Athens Dialogues Two

When the Onassis Cultural centre in Athens was first conceived (see previous post), its initiators could not have imagined the crisis of the city, the country and the international economic order into which it would be born.

The orginal high ambitions of its first event - to hold Athens Dialogues about the contribution that Greek thought could make to modern problems - seemed even higher when the massed bands of international philosophers, historians, literary critics, political theorists, neuuroscientists and mathematicians, ktl (as they say in Greece) arrived at the golden-egg-in-the-glass-box past streets of uncollected rubbish, closed shops, empty offices and angry Athenian graffiti (only some of it it directed against our German friends).

The British philosopher, Simon Critchley, sounded an early warning that the Dialogue form of debate was no soft option.

In a culture when opinion is more fashionable than reasoning, and sensitivity to others' opinions is too often preferred to the stiletto needed to change minds, there was always the danger that we would have the The Athens Monologues instead.

At the end, after four days of talking, it was clear that some speakers had noted (or hardly needed to note) what Critchley had said, that others had struggled succesfully to abandon pre-prepared nostra, and others would probably never do so.

For a first event  - in a place of high ambitions for future events - this was a very fine result.

The last session took place in what seemed a spirit of genuine self-criticicism.

There seemed significant support for the idea that next time there should be more 'going live' against other speakers and less statement of opinions that had died many decades before.

Questions - in the Socratic style - might be better than themes.

Greek materialist philosophy had been neglected. Too much Plato not enough Democritus or Epicurus. The TLS representative strongly seconded that.

Much time and sincerity had been spent thanking the organisers, arguably more than either politeness or economy required. But let me stray myself here. The Byzantinist, Dr Niki Tsironis,  the conference's Academic Coordinator, much tried time-keeper and tireless attender at very moment's talking, could not be congratulated enough if we were all still there. 

Critchley declared himself  still 'just alive' on Saturday evening - and ended, as he began, with the admonition that dialogue is not the exchange of opinion in an atmosphere where everyone's opinion counts the same, that dialogue requires speakers to try to change minds not to comfort them, and that we could all do better as the noble process continued.
 
There seemed popular agreement that Greek politicians - temporary custodians of a palpably 'broken system' - could have usefully given up their own debates for a few days and joined ours. Politicians everywhere, of course, are among the very worst at dialogue - as every day's listening to them reminds us.

The Athens garbage strike,  part of the non-verbal Greek protest against the German view of their economy, seemed yesterday, however, to be coming to an end.