The meaning of Poetrica
The fastest thing today is the rate of change itself, the only constant being reinvention. We are at a critical juncture in the history of our species. We are leaving behind our pasts and stepping into the future, yet this is more than just another marketing line or motivational dogma. Human civilisation will reach its natural maximum population by the end of the century. Most repetitive cognitive and physical jobs will be taken over by machines. The human being will slowly metamorphose into the human mind, leaving behind our biological selves. And while the next century will probably be the biggest juncture in science, economics and politics — it will also be the biggest juncture in the meaning of life. Already we are seeing the disengagement of masses of people from life, love and fulfilment. Our entire society has been so focused on progress we forget why we needed progress in the first place: to be the happier for it. There are only two options this road can lead into: the emancipation of mankind from the evils of ignorance, or its assured destruction. But what we mean by ignorance is not the kind of a man un-thought in the scientific method or in homeric verse but that of a person ignorant to their own self. Plato once described the universe as consisting of three categories. First came the forms, the closest thing to the word ‘divine’ in its eyes. The name came from how before sculptors begin work at a piece of marble or stone they would first construct a form out of wood, from which to model their final creations. Plato preached that we must all discover the forms of government, science, fulfilment and love through philosophy so that we can better model our own to fit them. Then came our world, which was merely a distorted version of the forms, as if a reflection in water, sometimes disturbed and sometimes calm, yet never the same as what its reflecting. Yet there existed a third world, this was the world of the arts. Instead of bringing us closer to reality, in the eyes of Plato such things as poetry only gave a reflection of the reflection, twice removed from the ideal forms. Yet as science and technology are bringing us ever closer to the forms they are also taking us away from our humanity. In the words of Charlie Chaplin “The good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we’ve lost the way.” We believe that by providing a community with the opportunity to read, write and ponder about poetry, philosophy and life will allow us all to find the way. That is what we stand for, work for and live for, to give back to humanity the same understanding it has given us, to stand strong against ignorance and press forward, into the future.
