Death of Hypatia®

This is not a platform for my opinions, if I wanted to broadcast my thoughts because I needed the attention, I would be on Social Media. It is difficult to express oneself without leaning in one direction or another, but, the point of this site is to make YOU think. Although I often have Comment Sections and I’m frequently directing readers to think about things from their point of view; this does not mean I want to know what you think. If you wish to correct something inaccurate, or add thoughts, killer, I’m still learning too. But I do not care what it is you think. Nor do I care if you agree or disagree with what I think. If you are looking for a site where you are told what to think so you can get warm and fuzzy attention for agreeing with other’s opinions….this is not the place for you. If you are looking to be a part of a community that only exposes you to one way of thinking, where you are praised for acquiescing, where anything other than like-minded thoughts are not tolerated, please go elsewhere. 

All I want YOU to do is THINK, for yourself, without life’s distractions influencing YOU.

Think of this site as the annoying kid on the playground, or a younger sibling who is constantly running up aggressively, cocking back as if to punch you, but pulls up at the last second. But instead of irritatingly chanting…‘made you blink!’, I’m ceaselessly reciting ‘made YOU THINK!‘

death of Hypatia/ deth / uv / heh-p॑ey-shə / n : A tragic moment in history where the greed of a few interrupts the progress of the whole

Hypatia was brutally murdered in 415CE. This politically motivated assassination involved being dragged into a church, striped naked, and the flesh scraped from her bones with oyster shells. Her death immediate caused a scholarly exodus from the intellectual capital of the world and historically has been argued as a contributor to the end of the Classical Age and the beginning of the Dark Age.  

‘Hypatia’s death sent shockwaves throughout the empire’

-Wikipedia

Shockwaves? Really?! Shockwaves is the word that Wikipedia uses under the heading AFTERMATH when discussing the murder of the first renowned female mathematician in history and most people, myself included, were never taught about her?  Hypatia was killed because the mathematician/philosopher/astronomer’s secular advice for tolerance obstructed the plans of a powerful man and we don’t discuss? Her reputation was successfully smeared and she is almost historically abandoned, and yet the man who fueled her assassination had political power of the city within five years and made Saint Cyril (I shit you not) and we don’t analyze this morally or politically? How can we learn from history repeating itself if we don’t know the history?

We don’t know her, we don’t talk about her, nor do we consider the ramifications of her death. How many things had she yet to discover? How many things had she yet to write? How many more students had she yet to teach? Socrates was Plato’s teacher. Plato was Aristotle’s teacher. Aristotle was Alexander the Great’s teacher. How many students of Hypatia’s did we lose when we lost her, and how many students of those students? 1600 years worth of intellectual seedlings that could have examined, explored, and influenced… gone. 

And if she, who could have profoundly changed the world, can be morphed into a witch and all but historically forgotten, whilst the mastermind of her murder is made a Doctor of the Church, than what about…

little, nobody, me?

What’s the point?

Is there a point?

Maybe. Maybe that point is to make lemonade, be better, and try and be happy. 

I believe we would be better if we recognized and discussed the Death of Hypatia moments that have happened throughout history. I believe through acknowledgement and reflection we can learn and thus, arm ourselves when it rears its head again, and again, and again. I believe the United States recently has experienced a Death of Hypatia moment. It is my belief that there will always be bad men with power, but until the Constitution no longer stands, WE have the final word on our future.  I believe that we are inherently good and if we pushed away the noise and really knew what we thought, if we said what we meant, if we didn’t drink the powered poison that is ladled down our throats, if we moved in life with confidence instead of moving forward in fear….it would be better.

Better leads to happiness, and happiness, or at least the pursuit of it, is what I think is the whole point.

And that’s the point of this.

The Happiness Research Institute is in Copenhagen and on its website is described as:

‘an independent think tank exploring why some societies are happier than others. The mission is to inform decision-makers of the causes and effects of human happiness, make subjective well-being part of the public policy debate, and improve overall quality of life for citizens across the world.’

The website further explains why it finds it necessary to measure happiness:

‘Obviously, human well-being is more than wealth. Robert F. Kennedy famously pointed out that GDP “measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile” and today GDP is increasingly recognized as an insufficient measure of quality of life. With good reason. We have gotten richer – but not happier. We have failed to convert wealth into well-being.​

Therefore, governments are increasingly interested in how happiness research can contribute to public policy and we are encouraged by the increasing number of institutions and governments which are working with new measures of progress.

With a focus on the determinants of happiness, happiness research can play a major role in a shift of our policy priorities. By increasing quality of life in our societies, we may in fact accomplish additional goals such as longevity, and productivity.’

