The Greeks had some strange ideas

I find it curious that they would argue nothing is naturally and intrinsically just, or honourable or disgraceful; but things are considered so because of law and fashion(custom). Is this the case or can a case be made that it is good to help a person in need regardless of custom? Or do is it the case that what we consider good are so just by custom?

I however agree with them that both the poor man and the rich man experience pleasure in the same way, that is, wealth or poverty have no bearing on the sensation of pleasure.

I think, our criminal justice systems would have served us all better if it was grounded on the basis that errors ought to meet with pardon, for men err not intentionally but from external circumstances or influences and that is best to teach one who has erred than to hate him.

And finally, since the wise man’s country is the world it is prudent not to expose oneself to danger for the sake of country.

Which do you disagree with?

Some forgotten sayings of Socrates

The second year of this pandemic is coming to an end and if you are reading this, you are still alive having avoided death by the pandemic, death by the police and if you are a Kenyan death by a myriad of things from flash floods to hunger depending on where you live or how well you pray to the different gods. But before we get to the business of this post, I take this great opportunity to wish you all a happy and cheerful holiday season. Stay alive!

Leisure is the most valuable of possessions

There is only one good, knowledge; and one only evil, ignorance.

Riches and high birth have nothing estimable in them, on the contrary, they are wholly evil.

On why he was learning to play the lyre, he said, it was not absurd to learn anything that one did not know.

Those who bought things out of season at an extravagant price did not expect to live till the proper season for them.

What was the virtue of a young man? ‘To avoid excess in everything.’

Should one marry or not? Whichever you do, you will repent it, was his advice.

Young man, keep constantly looking at the mirror, for if you are handsome, you might worthy of the beauty, and if ugly, you might conceal the unsightly appearance by their accomplishments.

if this goes as planned

in the next decade, the Uneducated states of Murica will be a big church. And mine is to wish them well.

Near misses

For those of you who ride, you know how biking can be fun and how a slight miscalculation can bring you tumbling down especially if you happen to ride wearing cleats. For the uninitiated, that’s a case where man and machine are one. It’s a combination at the foot unlike the many cases where it is in the hip.

Regular readers know of the many falls I have described ever since I convinced myself there was something to gain in riding clipped. Well, they tell you about energy transfer, and all many nice things but they hardly ever mention embarrassing falls that come with it.

So on Saturday I am out on my long ride as I am fond of doing. It is the final few km back home and there is traffic into the city. I am weaving in between cars in traffic that seems only to out a tortoise. At some point I get behind a van and all over sudden, the guy brakes. I am at such a speed that undoing clips is almost impossible. I stretch my hand to hold onto this van while trying to steady myself and just at that moment, it starts to move. At that moment, I was now seeing myself coming one with the ground and not the bike but luckily given I was on a soft gear, giving the bike some momentum wasn’t so hard.

I survived without embarrassing myself. If you are a learner, don’t embarrassing yourself by going to the highway or some other popular street because cleats have a way of causing embarrassment where you least expect to fall.

Have a fun biking week.

one way we can know god exists

Step 1: Make an assumption

Step 2: Make an assumption about the universe

Step 3: Conclude that assumption 2 is a fact. Therefore god.

Or better still, call it the Kalam cosmological argument.

Some sayings of Thales

God is the most ancient of all things, for he had no birth

The world is the most beautiful of things, for it is the work of God

Place is the greatest of all things, for it contains all things

Intellect is the swiftest of things, for it runs through everything

Necessity is the strongest of things, for it rules everything

Time is the wisest of things, for it finds out everything

To the question, which was made first, night or day, he replied ” night was made first by one day”. What was most difficult? To know oneself; most easy? To advise others; most pleasant? To be successful.

Have a day full of wisdom

thoughts out of season

it’s almost two years now since covid 19 left China to spread across the world and in its wake, it has left dead bodies spread across the world, battered economies, lockdowns and more lockdowns and of course vaccines. It is interesting how vaccines have become a hot political debate but that’s not the thought out of season.

Imagine for a second that covid arose first in Africa and given the abandon with which countries close their borders for travel just at the sneeze of a new variant, would we have a vaccine by now? Or would Africa have been left to fend for itself- which is not a bad thing in itself- with borders closed until such a time WHO would declare the threat addressed?

While on this line of thought, would such an action result in a change in the way African governments deal with their universities and research institutions? Would there be an increase in funding to these institutions to build and develop home grown solutions to emergencies and disease? Would Africa and Africans learn to ease border travel between them or would we have had a replica of the same where Kenya closes its border with Uganda and Tanzania. South Africa closes its borders for all Africans except if you are rich. And North Africa closes its border for anyone whose skin is not pale?

Or maybe I am wrong. The world would have been open to Africa. Big pharmaceutical companies would have worked on the overdrive to produce vaccines and make their patents open source to ensure rapid development of vaccines and cures for the poor Africans. African governments would realise the futility of silly border rules across Africa and work to ease travel to save their economies and maybe only a few people would have died and the world would be a much better place.