The Academy of Glystophon the Slow
Zenthipladia, 'Dry' Boeotia, New Thebes
April 13, 2009
The breeze was not the only thing which flew in and out of the open porch of the Academy, tickling drops of sweat on the skin of students in their customary low-hanging and spacious gowns while they sat semicircular around the wide speaking podium and the statue of Apollo-Lawgiver just behind it perturbedly peering his beady eyes into a scroll thrust quite too close to his bearded face. This was also one of the last times the students would be together, this being their final lesson before the graduation which accompanied the festival of Demeter-Consort, and so, sad to say, their concentration and intellect was slipping in and out as well, getting lost in the breeze and wandering away across the fruitful plains and firmly cut roads of the countryside of the land that, thousands of years ago, the rising Thebans had nicknamed as "Dry" Boeotia. Some of them would be back in the same fields before evening-time to water the furrows and sweep away crumbly golden grass from the ancient enclosures; but for others this was just one lesson out of many in the day - to them it could not be the same, it did not have the same point or purpose. It was but one peg, and a strangely archaic one, in the assemblage of modern science, math, letters, and engineering.
Glystophon the Slow was an ancient philosopher of 70 BC and his academy was actually one of the oldest in the nation which remained with unbroken continuity of master and disciple; his Stoic doctrines were known for their emphasis on the divine essence and an unusual bifold theory of immortal or spiritual, as well as mundane or intellectual, impressions, the objective of the ideal man being to bring them to unison through a process of observation and critique. In the 21st century there was science, sociology, and physics to explain the working of the world but in schools like these, ubiquitous in Thebes, ancient approaches to the natural laws of life and the universe were still taught in the classical framework of mental conditioning, rhetoric, and dialectical process.
Today as their final exercise the summer-infested students were enjoying a treat: they were split into pairs and given leave to dispute an issue of their choice, whatever they liked. It was indeed fun, a reprieve from the usual form of directed instruction, but few could really give their full attention to the young man and woman standing on either end of the podium, the latter gyrating in place while she swept her hands in wide arcs summoning the truth on the matter of whether animals did or did not have souls with the same nature as human beings. But as she finished with a clenched fist they were quick to clap and their teacher Diomedes replaced them on stage with a serene smile. "Excellent," he said in his naturally booming voice which somehow thundered out of his bent and pudgy body, "both of you, well done." With no change at all in his smile he turned his head and nodded at the last pair of boys seated on the wing. "Are you ready gentlemen?"
They were already stood and preparing their poofy dresses for the walk to the stage; this was to be a good one under normal circumstances, the affable and plaintive whiz Karpos speaking against the forceful beast Hippoklides - one prepared for the university in Thebes, the other always talking about the enomotiai with great resentment prepared for anyone who would discourage it; the Thebans could not help but see such contrasts, they were a part of what they loved about life and people. "In fact we have all but fought it Professor," the former student joked, "but I do not mind showing you our thinking."
The teacher Diomedes laughed cautiously; there were some students who never quite rested in the pedagogical place. "Is that true Hippoklides?" he inquired of the other boy.
The latter Theban was scowling darkly. "Exactly right," he brooded, his face downcast, his energy lodged in his chest but spread easily through the body as it was supposed to be before one declaimed. He put his feet on the podium and halted near the edge, letting Karpos stride to the other end and make a place for himself.
Diomedes was just resettling himself in his chair on the edge of the group. "And what are we going to see about boys?"
Karpos answered him, inclining stiltedly from the rhetor's pose. "We are going to dispute the slave trading in [place]."
Everyone tittered at the topic; the teacher was so incredulous that a hollow laugh was forced out of his mouth. "What about it?"
"Does it command the attention of men of conscience," he began, looking at his debate partner, "or is it not the business of anyone besides the parties involved?" he explained to the teacher.
The professor Diomedes pensively scribbled a note to himself. "Very well. When you are ready gentlemen," he said leaning back.
