“Set in the hotbed of academic mediocrity that is Kirke University, with the mercurial yet stubby Vice Chancellor Jonty de Wolfe at the helm.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlH4t9u8l_Y
Hilarious (unless you’ve lived through it), quote; "“Why the Continued Ritual Immolation of Human Effigies Might be Indicative of an Un-evolving Society.”
During The Miner’s Strike and just before The Brighton Bomb I entered The Essex University Social Science faculty to study a Philosophy and Government degree. I had left my school sixth form with the school literature prize under my belt and felt confident that I would enjoy stretching my wings over a wider syllabus (digressing only somewhat I would add that the access to a wider syllabus at all levels in education that has occurred since has been, perhaps, the only good thing to happen to our education system in the last 25 years).
My first essay on politics concerned itself with the practicalities of an anarchist society (and it’s creation). Arguing the need for an evolution of consciousness, rather than a revolution of peoples, I made use of some of the thought of Catholic theologian Teilhard De Chardin (and a book by Marilyn Ferguson called “The Aquarian Conspiracy” amongst others). The tutor concerned (no names no pack-drill) having given me a low “A” grade of 74% marked the essay down for my mention of Teilhard’s ideas saying “it sounds like being invaded by “The Tripods!”” ( a “War of the World’s” type science fiction series then being screened by the B.B.C).
Now I should have run to the philosophy dept. screaming; “rape!” but I was a freshman and took his patronising Stalinism to be indicative of the attitude of the department (and University), to this day I don’t think I was far wrong.
Interestingly perhaps (for some)* the very last book I read before I left 18 months later was Robert Persig’s famous assault on modern academic philosophical thought “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”.
What I find particularly irritating however is this; if I had made more extensive use of (having read more of -at the time-); E.F Schumacher, James Lovelock or any of the more modern (although I don’t think he liked Ferguson either frankly) “Gaian” (one hesitates to say “Protestant”) philosophers would “Tanky Boy” have shown me “The Red Card” so early?
…and, perhaps more interestingly, I had been awarded “Wilsons’” 6th Form Literature prize for a long essay on Malcolm Bradbury’s “The History Man” (which I had appreciated as social-history -of-course-), I had no idea Howard Kirk was going to be my first tutor!
"Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a visionary French Jesuit, paleontologist, biologist, and philosopher, who spent the bulk of his life trying to integrate religious experience with natural science, most specifically Christian theology with theories of evolution. In this endeavour he became absolutely enthralled with the possibilities for humankind, which he saw as heading for an exciting convergence of systems, an “Omega point” where the coalescence of consciousness will lead us to a new state of peace and planetary unity. Long before ecology was fashionable, he saw this unity he saw as being based intrinsically upon the spirit of the Earth:
“The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the Earth.”
Teilhard de Chardin passed away a full ten years before James Lovelock ever proposed the “Gaia Hypothesis” which suggests that the Earth is actually a living being, a colossal biological super-system. Yet Chardin’s writings clearly reflect the sense of the Earth as having its own autonomous personality, and being the prime centre and director of our future – a strange attractor, if you will – that will be the guiding force for the synthesis of humankind.
"The phrase ‘Sense of the Earth’ should be understood to mean the passionate concern for our common destiny which draws the thinking part of life ever further onward. The only truly natural and real human unity is the spirit of the Earth. . . .The sense of Earth is the irresistible pressure which will come at the right moment to unite them (humankind) in a common passion.
“We have reached a crossroads in human evolution where the only road which leads forward is towards a common passion. . . To continue to place our hopes in a social order achieved by external violence would simply amount to our giving up all hope of carrying the Spirit of the Earth to its limits.”
To this end, he suggested that the Earth in its evolutionary unfolding, was growing a new organ of consciousness, called the noosphere. The noosphere is analogous on a planetary level to the evolution of the cerebral cortex in humans. The noosphere is a “planetary thinking network” – an interlinked system of consciousness and information, a global net of self-awareness, instantaneous feedback, and planetary communication. At the time of his writing, computers of any merit were the size of a city block, and the Internet was, if anything, an element of speculative science fiction. Yet this evolution is indeed coming to pass, and with a rapidity, that in Gaia time, is but a mere passage of seconds. In these precious moments, the planet is developing her cerebral cortex, and emerging into self-conscious awakening. We are indeed approaching the Omega point that Teilhard de Chardin* was so excited about.
This convergence however, though it was predicted to occur through a global information network, was not a convergence of merely minds or bodies – but of heart, a point that he made most fervently."…
from… www.gaiamind.org an article by Anodea Judith
“I would rather burn Capitalism over a slow fire than make a “St.Bartholemew’s Night” of it’s perpetrators.” Pierre-Joseph Proudhon" https://www.arafel.co.uk/2012/05/this-is-no-parliament.html
Happened to me: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/campus Victoria… https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/campus/cast_crew/ !!!
Nb. I was right there, at the front, on the bridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1hOoM_93Bo!
*Teilhard was lucky to avoid ex-communication, I wonder what #HisDarkMaterials makes of that #Magistereum?
