, Slattery means "materialist" in an entirely different way than did Epicurus -but Epicurus is nothing if not a "materialist!"

People like Slattery in this work reduce "materialism" to "commercialism" and act as if it's just impossible for them to avoid buying those shiny trinkets in the window, and THAT is the major issue of the modern world. Geesh.

But understanding Epicurus really doesn't matter for someone whose goals are essentially political ("green" in this case) and aimed at "quieting desire" -- which is pure Buddhism.

There are many books out there like this, which start with a preferred social/political viewpoint, and try to enlist Epicurus in aid of their own conclusions. This is not a helpful approach - at all. Catherine Wilson does some of this too, but at least she spends much more time explaining the details of the philosophy, and I always get the impression, at least in watching her videos, that she knows she is over the line and is even somewhat embarrassed because she realizes that she isn't REALLY following Epicurus.