Karpos took in the gazes of all his peers. "When discoursing on a topic, O Thebans, especially one which is submitted to that deliberative breed of listening, it is customary to arrange some definition of terms and qualities so that, the disagreements notwithstanding, there will be agreement on the terms and language used to try and bridge the divisions in the hearts and minds of those who have the responsibility to make a decision. Concerning a topic so great as this, which touches the very nature of justice and humanity and the most important questions of our responsibility to one another, I find myself both fortunate and hopeless: fortunate, because I am blessed as all of us are to live and take part in a society which, through its hard work and continual attention to itself, has prevailed to journey far along the path of wisdom and excellence such that not only in our own judgement but to many others it is a noteworthy practitioner of high arts in equality, fairness, and justice; I find myself hopeless, O Thebans, because even in the reckoning of our greatest masters and exponents of our way of life it has always been impossible, even wrong-headed, to reduce our method to the exactness of a science or technology - the greatest of our natural philosophers always settling to say of our lifestyle that it is governed by something in the mind or in the soul which is difficult to be taught. And indeed there is no small stigma to those who will try and do it badly, there being in my memory men who, trying to be exact about how we live in unusual prosperity, risked acrimony and discord because their definition upset entirely the movement of the mind and soul between us which is really the body of whatever it is that we believe. And so if I cannot even begin in the appropriate place and use a clear definition of our laws, is there any hope at all that I could go further and approach the topic of what our laws say about difficult and intricate issues rarely litigated in our society?
For that is a permanent but little perceived aspect of our government, that we believe it ultimately extends to everybody but we who alone practice it can do so only when we deal with one another by any other terms. And so to one another we are partners, friends, patrons, clients, brothers, rivals, equals, and colleagues, but we all think that we are something else, something more, and practicing our system of life just by trying to do what our hearts and minds communicate to us. And as for the reason why this can work and be true when there is no real commitment to it, I think that there is no reason to avoid the definition of our greatest philosophers, or to dispute that it is truly something which is unique in us, some quality of the soul or the mind, which gives us the desires and sentiments of the noblest possible man and makes it that in my business of speaking to you about lesser things you automatically understand something else, higher, which is the indescribable nature of our special way of life.
And therefore my method of arguing does not necessarily need to be as a philosopher trying to explain the natural laws to a judge after all, but as myself speaking to you, since however else we may spin it, it is evidently our judgement of one another as persons which will move history through the laws of our system of life rather than some attempt to make visible the walls we always hate so much but still can be fooled into thinking will take us forward rather than crush us dead in place like they will. And so let me tell you what I see, what I think, what is in my mind, O Thebans, what, O citizens, is in my heart. Death, Thebans - death a thousand times, manifold and complete in every fashion death, which chokes the throat, which breaks the limbs, death in the soul of mankind, death of the fire of human reason in the mind - I see these things, have you too? It is not hard - I do not have to be a soldier, I am not a merchant, I do not wander, but between letters and discourse I see it on the TV and the computer screen, I hear the black whispers snake through crowds and pull people apart, happening one ocean away from me, where I can see the streetlights when I hear the names of the cities, where I can name their greatest men when I think of the long annals of their deeds. And I am supposed to rule myself, but when I am taken by these things in the course of my day, sometimes even seized by them as if with some movement in the hidden parts of the soul itself, there is no way I can think calmly, no way that I can speak pleasantly, no way that I can be a brother about games in the field, no way that I can do business. And I guess it is something unique in me, some quality of my mind or my soul, which makes me so tortured to live about things which have nothing to do with me.
But in fact I deceive myself to paint the picture the way you imagine it is - for that is me that I see on the news, or rather us, any one of us, and maybe that is what provokes me to such an unusual extent, O Thebans, that it stirs a frenzy in the heart of my being itself when I bear witness to it. For in our country we like to think that man is not arranged downwards against crude activities but is aligned toward heaven and lives on a path which rises into the ephemeral heights of wisdom and insight. And to the wise man there is never greed, no waste, there is not sloth, there is no vice in the ideas of his mind but rather people live nobly and they feel the gods as if their world ran through them like the smooth marble face of a royal tomb. Compared to what we see now every day how is it possible to share the world with this, how can these ideas ever exist together, where does our perfect imagination pass beside the filth of sin and evil?
