Would Socrates Be a Celebrity Today?

by Maya Talisman Frost

"Last week, as I was standing in the checkout line of my local grocery store, I found myself staring at the dozen or so magazines on display. As I gazed upon the various photos and headlines praising or trashing the celebrity du jour, I got to thinking.

What kind of celebrity would Socrates be if he were alive today? How would we treat him?

In what way would he ask his questions in the 21st century? He never wrote much of anything—we know his ideas mostly through the work of his student, Plato. Would he give speeches? Would he have televised debates? Would he have his own talk show? If so, who would be his guests?

Socrates was famous in his day. He was loved and admired for his ideas and his relentless questioning, and he was despised for the same things. Like all celebrities, he had his fans and he had his detractors.

Socrates himself said, "I am utterly disturbing and I create only perplexity." He understood his role as a provocateur, but he also had the best of intentions. He simply wanted to give people the opportunity to question themselves in order to become better humans.

Well, there are a lot of celebrities who push our buttons, but we don't tend to think of them as philosophers!

What if we did? What if we could separate the thoughts from the thinkers? We tend to dismiss the whole package—the persona—instead of taking a good look at revolutionary or inflammatory ideas. We marginalize our radical thinkers.

The rapper Eminem is a radical thinker, though many would say he is just plain radical. In his way, he is true to himself. He has broken through to mainstream consciousness because he touched a nerve—and got a lot of press.

Would Socrates be a rapper today? Would he be a professor? A performance artist? How would we regard him?

He was notoriously unattractive. Would photographers surround him, taking photos to sell to the tabloids? Would we care about him if he didn't make it on the cover of our favorite magazines?

At first glance, it may seem that we are sorely lacking in philosophers today. Perhaps we have an outdated idea of what a philosopher looks like. Not all philosophers have beards!

Do you think of Eminem as a philosopher?

Do you think of Julia Butterfly Hill, the environmental activist who lived at the top of a massive tree for two years, as a philosopher?

Do you think of Rush Limbaugh as a philosopher?

Well, they do think. They do question. They provoke discussion and argument, and they are passionate about their ideas. That makes them a lot like Socrates.

Who inspires you today? Which thinkers make you think?

What is it about them that appeals to you? Is it their ideas or the way they are presented?

We've become quite savvy about packaging. We expect professional presentation. We discount the ideas of those who don't look the part of a thinker. Of course, there are exceptions. Albert Einstein could pull off that wild-haired look. Bill Gates isn't known for his sartorial splendor. Some might argue that Stephen Hawking is actually more compelling and impressive because of his physical challenges.

Whether we admit it or not, we each have our own biases about the appearance, age, sex, nationality, or religion of the thinkers of today. What are yours?

I'm afraid Socrates would need a good public relations team in order to be heard amidst the cacophony of thought-mongers today. The prescribed process for publicizing your ideas now goes something like this: write a book, get a publisher, do tons of interviews and book signings and readings, and cash in. It helps immensely if you appeal to the mainstream culture, or if your book manages to stir up a bit of controversy. Creating buzz is what gets thinkers noticed today.

Socrates was good at creating buzz, but he would face a lot of competition in the 21st century thinkers market. I like to think that he would find a way to be who he was and that we would appreciate his gifts.

Think about what you read, what you listen to, and what you consider worthy of your attention. As you do so, remember Socrates.

There are loads of passionate thinkers in our world today. Look for the ones who aren't shouting from the rooftops, and consider those who turn you off completely. Expand your view of what a philosopher is. In the process, you'll become a better one yourself.

Copyright © Maya Talisman Frost 2003

How to Party Like Leonardo Da Vinci

by Maya Talisman Frost

"After studying scores of great thinkers like Leonardo Da Vinci, I think I've stumbled upon what really set them apart from the rest of the folks living (and thinking) at the same time.

It's remarkably simple. They learned how to entertain a thought.

Aristotle said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Hmmm. To entertain a thought without accepting it.

We need to do that. Everyone needs to learn how to be a good host or hostess to new ideas. In fact, our goal should be to become the Martha Stewart of mental entertaining!

What if you treated a new thought like a guest?

