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Issue No. 33 MAR-APR 2019 NewAcropolis Philosophy and Education for the Future Bi-Monthly Magazine Tolerance and Fundamentalism PHILOSOPHY The Temples of Ancient Egypt CULTURE SOCIETY Joseph Campbell and ESOTERICA The Power of Myth ART Implantable AND MORE Technologies T-shirt design by Barley Massey NEW ACROPOLIS Philosophy and Education for the Future About Us Editorial NEW ACROPOLIS is an Team international organization working in the fields of Sabine Leitner - Director philosophy, culture and volunteering. Our aim is to Julian Scott - Editor revive philosophy as a means of Agostino Dominici - Project renewal and transformation and Manager and Designer to offer a holistic education that Natalia Lema - Public Relations can develop both our human potential as well as the practical skills needed in order to meet the challenges of today and to create a better society for the next generation. Philosophy For further details please visit : Culture WWW.NEWACROPOLISUK.ORG Volunteering What’s Inside EDITORIAL PHILOSOPHY 05 Thought 06 ESOTERICA SOCIETY The Temples of 10 Tolerance and 08 Ancient Egypt Fundamentalism (Part 1) ART Edward Burne-Jones 12 CULTURE The Way of 14 St. James (Camino de Santiago) SCIENCE & NATURE Implantable 16 Technologies MYTHS OF THE WORLD Joseph Campbell and 18 The Power of Myth Editorial The People are Rising up It is very encouraging to see people motivated to All over the world, people are rising up and demanding take action. For too long the dominant systems have change. Both in the Western and the non-Western not served the majority of people, and in view of the world, they are taking to the streets, protesting against imminent global threat of climate change, Brexit and corruption, growing economic inequality and injustice. other political squabbles pale into insignificance. The In Asia, there were the ‘Umbrella Revolution’ in Hong current path of humanity is destructive and unjust, to Kong and the Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan in say the least, and uprisings and revolutions are bound 2014, protests in Myanmar last year and other student- to happen since the ruling classes are unwilling to led movements in Thailand and India. embrace the necessary changes. A rising wave of successful anti-corruption movements But the rapid rise of mass movements is also troubling. has also led to the downfall of presidents and prime Protests alone cannot create a better world. They are ministers accused of abusing power. To name but a only a catalyst for change; and the breaking up of the few: the former South Korean president, two former current systems is likely to lead in the short-term to Guatemalan presidents and a former Brazilian president some forms of chaos and anarchy. We need to think two were all sent to prison for corruption. The president steps ahead and prepare ourselves how to build a better of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, resigned from office world out of chaos and anarchy. rather than face indictment over corruption charges. His Having lost faith in religion, in governments and in predecessor, Ollanta Humana, is also under investigation. institutions, many are now putting their trust in ‘the The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, was forced people’ and are calling for governments to be replaced from office last year due to corruption scandals in his by “citizens’ assemblies”. But is it certain that ‘citizens’ party and Malaysia saw a surprise result last year in would do a better job than the current leaders? Have parliamentary elections for the same reason. we not in some way or another all contributed to the Iran has been seeing frequent and nationwide civil current state of the world? Do ‘the people’ have the unrest against the government since December 2017, necessary wisdom to make sounder judgments and which has resulted in the deaths of people and the better choices, would they be able to unite deeply arrests of hundreds of protesters. In Europe, rising fuel divided nations, would they have the means to enforce prices sparked the ‘yellow vest’ movement which grew any decisions without the backing of centuries old rapidly into a full-scale citizens’ revolt and has been institutions? usurped by troublemakers who have caused millions of Change must and will happen. But it must be Euros in damage. The gilet jaune movement has since accompanied by inner change. A better future will be been copied in 22 other countries, including many impossible without human beings who have a strong Eastern European countries. moral foundation, a deep understanding of the world The latest citizen-led uprising in the West is and of human nature, the ability to consider different Extinction Rebellion, which only started last October viewpoints and create a synthesis, the ability to see the with a handful of people in the UK and now has bigger picture and to put the interests of ‘the whole’ several tens of thousands of supporters here and has above their own personal interests. Our most urgent spread to more than 50 countries worldwide. It rebels task is therefore not outer change. It is to bring about against the failure of governments to curb climate inner change. change and calls for non-violent civil disobedience to Sabine Leitner prevent ecological collapse. 