What I find some fascinating about the Iliad… Obviously the Iliad as a text is not perfect, but it does show a deep insight about the ancient Greeks, their way of life, their ethos etc.

And what is really really fascinating is that in terms of their humanity, it is practically indistinguishable from ours in the year 2024 exclamation point all of the petty rivalries, jealousy, dramas, all the same! It seems that emotionally and socially, we haven’t changed that much in the last 5000 years or so.

Therefore my suggestion is when you study the Iliad, or read it… Try to think the two things:

What is absent, and not mentioned in the text?

And also, what did they do or don’t do which is so different, so radically different in terms of the ethos of modern day times?

I’m starting to think more and more… Let us consider that good old Homer wrote this even before Socrates! I’m starting to think more and more… It is true, after Socrates, almost all of philosophy and thinking was bastardized, and made strange, by this shrewd, Ugly man? (Socrates was very ugly)– “A monster in face, a monster in soul”– or, “He who is physically ugly, or ugly in the face will also have ugly thoughts and ethics”.

ugliness?

There’s a lot of bizarre Redwick nowadays about how all bodies are equal, hello everyone is beautiful, how there is no hierarchy in bodily composition etc. However, I beg to differ.

Taking it back to first principal… Thinking about fitness, genetic fitness, there seems to be some basic things, for example, men who are taller or more desirable. This makes sense. Also women, assuming you’re not a super super Shorty guy, typically the taller the women the better.

Why tallness? They’re tends to be a genetic advantage to tallness inso far much as  almost everything. For example, I just met the vice mayor of my town Culver City, very very tall guy, maybe 6 foot six or something? And I’m pretty tall I’m 5 foot 11, but even he towered over me, he almost look like a different species? Immediately I was so impressed. 

I think in terms of ancient times, being taller was a benefit because you could grab apples from really high trees, and typically, the bigger and taller and the stronger than man, the better he would be at fighting of wolves, hunting etc. And also… Assuming that we human are just hairless apes, we did have a preference for beautiful women because typically, beauty was connected with physical fitness, healthiness, And wellness, typically women who are more beautiful, who have more supple and healthy looking breasts, signal a type of healthiness, fitness which makes for them to be better at producing children, and also providing for them with their breast milk etc. 

And I think one thing that I discovered is breast size isn’t actually what is the thing… Rather, is all about the overall fertility of the woman.

For example, I think I read some sort of scientific study which show that invite, men would actually prefer breast a little bit more on the average size, the average two smaller size, but the breast being firm, close to the body, and the nipples slightly pointing upwards? And that the overall shape of the breast was kind of more copping upwards? Assign of fertility, rather than breast which are drooping, which is typically a sign of older age, and less fertile conditions.

Older parents and their children

This is just based on what I’ve seen, obviously not 100%, but I have witness with my own eyes, a lot of parents who look older, maybe mid 40s, even late 40s, maybe even early 50s, having kids? And it Not uncommon to see a lot of older parents with kids who look like they have some sort of developmental issues?

For example, older parents with kids with autism, or some level of autism or Asperger or something.

My theory is that it does seem to make sense that if you are really really old, and you do in vitro fertilization or whatever, there is a high chance and likelihood for there to be things that go wrong. In terms of genetic replication etc. But I think it is not a certain thing, it is just a probability thing, it could either go both ways.

Anyways, once again modern day society has made things very very strange, everyone wants to be like a loser George Clooney, be single forever, sip on fine wine somewhere in Italy, and be a degenerate for the rest of their lives.

However, my suggestion is don’t judge anybody until you have seen them with their shirt off. Why? Most of these guys try to look all cool and macho and whatever driving loser Ferraris,  wearing their loser trying to wanna be be cool clothing, they lifted trucks whatever… But the second you see them, without a shirt on at the beach, it is a bit disgusting.

In fact, I was randomly having all you can eat Korean barbecue with Cindy and Seneca, at this really good place in San Diego La Jolla called OLLEH (shout out to Young Bin, YB– you deserve a raise)!  but anyways, we saw this random music video, with the rapper Rick Ross, without his shirt on, and to see his sagging tits was a bit disgusting. He tries to be all cool wearing all these chains and whatever, but honestly, any right minded individual would look at the physique of Rick Ross topless, and know that it is disgusting.

Issues here

The reason why there are a lot of individuals like Jay Z, and the like who are not respectable is because ultimately what they do is they peddle alcohol, and this fake “player” lifestyle. 

Alcohols are very interesting category, because it has been around since the ancient Greeks, even the ancient Greeks thought that in order for these warriors to gain strength, they had to feast on meat and the innards of oxen, and drink lots of wine, in order to have strength.

But some subtle ones I’ve read and heard is that actually back in the days of the ancient Greeks, their wine was actually very watered down. So I think for the ancient Greeks, and obviously this is probably before sanitation, is that when you drink wine, it was just a not poisonous water? If you live in a time in which maybe… It might not be safe to drink water, straight up water… Maybe they just drink water down wine or weak wine as a simple substitute in order to not get cholera, illnesses from water etc. 

Also one of the theories about beer, is that also in ancient Europe, the medieval ages the dark ages etc.… When infant mortality was around 70 to 80%, before they knew how to sterilize water and surgical instruments etc.… People just drink beer because it didn’t kill them or cause them illness! I think the fermentation process of beer killed most of the bacteria typically in sewage water.

But now, we should know better. And no no no don’t be suckered by these idiots who propose that we have to drink alkaline water or whatever… This might be even worse than snake oil.

And this is the reason why you should never trust any of these stupid millennials, Gen Z or “zillenials”– a lot of them take astrology and horoscopes literally. Like literally 100% literally. These idiots! And they don’t believe in God?

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New gods

Radical idea had this morning is this notion of new gods. For example in the year 2024… Come on, no one really believes in God anymore. Maybe besides the super evangelical, talking in protestant Christians… Nobody really believes in God anymore. I’m not even too sure about Jewish people, but it does seem to be Jewish Jewish American in America is more of a community thing, similar to being Catholic or Korean Catholic etc. 

For example, something quite shocking to me, when I went to mass with Cindy and Seneca may happy year ago at this one church, essentially the priest, after blessing some kids, while giving out the Eucharist, would use hand sanitizer! This put me off so much. Why? Is that the priest is afraid of getting sick or germs from young children, which is fair, because that is true. But to have hand sanitizer at the altar seemed quite sacrilegious.   

Taleb also has a funny visual, you would probably never see the pope on rollerskates, or rollerblades, or on a skateboard grinding away, even though there’s nothing against it, nothing that would upset God.

Religion for the weak? 

Often times people forget that Jesus was Jewish. Even serious Catholics protestants Christians seem to forget this.

For example, back in the day of Jesus, when he saw money exchangers selling stuff in kettle in the temple, the Jewish temple, Jesus famously took some whips, started flipping over the tables, driving out the oxen saying “do not sell wares inside my father‘s home!”

I wonder if a lot of these wealthy individuals back in Jesus time, they were also not “religious” in the way we can get… And also I think one thing I need to study about Judaism, is how they actually conceptualized God, besides the typical Christian, protestant Christian, Catholic Christian Roman Catholic way.

Also something very interesting, do you know that there are lots of different types of Catholics, but the Roman Catholic was the only one which has persisted until now?  The best way for us to think about it is being Roman Catholic in the year 2024 is like the holy Roman Empire 2.0. And this is why the Vatican doesn’t have to pay taxes. And has the best real estate of all time.

How did the ancient Greeks think of the gods

Very very interesting, even the ancient Greek heroes were able to take on the gods, obviously with some of the help of the other gods.

Also very interesting, is that the tides of war often change when God’s breed inspiration encourage into the fighters, or sometimes the gods come in and hoodwink some of the heroes and the leaders, putting delusion upon their eyes. Example, the reason why king Agamemnon in the beginning of the Iliad rallied his troops to take Troy, Zeus sent him a fall scream victory. So actually it wasn’t Khanh who made the mistake, king Agamemnon was innocent, just a mere pawn in Zeus‘s game. 

 so if we take a radical new approach, we should challenge the notions of “free will“, I wonder if we did this random new thought experiment, assume that all of our moods and impetuses and drives are somehow shaped by the gods on Mount Olympus.

However, in modern day times, nobody takes notions of the ancient Greek god seriously. I don’t think there’s anyone on the planet who 100% literally believes that Zeus and Harald lives on the clouds of Mount Olympus, everyone knows it is just a fairytale. Kind of like Santa Claus. , why is it that there are some people who do empirically believe in some sort of ethereal, weightless amorphus God concept which exists somewhere in the heavens? And I think people misunderstand Jesus… Notions of heaven and hell on earth, and he is speaking in metaphor. All of these, and cannot understand the new ones of metaphor? The difference between taking things literally, sola Scriptura  versus thinking of metaphor, this is very critical.

Some flaws in the Bible even the Jewish Bible

For example, Moses. There is this really bizarre scene in the Bible, in which Moses is discovered by his son sleeping naked with somebody? With one the other sons or something? And also, did people not realize that essentially Moses was an Egyptian, there are some Jewish scholars who analyze the historical or the probable historical Moses, and there are some alternate theories that Moses was actually trying to take on the pharaoh, trying to take the throne, but when he was caught, instead of just getting killed, he tried to escape with a bunch of other Exiled Egyptians, who ended up becoming the first Jewish followers.  and the notion of Jewish, just comes from the people of Judea, a real life place. 

And honestly, once again I’m not sure if people think things literally or metaphorically or whatever. People saying that they are the chosen ones, is this some or not some? Like can all 8 billion people on the planet all be the chosen ones?  or, is it like some people? Like only 1000 people 10,000 or 100,000 or 1 million or 10 million people could be chosen?

Because trippy told, how people get hoodwinked about all this stuff but Israel is what you don’t understand is Israel, properly understood, if you think about the military intervention of the United States of America, I think the best analogy of Israel is almost like South Korea, let us consider how South Korea is military is essentially bankrolled by the US military, and also the military of Israel, is also funded by America. And this is why America never says anything bad about the conflict in Gaza with Israelis, because essentially Israeli defense army is the American army!

Social media is the new soma the iPhone is the new soma

If we think about brave New World, how did the governments of the future control the people? It was not like 1984, this is not like mainland China. Rather, the best analogy for modern day times is like brave New World by Adolous Huxley. The general idea is that  the people are just addicted and distracted by superficial things, and there is this metaphorical drug called soma, which is imagine like combination of ecstasy, cocaine, weed and heroin… Without any real big comedowns or side effects. The come down is almost like comedown after having a good cup of coffee. 

 and then what happens is all of these millennials are hooked on this tablet called soma, which I think is actually prescribed by the government, and the engages something called “orgy Porgy”, which is essentially a bunch of degenerate millennials having these sexual orgies, all being high on mushrooms or whatever.

And I think in the story, the “savage” Joseph, who is essentially not taking any drugs of any kind, sees all of this and is deeply dismayed. I remember he gets this one off of Soma, and then the girl starts to freak out, when she is discovering how terrible the real world is.

Anyways, if we think about the iPhone, the new iPhone iPhone Pro, media YouTube whatever… All of it, is essentially like Soma. All profitable industries are drug monopolies.

Coca-Cola, the uber evil corporation selling you diabetes type two diabetes, type three diabetes Alzheimer’s water…  and also is the company which promotes the notion of “calories in, calories out” or how model citizens should “count their calories”–  and once again, do not trust any educated individuals. For example even my very very smart friends, who got their masters and PhD at Stanford, Yale, etc.… Still believe in calories, and even one of my friends, I still see him drinking Coca-Cola… Doesn’t he know better?