"Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting"-Mark Twain
I believe this was a quote about the scarcity of water in the western United States. I saw in Twain's sentiment a possible connection to classical philosophy. As I stood in a hypnagogic stupor at the back door of my house looking out into the garden at 7:30 in the morning, I thought of the elements as a cosmology similar to the pre Socratic philosopher Empedocles. I thought how interpersonal conflicts come in two varieties. One is over convictions we hold based on the element of fire (whiskey being associated with the element of fire). Those are the ideas connected to our desires, our projections, our illusions. The appearances of things, our expectations. Water is a necessity. It is nurturing so our relationship with that element hits on a limbic , serpent brain, primordial level. We tussle over our delusions as almost entertainment but we kill over our sustenance.
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