Famine Aesthetics

Most people will agree that it is good to be hungry for success.  “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look/ He thinks too much: such men are dangerous” says Caesar.

But there is the other side of  hunger: famine.  Rarely do people make good decisions in the midst of famine.  Famine is the opposite of freedom.  Famine is the slavery of need.  If you choose to make things out of desperation, it will stink of desperation.

Better to be as Epictetus says:

Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought around to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation. Does it pass by you? Don’t stop it. Is it not yet come? Don’t stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. Do this with regard to children, to a wife, to public posts, to riches, and you will eventually be a worthy partner of the feasts of the gods. And if you don’t even take the things which are set before you, but are able even to reject them, then you will not only be a partner at the feasts of the gods, but also of their empire. For, by doing this, Diogenes, Heraclitus and others like them, deservedly became, and were called, divine.