It's easier to think about mental entertaining if we put together a to-do list, just like Martha. Here it is:

#1 Make the first move

First of all, you issue an invitation. Nothing fancy. You don't have to make any major investment or lifelong commitment. You're simply inviting this person in.

It's the same with initiating the entertainment of an idea. You might see a quote on the side of a bus somewhere, and decide you'd like to explore that concept more deeply. Or, maybe you find yourself bumping into the same topic all the time, and so you make up your mind to learn more about it. Either way, you need to be ready to initiate the process. Don't hide—you won't meet new ideas if you scurry away whenever the doorbell rings.

#2 Prepare

Uh-oh. Your house is a mess. You'd better do some cleaning. You're not really trying to impress, but hey, you could certainly do some sprucing up and get the place looking neat and inviting.

Prepare for a new thought in the same way. Make some space in your mind to think about something new. According to Deepak Chopra, the well-known author on health and longevity, the average human has 60,000 thoughts a day. Pretty impressive? Well, here's the kicker: 57,000 of those are the same ones you had YESTERDAY! Now that's some serious clutter! Get rid of a few of those dusty old thoughts and make room for new ones.

#3 Offer a warm greeting

When your new guest arrives, be warm and inviting. After all, you're hoping to start a friendship. Put your best foot forward.

It's the same with an idea. If you confront it with skepticism, fear or detachment, you won't be entertaining it for long. You'll be eyeing your watch, yawning, or looking for a way to end the discussion early. You've got to be open and full of anticipation to prepare an environment in which new ideas will be explored and integrated fully. Just as it's no fair making lame excuses or having your friend call to interrupt the visit, it's also cheating to cut out too soon when it comes to entertaining an idea.

#4 Make introductions

This is the big one. You would certainly introduce your guest to everyone at the party, with a special effort to connect them to those with whom they may have something in common.

Any new idea you consider will be more likely to be welcomed if you actively and intentionally introduce it to your other ideas and interests. Look for unusual and inspired pairings. How does it fit? Where does it fit? DOES it fit? You won't know until you try.

Picture Leonardo Da Vinci's mental entertaining. His new idea, Human Flight, arrives, and immediately Leo sets about introducing him to others. "Human, meet my good friend, Engineering, and his lovely wife, Fabric Design. Oh, and have you met Bird Anatomy? She lives just around the corner from you. Oh, Dr. Entomology has arrived! Listen, Dr. E is absolutely brilliant, but a bit hard of hearing. Ask her about her recent work on the wings of insects! Now, you all make yourselves comfy and I'll go get some more wine."

What happened at that party? Leonardo threw these ideas together, and BAM! What emerged was the idea for a perfectly designed parachute as well as a remarkable helicopter—hundreds of years before the Wright brothers started building their flying machines! Talk about a soaring success! Don't you wish you'd been there?

#5 Offer the best seat in the house

You usually sit in that nice chair there by the fireplace, but when a special guest comes over, you graciously offer it.

When you are entertaining a new thought, give it the consideration it deserves. Every time you think a new thought, your brain is actually creating a new neural pathway. It's like a jungle in there, full of nerve endings and ganglia and all kinds of connections. Help it along. Make it comfortable.

Once you've considered an idea, that pathway is there. All you have to do to keep it "live" is to keep going down that path often enough to clear the trail, but not so often that it becomes a rut.

#6 Listen, inquire, and show interest

Ask questions. Dig a little deeper. Find the connections to other people, places, and activities. Learn as much as you can about your new idea.

#7 Relinquish control

Just like when you introduce guests to each other, you should not try to control the outcome. Some guests might hate each other on sight, while others click instantly. People might argue, or a married guest might sneak off to a back room with someone other than their partner. Anything can happen!

That's not up to you. You're having this party to offer an opportunity for people to connect. Make introductions, insert a few comments, smile and acknowledge everyone, but for the most part, just let things happen. Don't direct the flow of ideas.

#8 Leave room for future possibilities

Even if you decide this new neighbor of yours is insufferable, you don't want to burn any bridges. Be gracious, and be glad you were excellent enough to offer the invitation.

You're not going to like every idea that comes your way. And you might not find any other interest or idea that connects with it initially. That's fine. You need to develop the ability to recognize useful concepts and distinguish valuable and valid ideas from those lacking a strong foundation. That's what critical thinking is all about.

