Living Wisely in the 21st Century
What does it mean to be living in the 21st century? What will people 300, 500, 1000 years from now think of us — living now?
Certainly we have our fears: jobs, immigration, the spread of warfare, disease. We have deeper neuroses: the never-ending chase for enough thanks to ubiquitous marketing and the flood of cheap stuff, loneliness wrought of displacement in our quest for work, the decline of spiritual communities and other sources of identity. And we have massive obstacles: the rise of right-wing political groups, the poisoning of our oceans, and change we have brought to our planet’s climate.
But we have reason for hope. More reason than we have for fear. Because for every horrible story that floods our news media, there are three uplifting stories that could be told instead. Diseases are being eradicated, homes are opening for immigrants, jobs are being created, and — even with the absolute horrors of Syria and Iraq playing out today — we’re in the midst of an overall state of global peace unseen in human history.
But this optimistic trend in human history is not what we are taught. We’re taught fear and then taught that if we just give up a little money and a little freedom, someone above us will make us safe again. That someone just has to push out immigrants or start a war or some such thing first. Then it’ll be okay.
So we’re told.
This scapegoating, diversion, and self-inflicted authoritarianism is nothing new. In 1784, the philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote what I would nominate as the most underappreciated and brilliant pieces of political philosophy in human history: “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?”
It’s not the sexiest of titles, and Kant is not a sexy writer, but if you read it with a Nietzschean flare and fist held high, you’ll understand my enthusiasm for it.
In the essay, Kant derides humankind’s “self-imposed immaturity,” our failure to have the courage to use our own understanding. “Dare to know!” He exclaims. Break free of your bondage and walk free through the fields of thought and experience. Pay respect to those who have lifted you up in moral or material education, but call out any institution that places restrictions on a people’s thought and growth.
No doubt some grave concerns are warranted concerning our world today. But these concerns must be met with collective action and dialogue rather than tribalism or the abandoning of responsibility to someone ‘up there’ who promises to fix everything.
With increased global connectedness over the last 30 years, amazing connections have opened up. And it is precisely this global connectedness that makes me optimistic today as a philosopher. We know from history that many of the greatest advancements in human knowledge have come from global “wanderers” — whether literal peripatetics or wanderers of the mind, those deeply fascinated by and inquisitive about different cultures and ways of knowing.
Beside Kant, my favorite philosopher is the Buddha, a man who 2500 years ago exclaimed ehipassiko (“Come and See!”). He probably didn’t raise a fist and shout this, but neither did Kant. And we don’t need to either. We just need to do it. We have amazing opportunities to go forth and see for ourselves, to dare to know more about the world than many of our ancestors could have possibly dreamed of.
We live in a time of amazing progress, and yet still life-defeating pessimism about the world around us. As Ronald Bailey wrote last year in “The End is Nigh”:
This pervasive pessimism about the human prospect flies in the face of a plain set of facts: Over the past century, the prospects and circumstances of most of humanity have spectacularly improved.
But with that improvement comes responsibility. We cannot just be passive takers of information and resources. In order to know and to see, we must also take the risk of creating. Create a blog post. Create a work of art. Create a conversation. Create a movement. And support those who do create. We all have a role to play. To the extent to which we play it, we might be seen in 200, 500, or 1000 years as the generation(s) who finally lived up to their Enlightenment potential, throwing off the yoke of their self-imposed immaturity and coming to see — not just a better world but one another as free and equal and worthy members of the human family.
It is from Greece that we inherit the term cosmopolitan, “citizens of the world.” And it is to Greece that we can turn now for its wealth of history and wisdom and for the opportunity to take that title onto ourselves.
A Festival of Philosophy
In order to bring this about, we propose a “Festival of Ideas” centered around the great ideas of Philosophy, to take place in Greece in the coming year. The festival would draw together hundreds of local youths and residents, resident philosophers, Greek thinkers from around the country, and one of the world’s leading philosophers whose ideas represent both deep wisdom and broad applicability.
Our job, co-led by Alexandros Pagidas and myself, will be to build a a ground-swell of ideas and participation in the weeks leading up to the main event(s) with our keynote philosopher. Then, where many programs end, we find ourselves only halfway. Next, we work in reverse, down the mountain, so to speak, with responses and reflections by our most prominent Greek thinkers. Then further discussions branching out, ever more “on the ground” and in relation to our current circumstances. Finally, the same local youths and residents have the last word: offering thoughts and concerns and their action plans.
The program, which will be fleshed out in coming months, intends to re-enliven philosophy’s connection with our everyday lives. It begins there, rises up to a summit of abstraction, stretching out across time and geography, and then returns back home.
And thus we Bring Philosophy Home. This is literal in that we are bringing (more) philosophy back to Greece, and it is metaphoric in that we are bringing philosophy back to its “home” in the lived experience of the people.