I tell you it is impossible. And so many ignore these things, their noble constitution will not bear them, it is like trying to make words in an empty mind, there is not even a place to begin the effort, and so they despise this slavery but they leave it to the world outside and are content to uphold the law within the scope of what they do each day. But the world does not go away - we live in it, and slaving does not disappear because we will not look at it or leave it to others, and now more and more images and reports come in from overseas, some from our people and some from others, moving the soul, sticking in the eye, touching the mind, touching the heart, men dead or crushed with entrapments around their fallen limbs like grotesque beasts struggle right in front of our countenance and there is no ability to forget them. And we are thinking men and so we cannot do without knowing what are the events in the world, it is not for us to capitulate our way of life to hide the actions of others, but our journey down the road of life becomes engulfed in these profane images which to us can scarcely be made to have any sense. And now our whole standard of living and being a man breaks down; some will avoid the things which cultivate strength in the mind and soul, words are hushed from the marketplace, to hide raw consternation in the heart men will put on scorn, arrogance, confusion, stupid laughter, bending their own thoughts, separating from their own spirits, to push it out by another means, to keep their imaginary walls before them, since I guess they think that we can live without truth and prevail by the force of pretending to feel a different way.
And so what starts errantly from our noble sentiments soon destroys our conscience, to live in what we mistake for peace we must consent to break our own freedom and nobility of being, to pretend that there is no threat to our quality we must invent banal lies and pointless rituals of thinking and speaking. And in a short time our mighty nation is conquered by base foes across a distant sea even though we never had the courage to declare war. And if even we shall be content to think that there is still some wisdom left to us, seeing as we have bought peace, seeing as we protected our society, seeing as no hand was ever laid upon our way of life, it will make no difference - we have lost that intangible principle of who we are, the law withers and dies out between us, citizenship atrophies and we suffer to be severed from one another, we rule ourselves as tyrants as cowards rather than kings and men. But since there is great stigma to those who will try and define what makes us the greatest nation on earth I will honor my own wisdom and leave the subject aside while I have still avoided to offend anyone."
Ordinarily Karpos received the applause which was his due but from this oration, which he would remember for awhile as the best he had done, summoned something peculiar and serious from each of his fellow students, each of them was alert, tense and upright, they fidgeted and stared at him all like they had something to say: irritably, incredulously, breathlessly, commendably, derisively. His rhetoric had stuck itself so deeply in his professor's mind that he seemed frozen thinking about it. It was the textbook response to a specimen of truly great deliberative oratory. Hippoklides very modestly began by pointing out his opponent.
"Since we, O Thebans, hold no stigma about praising another man for his noble deeds, I feel nothing which prevents me from saying of good Karpos that his sentiments are both worthy and great. But while we like our rhetoric indeed for the power of invention which it gives to any matter, in this case I think he has used it to avoid simple statements while he pretends to prefer lofty ones. For I feel cheated that he has claimed to speak for himself but proceeded to say nothing at all which pertains to the life of a real man. For, like all other men in this greatest country on earth, if I were to live only with my mind and soul arranged toward lofty or ephemeral matters I would soon come upon great disaster, and the soul will not nourish itself for long after I have carelessly ruined my body.
Therefore it is not that I have true opposition to the oration of my opponent, but I think that he has merely eschewed the dialogue which he promised. I will try it and see what is the result. In the first place, speaking for myself I have always been greatly attached to my honor and I have attended to it at all times as the guiding principle of my relation to others. Indeed this is what I feel and it is how I approach to every matter with all kinds of persons in the course of my day. I am never more satisfied with others nor with myself than when I feel that I keep my humility and, while being honest and forthright, neglect to pass judgement on them or violate my commitment to act as, in some sense, their servant or perhaps fellow citizen, in that way being the most in tune with the natural law. And I agree with my opponent that this minding or deference to others is some special manner which is part of the system of life which only functions here.