But you also need to file that idea away so that you can look it up if and when you DO meet a likely candidate for another gathering of thoughts.

There is a great deal of room for different styles of mental entertaining. Maybe you're best at dealing with only two ideas at a time, or maybe you want to throw a huge bash and welcome all comers.

Entertain in whatever style suits you. Tete-a-tete or bacchanal—it doesn't matter, as long as it's happening.

Learn how to entertain a thought. With a little effort, you'll become a perfect host or hostess to new ideas that come your way. And guess what? You'll have no hangover, no cleaning up, and no regrets.

Party on!

Copyright © Maya Talisman Frost 2003

Looking at Time With a Capital T

by Maya Talisman Frost

I keep a fossil on my desk at all times. Whenever I feel rushed or find myself creating a sense of urgency, I pick up the fossil and caress its polished surface. It's over 200 million years old. Suddenly, returning that phone call or meeting that self-imposed deadline doesn't seem nearly as critical. My ancient arthropod reminds me that, in the scheme of things, this moment is indescribably insignificant. I find that remarkably comforting.

True story: I brought the fossil with me as a sort of visual aid for a presentation I was giving on sustainability at Intel. As I opened the car door in the Intel parking lot, the fossil slipped out of my bag. It crashed to the pavement, the asphalt shattering the tip of my favorite piece of history. I'm trying hard to avoid seeing any deep meaning in that disturbing little incident.

Anyway, I've been stroking that poor broken fossil a lot this week. I'm not freaking out about anything. I've just been spending some time thinking about time.

Is life a function of time, or is time a function of life?

This is worth spending a considerable amount of time (or life?) contemplating. For those of you in a hurry, I've got this short sound bite answer: It depends on what kind of scope you're using.

My brother has worked for a nearby scope manufacturer for over twenty years, so my answer is colored by my familiarity with lenses and the way they magnify reality. You might come up with a response based on, say, your connection to compost. Or combustion engines. Or maybe blood cells. Me? I'm going with scopes.

I would say that time is a function of life whenever we are simply going through the motions of the day or looking at our accomplishments or failures over the course of our lives. We can divide periods of living into convenient packages—that wondrous year in Miss Green's first grade class, the bust-your-butt blur of college, the home-as-preschool phase, the years in the old house on Birch Street, and on and on. We use time. It allows us to keep things organized, both in our day planners and in our minds. It's a helpful ordering mechanism.

It's hard to get a grip on the enormity of time when we view it in appointments, lunch hours, and television time-slots. If we pull waaayyy back and look at it, then life becomes a function of time instead of the other way around.

We don't tend to pay attention to any of that while getting ready for work in the morning. We don't look at Time with a capital T. That's because we're looking through the lens of the microscope. Well, haul out the telescope. Take a look at gigantic periods of time. Consider unfathomable chunks of eternity.

We've been in the Cenozoic era for about 65 million years now. It started way back with the extinction of the last non-avian dinosaurs. The most recent Cenozoic period, the Quarternary, started a mere 1.8 million years ago, and has seen the development of humans from the very earliest use of tools and rudimentary language to the present flip-phone/camera/email devices that are all the rage today. That's quite a progression.

I'm thinking we've sort of maxed out the Cenozoic era. It has served us well in many ways, but frankly, it's getting a bit tired. Seeing as how humans were the ones to name the eras in the first place (that part is definitely time as a function of life), it's perfectly reasonable that humans should declare when the next one is starting. It's fairly arbitrary anyway. There's certainly some wiggle room—at least a couple hundred thousand years.

Can we start the new one now? Please?

Here's an idea: why not put a little thought into the next era? Instead of documenting the progress—or decline—of species, why not plug in a little intention and see where that takes us?

I wish I'd thought of that first, but I didn't. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme coined the term "Ecozoic era" in The Universe Story, and then Berry went on to talk about what that might look like in his book, The Great Work. He calls for a profoundly transformational approach to the Earth. Berry describes the Ecozoic era as one holding the promise of humans living in a mutually enhancing relationship with all life systems.

This sounds pretty groovy, but it's not viewed as a Utopian concept. It's a viable proposition.

