Zócalo Public SquareCan Gluttony Set You Free? – Zócalo Public Square https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org Ideas Journalism With a Head and a Heart Mon, 21 Oct 2024 07:01:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Can Gluttony Set You Free? https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/11/10/can-gluttony-set-you-free/ideas/up-for-discussion/ https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/11/10/can-gluttony-set-you-free/ideas/up-for-discussion/#respond Tue, 10 Nov 2015 08:01:29 +0000 Zocalo https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/?p=66576 On the question of excess—of too much food, drink, or anything else—poet William Blake wrote, “You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.” This bit of wisdom from Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) gets at how tricky it can be to measure how much is too much—to know when the glass is full and set to overflow. In modern America, one need not look hard for signs of excess. Everything is big here, from our cars to the portions of our meals. Indeed, one-third of American adults are obese. On the other hand, we’re obsessed with healthiness and moderation, as evidenced by “carbophobia” and our fixation on the latest diet fad. When we move toward asceticism, what do we miss? In advance of the Zócalo/Getty event “Can Gluttony Be a Virtue?’ we asked a handful of thinkers: Can excess ever be a virtue?

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]]> On the question of excess—of too much food, drink, or anything else—poet William Blake wrote, “You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.”

This bit of wisdom from Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) gets at how tricky it can be to measure how much is too much—to know when the glass is full and set to overflow.

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In modern America, one need not look hard for signs of excess. Everything is big here, from our cars to the portions of our meals. Indeed, one-third of American adults are obese. On the other hand, we’re obsessed with healthiness and moderation, as evidenced by “carbophobia” and our fixation on the latest diet fad.

When we move toward asceticism, what do we miss? In advance of the Zócalo/Getty event “Can Gluttony Be a Virtue?’ we asked a handful of thinkers: Can excess ever be a virtue?

The post Can Gluttony Set You Free? appeared first on Zócalo Public Square.

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