But if this were all that I needed to fit in our extraordinary society then I would not have to go to school to learn what it means to act like a man, or perhaps the opposite is true and I would have nothing to do all day except live with my mind in ephemeral matters. For we recognize here in our country that prosperity is only available as the return of hard work, and moreover that there is nothing to a man until he will work and by his labor secure whatever he needs for himself. And even in the greatest country on earth there are many fools and always will be, who when they fail to mind their work will find themselves without security or livelihood, and we readily imagine the misfortune of these people and the idea of it makes no small part of why we live the way we do. And so determined to avoid these lessons our country has acquired enormous strength, looking to its foundations, its walls, and its granaries, believing that we must keep enough in hand and enough before us in the field to guarantee our strength and our survival. And by focusing on this maxim, we become the special kind of people that we claim to be, our stability invites trust, our devotion invites commitment, our honor invites respect. And any man who does not think these things are a part of work is welcome to switch with me and spend tomorrow with Epthelia."
They all laughed instinctively at this sudden jest about his notoriously unruly horse. Hippoklides carried on, "but before anyone should be able to say of me too that I put on a great deal of rhetoric to conceal some dishonesty in myself, I must agree to the sentiments of my opponent and admit that the news of the slavers disturbs me also in no small amount. Nor will I suffer to let it be thought of me that in some way I dismiss these terrible thoughts and images, giving them no weight. But I am not as convinced as my opponent is that evil has somehow breached our walls because we have fortified them with the strength of our scorn. It is our own Glystophon who once said that a mundane impression will wither and die in the absence of any endorsement. To tell the truth my opponent has quite left his intention to speak for himself when he imputes grave duplicity in the character of some unknown quantity of his countrymen. As for me I do not titter nervously or make foolish jokes about slavery, the most hated evil in our society and the scar of its past, and among the men of quality whom I call my friends I know scarce any at all who do. But while my conscience will evoke strong words of contempt for slavery from me, I think it is quite rightly that it soon turns to how I will manage the harvest, to my meetings and my commitments, to the news from the assemblies, or the discourses of the moment.
Does my opponent care nothing for the strength and wisdom we have here, which protects the whole nation from bondage of that kind? I think he risks endangering us all. There are brave men who combat slavery and we count among them, all of us. But we Thebans are wise and we know well that the evil of the world visits upon those who lose their strength, whose limbs give out and fail, who are cut down with however much glory. This issue is not new even if its proximity is granted. We do our part, we are true to our allies, we put out our hand to new ones, we provide money and arms and, the boldest among us, even men to lock arms against the implacable foe. Our soldiers and commanders are some of the finest and they approach the issue with great wisdom. Is it for a professional scholar to declare war on sovereign nations who does not know anything about statesmanship and tactics? But that is exactly the opposite of what our great philosophers mean when they emphasize the virtue of our conscience."
At Hippoklides conclusion there was a polite round of applause from the other students but the conflict still hung unresolved in the humid air, everybody's brain burned now with their own answer, confirmation, refutation, or continuance of this intractable debate. The combatants lingered on the stage and looked to the professor Diomedes who was finishing his notations. He sighed very hard before focusing his examination on the boys but he did not appear unhappy by any means, albeit still very subdued. "Do you think that you spoke for yourself, Karpos, or does he have a valid point?"
"I know what he means," Karpos conceded to his stoic rival, "but I think perhaps he has not embraced the premise the way he says he has. When I speak about the movement in my soul, I speak for all of us - that is what makes us Thebans, this noble energy, and you cannot deny that it came out from us all when I spoke to it inside myself."
The teacher grinned to the other pupil. "Hippoklides are you not a Theban like the rest of us then?"
"I am a Theban," he said loudly and with good humor, "and what my opponent says of us is true even if he is not being so careful about his terms and definitions."
"Thank you boys," the professor nodded them approvingly off the stage to a last smattering of applause. He stood up - the rest of them did so eagerly, pouncing on their cue. "I think that is that." He folded up his seat and couched it underneath his armpit. "You are all welcome to come find me at the festival if you are really thirsty for another kind of test. Otherwise I will see you when I give you your letters. Until then, let us all farewell."
Only Karpos lingered behind the cumbersome exit from the stoic academy. Reaching into the vast confines of his student gown, he withdrew his phone and very quickly snapped a picture of himself posing thoughtfully beside the great statue of Apollo-Lawgiver.