The first steps have been taken to build the foundation for a realistic movement toward this new era. The Center for Ecozoic Studies is at the forefront, but a number of scholars of all stripes are coming together to do some planning. There's not a gloom-and-doomer in the bunch. In fact, they are catapulted by hope and possibility. They take this work very seriously but embrace it joyfully.

We should, too. We humans have come a long way from pounding rocks in a cave. We're perfectly capable of looking forward and envisioning an unprecedented era capitalizing on cooperation and awareness as guiding principles. We do it in the movies all the time. Why can't we do it for real?

I'd like to propose that we consider utilizing the concept that life is a function of time. Let's think about what it means to plan an era. The cave folks couldn't imagine the world today. We have the advantage of the knowledge of history and a growing understanding of the forces that propel a planet through its evolutionary journey.

Like it or not, we have a certain responsibility to use these formidable frontal lobes. You don't have to be a scientist to think about the future of the Earth. You're human. Think about it because you CAN.

Look for fossil moments in your day to consider the universe, and grasp the opportunity to render yourself temporarily insignificant.

Just watch out for asphalt.

Copyright © Maya Talisman Frost 2003

Five Surprisingly Hip Political Ideas from Plato

by Maya Talisman Frost

Don't you love politics?

Me, neither. But I do like thinking about politics. And wouldn't you know it? Just when you think you've come up with a dazzling opinion, you find out someone else had that same idea hundreds of years ago. So much for being original.

Still, it's delightful to discover that you share opinions with great thinkers.

Political pundits have a fabulous time skewering politicians and demanding accountability. Talking heads analyze failing policies and discuss alternatives in every form of the media.

Me? I take it all in, and then I go back to my man, Plato. It's surprising how little has changed in politics. You'd think there would be a little more enlightenment in our leadership after more than 2000 years.

Plato made some observations regarding politics that are amazingly relevant today. Political columnists are simply rehashing the same ideas Plato discussed with his cronies in Athens.

Don't believe me? Take a look at what Plato had to say back in the second century B.C.

#1 "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

The smartest people take one look at political office and run the other way. Well, that may be smart, but it doesn't do much good when it comes to changing the world. We end up with leaders who have the power and money and ego required to win an election. That's way too much like running for student body president in high school, if you ask me. The really smart kids laughed at the whole process, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads in disgust. Okay, that's fun, but it doesn't help. We need to figure out how to get our best thinkers in leadership positions, and we need to develop a system that rewards integrity.

#2 "The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort."

This is standard fare. In virtually every paper in the world, you'll find an editorial bashing the "Act now, think later" approach.

I love to see truly thoughtful leaders. You know—those who refrain from knee-jerk reactions. Those who take the time to think. It is thinking—not planetary alignment—that will change the course of mankind and launch us into an era of consciousness.

Oh, wait. Plato thought of that, too. He said:

#3 "There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, until philosophers become kings in this world, or until those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands."

Philosophy needs to become an integral part of our culture—in politics, business, art and entertainment.

What will it take for us to value thinking? More of it.

#4 "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."

Ah, yes. This one is hauled out every time a new measure is proposed. So much time is spent on legislation aimed at a tiny percentage of people who are bound and determined to get around the system. What if we spent our time and money on building better people? This is a perennial theme, and one worth pondering.

#5 "When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other in order that the people may require a leader."

Sound familiar? If not, you haven't seen the movie, Wag The Dog. Real, choreographed or simply imagined, conflicts tend to stir up a hornet's nest of controversy. This idea is the foundation for all conspiracy theorists.

Plato isn't my only political guru. There are plenty of great thinkers whose opinions are shared by newsmakers and newswatchers today.

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."

Albert Einstein said that, but you don't have to be a genius to see that rabid patriotism leads to conflict. Socrates agreed. He said:

"I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."

We need more of that Big Picture thinking. It's critical that we develop the ability to think beyond ourselves, our backyards, and our nation's political borders.

But most of all, we simply need to think. Of all the quotes about politics, here's the one that really stops me in my tracks:

"What luck for rulers that men do not think."

Who said it? Adolf Hitler.

Enough said.

Copyright © Maya Talisman Frost 2003