5 PHILOSOPHY THOUGHT 1 Thought: a female head emerging from a block of unhewn matter, her hair blown by the wind, her eyes fixed on the above, concentrated but free, grasping the essence of things. Not the thought of the anguished intellectual, the complicated reasonings of an empty being who wants to impress; but the grand imaginings of a soul emerged from the divine, a child of Zeus, born from his head, broken open by the axe of Hephaestus 2. Free! That is the word that summarizes Thought. Free to range across the expanses of the mind like an eagle which nothing can contain. Seeing all, encompassing all, understanding what other beings can only sense. In other times, Thought was cultivated, recognized as the essence of the human being. Not today. Now thought is reduced, minimized and left aside. Vulgarity prevails. Jackals laugh. And the female head mourns, Thought (La Pensée), by Auguste Rodin, Ca. 1895, - France, Paris, Musée d’Orsay. calling to the visitors to the museum, hoping that some 1. This poem is loosely inspired by Rodin’s sculpture ‘Thought’ which was exhibited at the British Museum in 2018. See issue 30 of this magazine for a will remember and say, review of the exhibition. 3 I too am a Man ; I was born to think, 2. A reference to the Greek myth of the birth of Athena, goddess of wisdom and patroness of the arts. to dream, to penetrate the secrets 3. Used here as a gender-neutral word derived from the Sanskrit root of God, the Universe, the Soul. Manas = Mind, the capacity of Thought. The philosopher Descartes famously said carried it down to Earth in a hollowed out ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (I think therefore I reed and gave it to mankind. am). Whatever he meant by that, we can With that fire, which is none other than the extend it to mean that without thought we power of thought or mind, we built cities and are not truly human, for it is thought that artefacts, wrote books and studied the nature distinguishes the species of homo sapiens. of the universe, becoming in some ways like I would like to briefly consider the value of the gods themselves. Perhaps that was why thought, which perhaps we too often take Prometheus was so harshly punished by Zeus. for granted. In Greek mythology it is said The medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas that when the different creatures were being distinguished between two types of intellect endowed with their distinctive powers and or thought: the speculative and the practical, abilities, there was a mistake in the process the former being concerned with truth and and human beings were left with nothing. the latter with action. In this way, we may So in order that they would have something speculate on the nature of being and existence, to enable them to survive and flourish in or we may wonder whether there is enough this world, the brave and compassionate milk in the fridge to make a cup of tea. Both Titan, Prometheus, went up to Mount types of thought are necessary, but it is the Olympus and stole some fire from Heaven, former that produces the great works of literature and art, or the great discoveries of science and metaphysics. We are in no danger of losing the faculty of practical thought, for as Locke pointed out, at least when we are awake we are constantly thinking about something. But we may be in danger of losing our ability to think in a more metaphysical (= ‘beyond the physical’) sense. This is a faculty that needs to be actively cultivated, otherwise it may atrophy. On a number of occasions we at New Acropolis have conducted street surveys and interviews, where we have asked people for their views on different philosophical topics. Some people, naturally, are not interested, but others have been delighted to engage in thoughtful conversation and some have even been moved almost to tears, because they realise that such opportunities for deep conversation are so rare… and yet so human. My poem, therefore, despite its undoubted lack of artistic merits, is a call to the human soul to cultivate the sacred art of thought, which begins and perhaps ends with reflection – upon The Creation of Man by oneself, upon nature, upon humanity, and not Prometheus, by Heinrich forgetting all that may be beyond, because von Füger ,1790. thought should never be separated from intuition, or even from certain higher types of emotion which the ancients used to refer to as ‘divine passions’.
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