{"id":1786,"date":"2026-09-10T12:28:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T10:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/?p=1786"},"modified":"2026-09-10T15:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:32:17","slug":"lighthouses-as-monasteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/?p=1786","title":{"rendered":"Lighthouses as monasteries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wayne  Hall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward Gibbon came to see the decline and fall of the Roman Empire as “the triumph of barbarism and religion”. If the “second coming of Christ” is to be an event not in the history of religion but in the history of science, knowledge and enlightenment, do lighthouses have a future as the “monasteries” of a polycentric and – post-religious – world?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This analysis is written from Greece, which prima facie<\/em> is not well placed to be an active participant in transitioning to the multipolar world that would involve a lowering of the status of Europe, Christianity and \u201cthe West\u201d. \u201cThe West\u201d that Greece is often seen not to be altogether part of\u2026 is the West of Catholicism and Protestantism, of \u201cthe Franks\u201d, of the Bavarians that ruled Greece in the decades following a revolution claimed to be successful, of the Second World War Nazi occupation (was that really \u201cWest\u201d?) Greeks are proud of the fact that the word \u201cEurope\u201d itself is so unambiguously Greek. And it is a source of pride in Greece that Italy\u2019s attempt to reverse history\u2019s allocation of a Greek civilizing role over Italy by elevating the latter to the status of colonizer and making the latter the colonized was \u2013 in the Second World War \u2013 defeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand today\u2019s promotion to prime visibility of such outrageously Nazi-like figures as Ursula von der Leyen and German chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2026 reeks of provocation (by whom, and for what purpose?). There is a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em> in the whole scenario, and what does it signify?  The post WW2 Pax Americana is no longer favored even by the United States as self-confident and openly declared policy. The rise of a Chinese and Russian alternative claimant to global hegemony appears to lack a basic element historically associated with empire: the imposition of cultural (including linguistic) domination. And what do these two states have in common anyway other than a 20th<\/sup> century past of a rather problematic Marxism (would Lukacs agree?) from which one of them has explicitly dissociated itself and which the other has transformed into an inscrutable hybrid? Do these elements comprise the cultural face of a newly emerging hegemony? Perhaps they do, but if so it will be sui generis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a few years have passed since the triumphal descent on Athens of the heroic defenders of medical integrity, scientific principle and democracy Reiner Fuellmich and Sucharit Bhakdi. Their campaign was one of opposition to the deceit, censorship and murderous hidden agenda of a World Health Organization evidently fallen into the hands of criminals. Both men rejoiced to be present in the \u201ccradle of democracy\u201d, clearly appealing to conceptions that neither of them seemed to perceive as being gravely threatened not only practically but also theoretically.  Introducing Fuellmich at the press conference held on the eve of an impressive public meeting at the \u201cParko tis Eleftherias\u201d, the Greek cardiologist Argyris Dalianis declared (to translate from the Greek): \u201cToday is a historic day for many reasons because we have two figures from the international constellation who distinguished themselves as scientists and not only. These people are, I think, a symbol and will after a few years be an even greater symbol for all people and of all times, because they do not have, at this moment, the luxury of saying what they say without being punished for it. For the speaker sitting alongside me here, despicable slanders have been in circulation stigmatizing him in various ways in the knowledge that here in Greece the presence of these people can cause a sensation. This press conference that is taking place has a potential to snowball when the editing is completed in a few hours and the responses to it start to circulate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dalianis was not wrong to claim that the press conference then taking place had \u201ca potential to snowball\u201d, nor that the presence in Greece of figures of recognized importance in Europe \u201ccan cause a sensation.\u201d Greece is after all a country of the Western European periphery. But in this case it did not happen. The suspended and ultimately reinstated health workers who had comprised a significant proportion of Dalianis\u2019 support base when he embarked (as did so many others) on the typically fruitless task of rank-and-file party building in the wake of the COVID upheaval, quickly reverted to more familiar routines and concerns. \u201cEach of us has our views, which are based on some scientific data. If a person has a minority view in relation to the importance or intensity of a particular issue that he is outside reality and his conclusion is scientifically baseless. I don\u2019t think that any health worker, and particularly the doctors, would say anything that was not supported by scientific data<\/em>.