the new turning point of Beppe Grillo- Corriere.it

“Letter on Happiness: How Sobriety Can Make Us Happy.” Once the frontier was that of “happy decrease”, and even now Beppe Grillo all in all moves along the same philosophy. Literally, indeed, given that on his Blog the co-founder and Guarantor M5s quotes a passage from Epicurus. “Whether it is called ‘sobriety’, ‘temperance’, ‘thrift’ or ‘frugality’, moderation is an ancient notion, rooted in the great philosophical and religious traditions. The great Greek philosopher, Epicurus, invites us to slow down and be satisfied with little, demonstrating that there is a pleasure in limitation and refusal”, reads the preamble that accompanies the excerpt from the Letter to Meneceus, universally known as the Letter on Happiness ´. “Wanting more and more, man loses himself in slavery. Fresh water and bread are enough to fill us up, it doesn’t take much», says Grillo again.

This instead is the passage by Epicurus published on Beppe Grillo’s Blog: «The wise man, like this just as he does not seek the most abundant foods, but the best, so he does not seek the longest time, but tries to enjoy the time he has: it is foolish to exhort the young to live well and the old to die well, because in life itself there are ‘is of pleasure, and it is the same thing the art of living well and dying well.]]We must then think that some of our desires are natural, others vain. And of the natural ones, some are necessary, some are not. And of those natural and necessary, some are necessary for happiness, others for the good health of the body, others for life itself. A sure knowledge of the necessary natural desires guides the choices of our life in order to have good health of the body and peace of mind, because these things are necessary to live a happy life. In fact we perform all our actions in order not to suffer and not to have the soul upset. Once this is achieved, every inner storm will calm down, because our soul does not desire anything that it lacks, nor does it have anything else to seek for the good of the soul and body to be complete.

“We are deeply convinced that he enjoys abundance with greater sweetness who least needs it and that all that nature requires can be obtained easily, while what is vain is difficult to obtain. Indeed, as both eliminate the pain of hunger, frugal food or a sumptuous meal give equal pleasure, and bread and water give the fullest pleasure when they satiate the hungry. Getting used to simple foods and frugal meals on the one hand is good for health, on the other it makes man attentive to the authentic needs of life; and so when from time to time we happen to find ourselves in abundance, we know how to evaluate it at its right value and know how to be strong against fortune.]]Neither banquets nor continuous celebrations, nor the enjoyment of children and women, nor the enjoyment of a lavish meal. The happy life, on the other hand, is the result of sober calculation which indicates the causes of every act of choice or refusal, and which distances those false opinions from which very great disturbances of the soul arise.]]Meditate day and night on all these things, and what that is connected with them, both in yourself and with those who are like you: so never, whether you are awake or asleep, will your soul be troubled, but you will live instead as a god among men. In fact, the man who lives among immortal goods is in no way similar to a mortal”.

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