A speech by Ambassador Mallias at the Eighth Olympiad of the Mind hosted by The National Academies

REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR OF GREECE
ALEXANDROS P. MALLIAS
On the occasion of the Conference
“THE OLYMPIAD OF THE MIND”

“THE RELEVANCE OF THE ANCIENT GREEK TEXTS”

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am most humbled by the invitation to speak among such distinguished servants of episteme, of logos and logiki (logic), and I thank Dr. Epimenidis D. Haimenedakis for extending that invitation.

The mere fact that I am surrounded by Nobel Prize recipients will help reign me in and prevent me from expounding at length on a topic that I love, that is, the “Relevance of the Greek Classics today”.

I will try to develop within my brief remarks the issue of the lack of symmetry, harmony and geometry in the 21st century world.

Ancient Greeks recognized that man is part of a greater whole, and it is obvious today that the safety of the world rests upon the realization that our fates are intertwined and interwoven; we are all part of a greater whole, which needs balance and equilibrium. This balance requires the blend of harmony, symmetry, geometry and a sense of measure (metron), qualities that the ancient Greeks understood better than anyone.

These qualities are explicit and mirrored in classical Greek sculpture. Ancient Greek statues and temples are all on a human scale, something which shows a profound understanding of man’s proportionate relationship to nature and the cosmos. You only have look to the Parthenon, a structure which embodies these characteristics, regrettably disrupted by the fact that the Parthenon marbles are in the British Museum.

I find that many of the problems and challenges we face today are precisely due to the fact that these qualities are missing.

1.  And so, I often find solace and counsel, if you will, in the ancient Greek classics, as they negotiate ways to maintain this balance and harmony in relationship to the whole: 

(A)  On Geometry - ΓΕΩΜΕΤΡΙΑ

Clearly, the concept of Geometry includes the sub-concepts of γαία and μέτρον.  It is not very difficult to argue that today in international relations at the global level the essence of metron is lacking.

(B)  On Harmony – (ΑΡΜΟΝΙΑ)

Harmony presupposes a fine-tuned equilibrium and a proportionate relationship of all components of all our regulatory systems, including our ecosystem.

Climate change and global warming are but blatant examples of this lack of harmony. 

In the 21st century, we have introduced the concept of asymmetrical threats. It is clear to me that the environment and global climate are victims of asymmetrical threats of our own making.

The Greek classics tackle this issue as well.  I was amazed to read Plato’s bemoaning the abuse of the environment, when in his dialogue “Critias”, he talks about the Attic land:

"For some mountains, which today will only support bees produced not so long ago, trees which when cut provided roof beams for huge buildings whose roofs are still standing.  And there were a lot of tall cultivated trees which bore unlimited quantities of fodder for beasts.  The soil benefited from an annual rainfall which did not run to waste from the bare earth as it does today, but was absorbed in large quantities and stored in retentive layers of clay, so that what was drunk down by the higher regions flowed downwards into the valleys and appeared everywhere in a multitude of rivers and springs. And the shrines which still survive at these former springs are proof of the truth of our present account of the country.

C.  On Symmetry (ΣΥΜΜΕΤΡΙΑ)

The lack of symmetry, such an important concept in the Greek classics, manifests itself in at least two main ways today:

First, the lack of symmetry manifests itself in the gap between rich and poor.

Aggregate wealth estimates provided by the World Bank demonstrate that the European countries, along with the United States, and Japan, dominate the top 10 wealthiest countries/nations. The 10 poorest countries at the global level are in Sub-Saharan Africa

It is with the rise of the Greek city-States that we see a civilization concerned with the delicate balance between food supply and population. Ancient Athens was especially troubled by demographic pressures. Thus the ancient Greek philosophers, particularly Plato and Aristotle, were sensitive to the relationship between population and resources when contemplating the ideal size for a city-state of their day.

A second phenomenon resulting from this gap, and allow me to be a bit of a heretic here, is that of human trafficking.  In ancient and not so ancient times, we know there were slaves; there were the dominant and the dominated. Today, albeit within a different context and perhaps different form, we have generated the phenomenon of a modern form of slavery, that of human trafficking.

2.  LIVING TOGETHER IN DIVERSITY

A basic characteristic of Athenian democracy was the concept of co-existing, of living together in diversity.

Today, both in the United States and in a number of European countries, a critical phenomenon that has entered the domestic political agenda is that of immigration. 
And given these values and concepts of ancient Athens, it did not surprise me to discover that Martin Luther King himself was interested in the classics and so freely referred to them in his many great speeches, including the most famous “To the Mountaintop”

3.  THUCYDIDES – ARCHIDAMUS - ISOCRATES

Today, when much of the world struggles to overcome conflict and maintain a balance of peace, and when the rest of us are often called upon by circumstances to address some of these issues, there are no better references than the writings of the ancient Greeks. 

In understanding the miscalculations and blunders in political decision-making in the 21st century, and also making sense of some of the conflicts of the 20th century, there is no better handbook than Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian Wars”, written some 2,500 years ago. There is also much to learn from the writings of Isocrates as he addresses the Athenian people on the merits and perils of war.

PERSUASION RATHER THAN FORCE and HOW TO TREAT OUR ALLIES:

In the 21st century, the concept of the Coalition of the Willing has emerged.  In recording the famous speech by the Spartan King, Archidamus, to Sparta’s allies on the merits of going to war, Thucydides writes:
“What is most important is that we shall have all mankind as our allies—not because they have been forced, but rather persuaded, to join with us; who will not welcome our friendship because of our power, but who will be disposed towards us as allies and friends. (Thucydides)
In his speech to the Athenians“On the Peace”, Isocrates tells us:  “
We must be willing to treat our allies as we would our friends and not to grant them . . . things . . . only in words, . . . . and not exercise our leadership as masters but as helpers.”
“So we shall not lack allies to help us . . . . but shall find many ready and willing to join their forces to our own. For what city or what men will not be eager to share our friendship and our alliance when they see that we are at once the most just and the most powerful of peoples?”
Both Thucydides and Isocrates write on the subject of PREPARING FOR WAR: 

“If we undertake the war. . .  we would by hastening its commencement only delay its conclusion." (Isocrates)

"In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are sound; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions."  (Thucydides)
We must not rest our hopes of safety upon the blunders of our enemies but upon our own management of affairs and upon our own judgment. For the good fortune which results to us from their stupidity might perhaps cease or change to the opposite”, whereas that which comes about because of our own efforts will be more permanent and enduring.” (Isocrates)

CONCLUSION

The return/revival of the classics in the 21st century as a basic tool of analysis, of understanding the sound criteria for decision-making in politics, geostrategy, is to myself imposed in our permanent search for applying the themelion (fundamental principles) of symmetry, harmony and geometry, which is the Aristotelian metron.