An invitation to make history
Say hello to the Oi Polloi’s initiative, Bring Philosophy Home. And find out why change starts a little closer to home than you might think. All in all, a fitting celebration for World Philosophy Day.
I’m not a ‘change the world’ type. I’m a ‘solve problems’ type. The movement I started back in April wasn’t borne out of an idea to save anything, let alone the entire world. It was borne out of desire to help the struggling people of Greece, for whom acquiring the essentials like food and shelter is challenging — and then spotting ways to solve these issues. Sure, it has since grown into a movement that aims to create a legacy for humanity, and embed systems and ideas that can serve humanity in good stead. Just how the rediscovery of ancient Greek innovations and concepts led to the Renaissance. But that development is more a consequence of the growing need for an alternative to where we seem to be headed.
It started pragmatically, with ‘let’s use technological innovation to bypass the sclerotic ways of doing things and just create the change for ourselves’. Because we can. Let’s leverage the Greek spirit of hospitality (so evident in the handling of the refugee crisis), and the cultural narrative of ‘filotimo’ (respect, love & common decency) to guide everything we do and encourage Greeks to get behind us. And let’s use the death of capitalism in Greece as an opportunity.
The country is in ruins. Let’s select the best from the rubble of the old — add the finest of the new, and create something altogether different. What would that look like? It soon became evident that what we needed was the very thing that gave ancient Greece the renown it enjoys today: the power of ideas. What’s more, as the vision grew and grew to fill the enormous ‘gap in the market’ created by Brexit and Trump, it seemed more pressing than ever to step back and allow mind to be “the forerunner of all things,” to borrow the Buddha’s words. Otherwise we risk repeating the same mistakes.
Enter the Bring Philosophy Home initiative, which originates from Oi Polloi’s aim to make a love of beauty, wisdom and imagination central to the society of the future. To do this we have to reclaim philosophy, invented by the Greeks to describe the pursuit of ‘a love of wisdom’, and bring it out of the ivory tower, to where it began. Firstly, geographically — as a symbolic gesture. Secondly, thematically — as a mark of respect for what originally sparked this noble discipline: the quest to work out what it means to live the good life, both personally and collectively. In a world where technology, overpopulation and climate change are some of the most powerful forces shaping society, what would the good life look like?
Expect regular online content in the form of blogs, podcasts and videos as a starter for ten. Followed by a more ambitious, programme that includes a Festival of Ideas where resident philosophers and well-known thinkers conduct regular talks and discussions with members of the public.
A perfect storm
We are certainly setting our sights high — because ideas like ‘democracy’ didn’t last this long by being mediocre. So we would like to extend invites to Michael Sandel, Quentin Skinner, Alain de Botton, Noam Chomsky, Jason Silva, Benita Matofska, Cindy Gallop, Gemma Milne, Judith Butler, Mary Midgley, Julie Richardson, Martha Nussbaum, James Lovelock, Yuval Noah Harari, Peter Diamandis, Elon Musk, Steven Hawking and Barack Obama. Some on the list have already agreed to support our endeavour. Others might never amount to more than a pipe dream. But as we want to build the future using the best of the old AND the new, we will continue to push for the finest minds alive to join us.
After all, what we call ‘history’ is simply a string of collective actions towards what is believed to be a better future. Whether we agree with them or not, is besides the point. So take this as an invitation to make history with us. Because as this excerpt from an article titled, Why the World Stands Ready To Be Changed, says:
“The world is being made and remade at every instant. And therefore any one of us has a theoretical chance of being an agent in history, on a big or small scale. It is open to our own times to build a new city as beautiful as Venice, to change ideas as radically as the Renaissance, to start an intellectual movement as resounding as Buddhism. The present has all the contingency of the past — and is every bit as malleable. It should not intimidate us.
How we love, travel, approach the arts, govern, educate ourselves, run businesses, age and die are all up for further development. Current views may appear firm, but only because we exaggerate their fixity. The majority of what exists is arbitrary, neither inevitable nor right, simply the result of muddle and happenstance. We should be confident, even at sunset on winter afternoons, of our power to join the stream of history — and, however modestly, change its course.”
Naturally, we will also partner with universities on a one-month Summer Programme so students can walk in the footsteps of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, grapple with the great problems of our age, and get a taste for practical philosophy on a personal and collective level.
Change agents
In charge of all this are two mighty fine human beings. Justin Whitaker, an academic and lover of wisdom whose focus is on early Buddhist ethics and Kant, and who has taught university courses in Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist Philosophy, and Comparative World Religions. And Alexandros Pagidas, a philosopher and entrepreneur who describes himself as “a catalyst for personal, collective and organisational change.” He is also the founder of Idealism in Practice. Together, they are a force to be reckoned with. Both practise what they preach: intense self-enquiry. And that’s where the change has to begin. With each and every one of us.
I am not exempt from this either. So let me share with you a dream I once had.
I was stood over my journal and a tear fell on the page. An image began to paint itself, almost by magic. It was a picture of my face the way I see it in the mirror. Once that ended, a second tear fell on a fresh page. The image of me that painted itself was the most vile depiction that could possibly be imagined. It was all the ugliness, cruelty and evil that I was capable of. What I took away from this wasn’t that I was those things. But that the capacity for these lived within me. It was the most perfect lesson in my own humanity and fallibility (and by extension everyone else’s) that I could ever have asked for. I still turn to this dream whenever I need to understand why I acted or did things in a way that doesn’t marry with my view of myself as a nice, decent person.
And so, I’ll leave you with a story of native American wisdom.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil — he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you — and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
Challenge, accepted
If anyone wishes to take us up on our invitation to make history, little by little, brick by brick, idea by idea, contact me at mary.valiakas@gmail.com. Oh and Happy World Philosophy Day to all!
