• PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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    7 days ago

    Explanation: Diogenes was an Ancient Greek philosopher who lived in an empty wine barrel on the streets and passed along unconventional wisdom to passers-by, often unasked for. Such brilliance as “If only it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly!” when accosted for masturbating in public, and “Behold, a man!” whilst holding a plucked chicken, when Plato’s Academy defined a man as a featherless biped.

    Unironically, though, his iconoclasm, while eccentric, does show a well-considered and coherent value system, and for that reason, despite everything, was a major influence on later philosophers, especially the Cynic school. Alexander the Great famously said, “If I were not Alexander, I would want to be Diogenes.” to which according to some accounts Diogenes replied, “If I were not Diogenes, I too would want to be Diogenes.”

    • Lembot_0002@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      I don’t see anything you could call a success in that unless you want to be Diogenes, because Diogenes was indeed successful in being Diogenes.

      • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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        7 days ago

        Doing whatever the fuck you want all day, jacking off when you feel like it and trolling plato with a chicken sounds like a pretty successful life to me.