Deliverance is emancipation of the mind and body from hormonal enslavement
Alexander the Great, with all his territorial conquests, was unable to conquer himself
Aristotle, tutor of Alexander the Great, admonished his pupil: “You have vanquished your enemies; you have gained many kingdoms; you have subdued many empires; you have acquired sovereignty of the entire east: but all the same you have neglected to control, or have been unable to govern, the small domain of your mind and body.”
Thus, Alexander was stupefied by Diogenes’ response to his offer to bestow whatever Diogenes, sunning himself, might crave: “Stand out of my light.”
Alexander the Great epitomized the life of the armored knight over the thinker. He never lost a battle except with himself. At age 30, he had created a global empire. His craving for power and proficiency in killing was insatiable. He fought for the sake of fighting like a philosophically empty juvenile.
Compared with Socrates or Diogenes, Alexander the Great was a cipher disdainful of justice and the deliberative faculties. Yet Alexander is the most famous Greek personality ever!
Our deliverance from the ubiquitous miseries in the world is in plain sight if the blinders of species narcissism are removed. It lies not in the stars or in some putative supreme being. It lies in celebrating the thinker over the armored knight in the home, in the workplace, in schools, in places of worship, and in pondering “Why do I exist?”
Who among the species dares fail to try?