Classical Culture and the Dialogue of Civilizations

The final panel of the Schiller Institute conference began with two musical examples of classical beauty — a video performance of the Kyrie from Wolfgang Mozart’s Requiem, by the Schiller Institute chorus from 2014; and a 1990s performance by the late operatic tenor George Shirley of the Spiritual Little Boy, arranged by Roland Hayes.

The speakers who followed presented different aspects of culture, but all shared the imperative that people must activate on behalf of humanity in today’s crisis. The last speaker gave an update on various anti-culture, dehumanizing campaigns that must be defeated.

Jacques Cheminade, the president of Solidarité et Progrès in France, gave the keynote, on the topic “A Culture of Curiosity and Perseverance To Explore the Impossible”, which corresponds to man’s true identity.

Professor Felipe Maruf Quintas, from Brazil, spoke on “The Role of Brazil in the Dialogue of Civilizations and in the World’s Physical Economy.” He was followed by Dr. Zaher Wahab, Emeritus Professor of Education, and former advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education, who denounced the thesis of a “clash of civilizations” and called for an end to the Western policy of arrogant domination and mis-use of power. A view of what U.S.-China relations ought to be was presented by Dr. George Koo, a retired business consultant in bilateral trade of these nations and Chairman of the Burlingame Foundation.

A chilling description of the anti-human view of culture and civilization was given by Mike Robinson from the United Kingdom, the editor of UKColumn, who spoke on the topic “The Dehumanizing Meta-Sphere”. Showing headlines of articles such as “Is Nanotech Making Humans Unnecessary,” Robinson covered the spectrum of such threats as “transhumanism” promotion of a brain-computer hook-up, to notions in the metaverse of the equivalence of a computer avatar with a real human.

The final discussion, with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, came to the consensus that, despite, the dark menace just described, the old paradigm of suffering and geopolitics is in the process of being replaced by one concerned with mutual development and problem-solving among equal nations.

Again, we would urge all our readers to check out the full program of the two-day conference on the SI website, and then take the time to watch the videos of their choice. Transcriptions of the presentations will also be published in upcoming issues of Executive Intelligence Review.