I have thought about this at length and I’ve come to the unhappy conclusion that I can know MYSELF thoroughly, I can filter information, digest quality data, call a duck a duck, question my place in the world, and I can imagine what would be Better For The Most, but this will not bring me the happiness I’m looking for. We are social beings and to pursue my happiness, I sadly need to thrive in a community that allows, and even champions, my pursuit of it.

That’s where you come in.

It begins with an exercise:

Part 1:  

I close my eyes and try and feel anxiety, sadness, and/or stress. I do so by trying to think of an experience that brought this combination of feelings up in the past. I find I can accomplish this almost instantaneously. Physically, for me, this feels like a tearing, nausea emptiness that begins in my stomach and stretches out, pushing through my veins to my very tips. I feel hungry but nothing is appealing, I feel tired when I haven’t done anything, and I’m more accustomed to the feeling of trepidation than fearlessness. I distrust more than I trust, I have no respite from the annoying voices in my head telling me what I need to do/reminding me what I haven’t done, and I feel I have less and less to look forward to. I do NOT wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Your turn to try….. 

• About how long did it take to feel your version of ‘bad cocktail’?
• How far back chronologically, did you have to go?

Part 2:

Close your eyes and try and feel absolute joy, not joy mixed with stress, not joy with a feeling of danger. But running downstairs in the morning to a pile of wrapped toys kind of joy. The orgasmic kind of joy you feel when losing yourself in the music, or finding out someone you love is going to ‘live to fight another day’. Hugging someone at the airport kind of joy.  If you likewise find this difficult or have to go waaaay back, let’s lower the bar. Try to conjure up the feeling of a really good time; an experience start to finish that left your face hurting from smiling. This needs to be a prolonged experience, not little bursts with worries about people at home, traffic, or what you have to do tomorrow etc.

• About how long did it take to feel that kind of joy/good time?
• How far back chronologically, did you have to go?

If Part 2 was easier and faster to accomplish than Part 1….good for you, nothing to see here, and I’m jealous.

If it was the reverse, we have something in common and maybe if a bunch of you get happy, I could be more likely to get happy. 

What if the Meaning of Life is simply being allowed to pursue your Happiness? If we are pursing happiness the prerequisites of  life and liberty have been met, no? And as we have been promised all three, I don’t think it is asking too much to allow us the space to get on with the one.

I can remember a time when I lived my life with enthusiasm and I didn’t worry about the economy, corporations, scams, and politics. This blasé attitude can be attributed to it being a presumption/expectation that our business leaders and especially our civil servants were working towards the good of the people, or at least pretending to. The only time that politics or the government specifically entered my focus was when it was time to vote, a politician was commended for acting honorably, or, and most often, a politician or a law, grossly missed the bar for what was considered decent by the people of the United States.

Now it seems, I pass each day, not living now, in my life, but flooded with anxiety ridden thoughts about tomorrow. The horrors of politics now take up the majority of my concerns; not because politicians missed the bar on decency, that bar has been buried, politics fill my brain because I’m scared that my government will further diminish my ability to pursue happiness. I now believe that the ultimate goal for those in power is ALL of it, not more of it, not most of it, ALL of it. I feel I’m a consumer and my importance is limited to Buying and Dying.

This is not living. For those of you too young to remember what it was like when the government wasn’t constantly taking from you, I’m sorry. It wasn’t always like this.

But maybe, it could be again? That is the point of Death of Hypatia; to achieve the ability to live our lives and pursue our happinesses.

Will Durrant wrote in The Story of Philosophy:

‘So much of our lives is meaningless, a self-canceling vacillation and futility; we strive with the chaos about us and within; but we would believe all the while that there is something vital and significant in us, could we but decipher our own souls. We want to understand;… we want to seize the value and perspective of passing things, and so to pull ourselves up out of the maelstrom of daily circumstance. We want to know that the little things are little and the big things are big, before it is too late; we want to see things now as they will seem forever – ‘in the light of eternity’. We want to learn to laugh in the face of the inevitable, to smile even at the looming of death. We want to be whole, to coordinate our energies by criticizing and harmonizing our desires; for coordinated energy is the last word in ethics and politics, and perhaps in logic and metaphysics too….We may be sure that if we can but find wisdom, all things else will be added unto us. Truth will not make us rich, but it will make us free.’ 

Through reading, thinking, and more reading we can start to find the truth, and per Durrant, freedom; at least we could obtain more mental freedom than we have now, so what do you have to lose?

Read about HISTORY so we can stop repeating dumb things and learn from Death of Hypatia moments.

Read about PHILOSOPHY as Thoreau put it ‘so to love wisdom as to live, according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.’

Read about POLITICS because we are supposedly governed by a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, so we should be informed to preserve it from perishing from the earth.