\u201d (The words of Argyris Dalianis. My translation.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even worse than this, before much more than a year had passed from the time of  his Athens appearance, Fuellmich had been kidnapped and, in comprehensive defiance of legality, imprisoned in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2022, at the time of the dissolution of Fuellmich\u2019s first attempt to separate fact from fiction concerning the WHO and its agenda (the Corona Investigative Committee), Reiner performed his own \u201cturn to the global south\u201d in the form of an online interview with the Australian \u201cfreedom movement\u201d activist group Caf\u00e9 Locked Out, conducted from the little rural town of Portland in Victoria, Australia. https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/4v14gx5mrr5b0EYbC8v2o3<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Reiner said to the Caf\u00e9 Locked Out activists makes it clear how dangerous he is perceived as being (by certain people) but his flattering comments on the Athenian health care workers he had so recently met seem to foreshadow certain limitations. In this Portland interview he ventures the optimistic assessment that they (like himself) \u201cwould not crack under pressure\u201d. And his declared hopes for his  German political party \u201cdie Basis\u201d have seemingly not aged well. Returning to the northern hemisphere one returns to the question of how Reiner\u2019s Greece might plausibly find qualifications for participation in a turn away from Europe towards \u201cthe global south\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer, it is here asserted, is through the revolution of 1821. This date is the historically approved date for commencement of the uprising against the Ottoman Empire that is described as an uprising of Greeks (most of whom, like the Albanians who did most of the fighting)  thought of themselves as Christians and \u201cRomioi\u201d (Romans), not Greeks (i.e. pagans) (which does not necessarily mean that they were more religious than they were nationalistic.) And it is not the date of establishment of the new revolutionary state, which was 26th<\/sup> January 1828 (forty years to the day after the raising of the Union Jack at Port Jackson in New South Wales) or alternatively 3rd<\/sup> February 1830 with the signing of the London Protocol and with it the blessing of \u201cthe international community\u201d of the day (France, Great Britain, Russia), or, as an afterthought, after some scrabbling around to find a European king willing to head it, proclamation of the Kingdom of Greece at the London Conference of 1832.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greek state that was proclaimed in Aegina on 26th<\/sup> January 1828 was headed by the distinguished (and later assassinated) international diplomat Ioannis Capodistrias, but it is only in Aegina that this was recognized as an inauguration, although after decades of tireless lobbying by Aeginetans and other admirers of Capodistrias, a Greek presidential decree did (in the 21st<\/sup> century) finally recognize 26th<\/sup> January as the date for a Greek festival \u201cof local significance\u201d.                                                                                                                                    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could it aid Greece\u2019s \u201cturn to the global south\u201d (and Australia\u2019s self-respect) if it came to share this date with Australia as an allied national day? Greece\u2019s presently recognized national day 25th<\/sup> March is after all the date not of a national but of a religious festival, the feast of the Annunciation. Would it benefit Greece\u2019s prestige in Europe and globally if 26th<\/sup> January became the country\u2019s national day?  For reassurance of the Orthodox faithful \u2013 it can be said confidently that there was no more explicitly devout Orthodox Christian than Ioannis Capodistrias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he was nevertheless on the side of Enlightenment.  Education, modern science and organized state laws were at the heart of his objectives. He believed that an educated public was necessary for a free nation. He opened primary and secondary schools across Greece which were not obsessed with classical learning to the detriment of common sense.  He wanted students to learn practical trades, including agriculture. His approach to medical science was forward-looking, including selective resort to vaccination (e.g. against smallpox). He rejected the status quo of arbitrary rule by local warlords and rich  landowners, instead promoting unified central government. And he favoured emancipation of Jews \u2013 in 1830 he granted legal equality to Jewish inhabitants  in the newly formed Greek state, making Greece one of the first European nations to establish equal civil rights for Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having grown up in Corfu, which had a prominent and historic Romaniote and Sephardic Jewish community, he was familiar with Jewish integration and Jewish life in the Ionian region. His 1830 decree  helped shape the multi-cultural and equal-rights framework inherited by the later Greek parliamentary state, even though local administrations sometimes struggled with full enforcement due to lingering Ottoman-era societal prejudices. The key principle for him and those who agreed with him was equality of treatment, a principle that will remain as relevant in 2028 as it was in 1828. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One factor that complicates the task of making Capodistrias\u2019 record facilitate a Greek turn to the planetary south is that he is relatively well-known only in certain specific countries outside Greece: Switzerland, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania. When the Italian ex-Europarliamentarian the late Giulietto Chiesa visited Aegina in 2013  and spoke in a memorable public discussion on European integration and its future, he knew absolutely nothing about Capodistrias (until informed by Aeginetans<\/a>). In the English-speaking section of the planetary south, and specifically in Australia, the Greek expatriate community has supported some beginnings of recognition. On March 10 2026 a well-attended public meeting was held in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba under the auspices of the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales to celebrate the 250th<\/sup> anniversary of Capodistrias\u2019 birth. A lecture was presented by the Greek-Australian university lecturer Vassilis Adrachtas on the subject of Ioannis Capodistrias \u201cexploring the legacy of the first Governor of the modern Greek state and his vision for the future of Athens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For modern Greece\u2019s first governor to acquire \u201cbrand recognition\u201d among Australians not of Greek extraction it could be of some use for a \u201cCapodistrias of the South\u201d to be detected. It has occurred to me, in a personal judgement, that a possible candidate for some kind of historical partnership with modern Greece\u2019s first governor would be New South Wales\u2019 first governor, Captain Arthur Phillip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what AI has to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales (1788-1792), to Ioannis Capodistrias, the first Governor of Greece (1821-18310, highlights some interesting parallels as founding leaders tasked with building a new state from scratch. While they operated in vastly different contexts \u2013 a colonial penal settlement versus a sovereign post-revolutionary state \u2013 they share characteristics as pioneering administrators. Both were the primary architects in establishing the initial structures of their respective governments, dealing with immense instability.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strict morality and Vision<\/em><\/strong>: Phillip is noted for his \u201cstrict moral compass and meticulous nature, needed to run a penal colony in a hostile environment. Similarly, Capodistrias was known for his dedication to organizing a shattered society under the rule of law.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Struggle of Resources<\/em><\/strong>: Both men operated in harsh, resource-starved environments, forced to make difficult decisions with limited support from home authorities (London for Phillip; European powers for Capodistrias).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges to Authority<\/em><\/strong>: Both faced opposition from within their own ranks \u2013 convicts\/marines for Phillip, and local political factions for Capodistrias.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divergences<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goal of the State<\/em><\/strong>: Phillip was establishing a colony designed  for imprisonment and eventual development under British rule. Capodistrias was building an independent, modern European republic. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/em><\/strong>: Phillip was a British naval officer, whereas Capodistrias was a diplomat with extensive European experience serving as a transitional figure between the Ottoman era and modern Greece.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially, both could be described as founding administrators managing chaos in a new territory. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternative text<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Phillip: a Capodistrias of the planetary south?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing Arthur Phillip to Ioannis Capodistrias is an intriguing historical parallel, suggesting that both were pioneering, authoritative leaders tasked with constructing a new society from scratch under chaotic conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they operated in vastly different worlds \u2013 Phillip as a British Royal Navy officer founding a penal colony in Australia (1788-1792) and Capodistrias as the first head of state of a newly independent Greece (1828-1831) \u2013 there are notable similarities in their roles as \u201cstate builders\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarities as \u201c\u2019Constructors\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founders of New Entities<\/em><\/strong>:  Phillip established the colony of New South Wales and the city of Sydney, overcoming starvation and immense isolation. Similarly, Capodistrias assumed leadership of a war-torn Greece, creating the foundations of the modern Greek state in Aegina and Nafplio.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authoritarian Style:<\/em><\/strong> Both operated as practical autocrats. Phillip was authorized as Governor to enforce strict discipline and order over a convict population. Capodistrias, facing intense internal strife, suspended the constitution to create a functioning centralized government, often acting with absolute authority.                  