Rome and OH

The "When In Rome" Principle


By John Taylor; 2009 April 22, Jalal 13, 166 BE

Last in a Series on Comenius and the Oneness of Humanity


Before I move on from the principle of oneness of humanity, there are some points made by Comenius that I want to go over one more time.

First is his argument that reconciliation among the earth's rival peoples may not prove to be as difficult as we tend to think. All that is needed is to hold fast to reality. If reality is truly one, the more we know it, the more we will agree.

"Let me give an example to illustrate my point and show how easy it is for opposing parties to be reconciled. Suppose that there are six hundred people who have heard or read a description of the city of Rome; the ideas of the individuals, if we were able to examine them, will certainly vary widely. But take them all to visit Rome, to have a careful look at everything on the spot, and soon the ideas of all will have much in common and will tend to become identical. In our present situation we should do likewise; those who disagree about the nature of things or about God, or the ideas of the mind, must be brought to see nature or God or the mind, and soon they will be reconciled." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 8, para 30, p. 121)

An objection might be raised that these six hundred visitors might visit different regions and buildings in Rome and come away with even more variant opinions of what the city is all about. This possibility is illustrated in the traditional story of the four blind men and the elephant. One feels the tail and says that elephants are like ropes, another feels a foot and says they are like tree trunks, and so forth. Comenius partly answers this by choosing a large number of tourists, six hundred. The wisdom of crowds tends to even out the large variance that tends to occur among small samplings of individuals.

Another way is to make certain that the six hundred visitors have a comprehensive view of the whole city -- rather than sinking them deeper in their own prejudices -- would be to require that each of them takes at least one guided, general purpose tour of the whole city of Rome. Or, better still, that they be accompanied by a guide and that they live with native Roman families at least part of the time. Such tours would be the most effective when integrated into the visitors' educational or professional development.

Australia did just this, it went from a backward, bigoted place in the 1950's to an open-minded, sophisticated, broadminded nation in the 1960's, a remarkably short time. It did this accidentally, just through increased tourism among young people, prompted by cheaper air fares. This about face took place very quickly, and I have often wondered how much more could be accomplished if teachers integrated tourism into the curriculum. This was done in Europe for centuries among the leading classes. A "grand tour" of Europe was expected after a student had finished schooling.

Today something like this should be required as a condition of graduation of all students, of all classes and both sexes. Guided tourism would broaden the minds of young people in poor nations and the Islamic world, but in my opinion it would benefit Americans the most, since insularity and unwillingness to see the same "Rome" have been holding them back from a high destiny.

One reason that guided travel is such an effective teacher is that the diversity one encounters while living in another culture forces us to learn what is essential and what is not in our own culture. A people without enough contact with the outside world trusts in the wrong kind of sameness, the kind of conformity that leads to factionalism and competition rather than unity. Comenius discusses this here:

"Concerning mutual agreement within the same order, the words of the poet Hesiod (Works and Days, 25-26) are still true: 'there is hatred between one potter and another, and one craftsman and another,' (Ovid Metamorphoses I, 145) and the same applies to schools, churches, and politics. Also neighbours, relatives and even brothers are seldom on friendly terms. This could hardly have been otherwise at a time when life was torn with distractions and everyone lived selfishly, and when nothing was safe from violence or dishonesty, and therefore every man viewed his neighbour with suspicion. Verily, if God gives us the chance to end partisanship, treachery and violence, it will also be possible to put an end to mutual distrust and the disagreements which stem from it. Therefore we must arrange to end them all. (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 10, para 34, p. 166)


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John Taylor

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