NUMBER WORSHIP...
Circumcision, Facial Feedback, & Machiavelli
BOC#009
3 MINUTE MUNCH
YOU PROBABLY REMEMBER PYTHAGORAS THEOREM FROM MATHS CLASS, BUT DID YOU KNOW…
…the ancient Greek philosopher was the founder of a brotherhood of mathematicians and philosophers who literally worshipped numbers. Their belief that nature and reality are mathematical is captured by their mantra; ‘all is number.’ His popular theorem on triangles taught to school children worldwide is thought to have reached him from Babylonia via Egypt where it was already understood a thousand years before his birth. Pythagoras was nonetheless so revered that Plato considered him a ‘semi-divine master’. He didn’t permit those close to him to write his sayings down, and so what we know of him is derived from second hand knowledge collected and written over a hundred years after his death. He believed and taught that we possess an infinite soul, or psyche, that seeks a new host upon death, upgrading or downgrading accordingly. For this reason, the brotherhood practiced strict vegetarianism in order to avoid consuming a chicken that might carry a former human ‘psyche’. The eating of beans was also considered a form of cannibalism as he thought them to be vessels for souls.
IN THE EAST AFRICAN TRIBES OF THE MAASAI, RENDILLE, JIE, AND SAMBURU…
…the right of passage into manhood (known locally as moranhood) follows the ordeal of circumcision without anesthetic. The boys are prohibited from flinching or turning their heads, known as a-kwet, and must remain motionless while in view of prospective in-laws and other male relatives. The slightest flinch is received by a collective gasp, and is followed by the stigma of shame and cowardice. This shame often extends to their offspring who are then considered a ‘nursery of weaklings’ according to anthropologist David D. Gilmore. Boys who fail in this bleak ritual are excluded from their age-set in the transition to manhood, and according to the Samburu proverb, his entire lineage must ‘eat their respect.’ In Maasai culture, circumcision is accompanied by the hunting of a lion with a spear before a boy may qualify for the status of man and warrior.
THE FACIAL FEEDBACK HYPOTHESIS STATES THAT…
…just as emotions trigger a facial response, that same facial response can amplify the corresponding emotion. Smiling, for example is thought to make you happier, increasing feelings of safety and cognitive ease. Running coaches have long utilised this concept by encouraging their athletes to relax their jaw when running. A clenched jaw is linked to excessive effort. The legendary sprint coach Bud Winter honed his ideas training pilots during the second world war, and during a visit by a sports journalist to one of his sprint sessions in 1959, he is noted to have said, “watch his lower lip. If his lower lip is relaxed and flopping when he runs, his upper body is loose, like that,” he said, flicking his lower lip with his fingers. “It’s got to be loose.”
BOOK PASSAGE: THE PRINCE BY NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI:
Therefore, my son, if you wish to please me, and to bring success and honour to yourself, do right and study, because others will help you if you help yourself.”
“IF A PERSON NEVER FEELS ‘CLEANSED’…
…and always feels like they need to eat better, is constantly thinking about food and judging others for not eating correctly, these could be signs of a medical condition called orthorexia. This is an obsession with eating foods they deem to be healthy while avoiding foods considered to be harmful at all costs.” - The Proof is in the Plants by Simon Hill
“AN EYE FOR AN EYE…
…makes the world go blind.” - Gandhi
WORD OF THE WEEK: STULTIFY
To make or render something stupid, useless, or ineffective. A stultifying routine at work would make you too bored to achieve anything. Stultifying heat would make it too hot to move or be productive.
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