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visionary Leadership<\/em><\/strong>: <\/em>Phillip was known as a strategic thinker<\/em><\/a> who recognized the potential of the new land and argued for the land rights of indigenous people and for convicts to be treated well. Capodistrias was also a visionary who aimed to build modern institutions (schools, courts, orphanages).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Byron<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poet Lord Byron is an international figure doubtless better known to the general public than Ioannis Capodistrias as one of the dramatis personae<\/em> of the Greek Revolution. Probably the best-known Philhellene, he hired and equipped ships to break the siege of Messolonghi, organized Greek war bonds on the London market, rallied troops in collaboration with revolutionary leader Alexander Mavrokordatos. His death from fever in Missolonghi galvanized international sympathy and induced Western European powers to intervene on behalf of Greece. The emergence in Australia of a Cape Byron Lighthouse Declaration<\/strong> might therefore be expected to arouse more than a flicker of interest among supporters of the \u201cturn to the global south\u201d, even if the Byron after whom the lighthouse in question was named (by Captain James Cook) should turn out to be not the most famous Byron, as Captain Cook had died nine years before Byron the Philhellene poet was born, but the latter\u2019s  world-circumnavigating grandfather Vice-Admiral of the White \u201cFoul-Weather Jack\u201d Byron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lighthouses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A final question for AI<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are lighthouses a means of protection from natural dangers or man-made dangers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reply<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lighthouses are a means of protection from natural dangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natural Dangers Lighthouses Prevent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hidden rocks and reefs<\/strong>: They warn ships before they crash into hard underwater stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shallow water<\/strong>: They keep boats away from sandbars where they can get stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dangerous coastlines<\/strong>: They show sailors where the edge of the land is during dark nights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heavy fog and storms<\/strong>: They use loud horns and bright beams to guide ships when visibility is very low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why They Are Not for Man-Made Dangers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They do not stop enemies, pirates or military attacks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their sole purpose is to prevent accidental crashes caused by geography and weather. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comment from enouranois<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headlining is exaggerated but the development is authentically unacceptable.
https:\/\/cairnsnews.org\/2026\/07\/29\/minns-and-nsw-labor-purge-christianity-from-police-ranks\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two points to highlight:
https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2023-05-04\/nsw-nationals-won-t-rule-out-ben-franklin-expulsion\/102300944<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Franklin should be invited to the 200th anniversary of the swearing-in of modern Greece\u2019s first governor in Aegina on 26th January 2028. 26th January is the internationally (and nationally) unrecognized date of inauguration of the post-revolutionary modern Greek state. Greece should once again have a bicameral parliament (like New South Wales and all Australian states apart from Queensland) as it has had twice in its history since the establishment of modern Greece. But this will need assistance. It is not on current agendas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wayne  Hall Edward Gibbon came to see the decline and fall of the Roman Empire as “the triumph of barbarism and religion”. If the “second coming of Christ” is to be an event not in the history of religion but in the history of science, knowledge and enlightenment, do lighthouses have a future as the “monasteries” of a polycentric and – post-religious – world? This analysis is written from Greece, which prima facie is not well placed to be an active participant in transitioning to the multipolar world that would involve a lowering of the status of Europe, Christianity and \u201cthe West\u201d. \u201cThe West\u201d that Greece is often seen not to be altogether part of\u2026 is the West of Catholicism and Protestantism, of \u201cthe Franks\u201d, of the Bavarians that ruled Greece in the decades following a revolution claimed to be successful, of the Second World War Nazi occupation (was that really \u201cWest\u201d?) Greeks are proud of the fact that the word \u201cEurope\u201d itself is so unambiguously Greek. And it is a source of pride in Greece that Italy\u2019s attempt to reverse history\u2019s allocation of a Greek civilizing role over Italy by elevating the latter to the status of colonizer and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1791,"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions\/1791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}