Read LITERATURE for, as Descartes said ‘The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.’ Although Wendell Berry, the American novelist, poet, and essayist was answering the question: ‘What are People For?’, I’m using the following quote to answer ‘What are the words of people For?’:

‘We clasp the hands of those that go before us, and the hands of those who come after us. We enter a little circle of each other’s arms and the larger circle of lovers whose hands are joined in a dance, and the larger circle of all creatures, passing in and out of life, who move also in a dance, to a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it except in fragments.’

I found, in books, my ideas had a place at the cool kids’ table. With no one else watching, my thoughts could free-range play, fall down, and be mistaken, but always evolving and learning. I found philosophers that made me think and question; ones I objected to, admired, was offended by, and/or fell in love with. I found authors who gave face to evil and honor to those in the right. Authors whom made me consider lives different from mine and care outside my circle; authors whom made me consider what I would do, which characters I would want to be, and who I believe I am. I found Historians whom astounded me with what achievements and atrocities man is capable of; historians whom explained who wrote history, who didn’t learn from it, and for whom successes were successful for. In politics I found pride and shame, saw better how money and power can corrupt, and learned of human frailty. Therefore I will be often quoting, and/or paying homage to, the genius’ who thought before us. I understand I will never be done getting to know myself, as I’m smart enough to accept evolution and allow my opinions to change. I will never stop learning. If more people did the same, perhaps it would help.

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a dystopian America where books are outlawed and firemen, instead of putting out fires, burn books. This 1953 novel was a critical success, but was notably censored and banned throughout the world, including the United States.

I suggest reading it if you haven’t, and re-reading it if you have. Don’t look up anything about the plot etc., just know there is something in the book that was considered dangerous to the powers that be, something someone(s) didn’t want YOU to think about…but be warned, the resemblance to today may be unsettling.

I, like Mr. Bradbury, believe happiness, or something more like it, takes three consecutive steps to achieve; we just call them by different names. I believe the following passages from Fahrenheit 451, here and on other pages, sum up the gist of Death of Hypatia:

     ‘The book, where did you…’

     ‘I stole it.’ Faber for the first time raised his eyes and looked directly into Montag’s face.

     ‘You’re brave.’

      ‘No’ said Montag. ‘My wife’s dying, a friend of mine is already dead, someone who may have been a friend was burnt less than 24 hours ago. You’re the only one I knew might help me…. to see……To See.’

      Faber’s hands itched on his knees. ‘May I?’

       ‘Sorry.’ Montag gave him the book.

        ‘It’s been a long time. I’m not a religious man but it’s been a long time.’ Faber turned the pages, stopping here and there to read. ‘It’s as good as I remember. Lord, how they’ve changed it in our…’Parlors’ these days. Christ is one of the family now. I often wonder if God recognizes his own son the way we’ve dressed him up, or, or is it, dressed him down? He’s a regular peppermint stick now, all sugar crystal and saccharin when he isn’t making veiled references to commercial products that every worshipper absolutely needs.’ Faber sniffed the book. ‘Did you know that books smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them when I was a boy. Lord there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go…’ Faber turned the pages. ‘Mr. Montag, you are looking at a coward. I saw the way things were going a long time back, I said nothing. I’m one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the guilty, but, I did not speak and thus became guilty myself and when finally they set the structure to burn the books using the firemen, I grunted a few times and subsided for there were no others grunting or yelling with me by then, and now, it’s too late.’ Faber closed the Bible, ‘Well, suppose you tell me why you came here?’

        ‘Nobody listens anymore, I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me, I can’t talk to my wife, she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say and maybe if I talk long enough it will make sense, and I want you to teach me to understand what I read.’ Faber examined Montag’s thin, blue-jowled face.

       ‘How did you get shaken up? What knocked the torch out of your hands?’

       ‘I don’t know. We have everything we need to be happy but we aren’t happy. Something is missing. I looked around, the only thing I positively knew was gone were the books I burned in 10 or 12 years…so, I thought…books might help.’

       ‘You’re a hopeless romantic’ said Faber, ‘It would be funny if it were not serious. It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books. The same things could be in the Parlor Families today. The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it’s not books at all you’re looking for. Take it where you can find it; in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature, and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us. Of course, you couldn’t know this, of course you still can’t understand what I mean when I say all this, you are intuitively right, that’s what counts. Three things are missing…………..’

 

Death of Hypatia agrees, three things are missing:

What if Faber was/is right? What if we just stopped, breathed, and introduced ourselves to ourselves? Couldn’t feel worse than this in my opinion. So I listened to Bradbury, Hugo, Austen, Wilde, and Dickens; I tried to think like Socrates, Plato, Bentham, and Rousseau. What if we all spoke like we knew who we were? What if we all acted as we believe we should? What if we knew what our happiness was?

What if what Charles Dickens said is true?:

‘If men behaved decently, the world would be decent.’

Ray Bradbury, or the character Faber, broke down the goal of accomplishing Happiness through three things; Death of Hypatia has massaged these three things, but they are the same principles: