Ancestor Worship
The
glorification of the (ancient) often involves cooking up stories and imagining
capabilities that didn’t exist. But if you’re Greek and all of Western
civilization is acknowledged as being a descendant of Greek everything (culture,
philosophy, scientific mindset), then you can’t criticize modern Greek pride in
their history on the grounds of being cooked up stories.
“It appears the
Greeks take their past very seriously. They study ancient Greek archaeology in
their elementary schools for 6 years… It is a kind of ancestor worship.”
Feynman
being Feynman pointed out how far the West has come since then:
“Experimental
science, the development of mathematics, the art of the Renaissance, the great
depth and understanding of the shallowness of Greek philosophy”
And was
irritated by the response he got:
“They continually
put their age down and the old age up.”
Feynman
goes on to add:
“The development
of greatest importance to mathematics in Europe was the discovery by
Tartaglia…”
Tartaglia
who?
“…that you can
solve a cubic equation.”
Huh?
Why is that so important?
“Although it is of
very little use in itself, the discovery must have been psychologically
wonderful because it showed that a modern man could do something that no
ancient Greek could do… It therefore helped in the Renaissance, which was the freeing
of man from the intimidation of the ancients.”
And
when Feynman asked about an ancient machine in a Greek museum, he had to
explain why he found it interesting:
“Didn’t
Erastothenes measure the distance to the sun, and didn’t that require elaborate
scientific instruments?”
He got
a blank look, leading him to lament:
“Oh, how ignorant
are classically educated people. No wonder they don’t appreciate their own
time.”
But he
acknowledges how he must come across to them:
“I guess the
Greeks think all Americans must be dull, being only interested in machinery
when there are all those beautiful statues and portrayals of lovely myths and
stories of gods and goddesses to look at.”
You can
say a lot of things about America, but living in the past isn’t one of them.
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