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Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

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Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#41

Post by Mizza »

the_only_law wrote: post #33
Mizza wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot about the right to be a monk. It solves a lot of other human rights issues along the way. Monks create their own food, have a place to live and work, and don't cost a lot of money. Let people monk.

Who is stopping them again?

I am an atheist. I still want to monk. I want to monk in my own way, which would probably be growing vegetables, keeping chickens, and making open source software. I don't see how that's possible given the way society is currently organized - it requires periods of time spent to commercial toil, in order to pay landlords, taxes, etc.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#42

Post by SllX »

necovek wrote: post #27
eatonphil wrote: post #2

The time zone issues sound fun: > A visit to Mount Athos also involves literal time travel. The monasteries there still go by Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the time zone changes literally every day. Visitors may have to set their watches back by as much as seven hours as they cross the border. And don't forget to change the date as well. Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled…

It sounds irrelevant instead, and whoever wrote the article, is obviously being a bit too playful with words. Of course it's not "two weeks ago there", it's just that the date is different: it's as if you tried to use a different calendar system altogether — it's fine, you just need to convert back and forth. FWIW, a bunch of churches (Russian, Serbian, Romanian Orthodox churches) still respect the Julian calendar to…

It’s a travel mag, not an investigative report. Playing with words and making bad jokes is like 90% of what they do and that’s just fine.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#43

Post by elorant »

rwmj wrote: post #3
eatonphil wrote: post #2

The time zone issues sound fun: > A visit to Mount Athos also involves literal time travel. The monasteries there still go by Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the time zone changes literally every day. Visitors may have to set their watches back by as much as seven hours as they cross the border. And don't forget to change the date as well. Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled…

And no entry in the timezone database :-( https://github.com/eggert/tz/search?q=athos But then if they have no computers, maybe that doesn't matter.

They have computers. Some monasteries are modernized and they use computers to digitize old documents and books, or for daily works.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#44

Post by sliq »

teddyh wrote: post #32
sliq wrote: post #22

Before the "woke" people come out of their holes and try to bash this: The concept IS NOT to exclude women, the idea was to move to the most distant place possible, and to live a life far away from society, love, sex, etc. - something everybody should respect. These people living there dont want to harm anybody, and there's no reason to "go there an visit them" or to do any "feminist" stunts. Intention matters.

Please don’t argue with people who are either not here or have not expressed any opinion yet. You are literally strawmanning. Argue with actual people and their actual opinions instead of made-up stereotypes.

My intention was just to clarify this right upfront, as this is common topic in Greece and it's dividing society, for absurd reasons. As this is now #1 on HackerNews, I can already smell why it's there. Violence against women is tabooed, but some monks living in the most distant mountains are the "symbol of the patriarchy".

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#46

Post by Slippery_John »

There's a great book by Lois McMaster Bujold called Ethan of Athos that somewhat explores this idea expanded to encompass an entire planet. Technically it's part of a series, but it's standalone. It follows an obstetrician from the planet that has to leave to acquire ovarian tissue cultures they need to produce more children.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#47

Post by new_guy »

> "Do all woman have haloes?" he wanted to know.

What we consider attractive (boobs, ass etc) comes from society. There are tribes where women go around naked with no issue. Back in the Victorian era they used to go ga-ga over ankles.

So it'd be interesting exposing* a man like that, whose essentially a blank slate, to a nude woman and seeing what he finds attractive.

*no pun intended!

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#48

Post by urtrs »

unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #6
eatonphil wrote: post #2

The time zone issues sound fun: > A visit to Mount Athos also involves literal time travel. The monasteries there still go by Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the time zone changes literally every day. Visitors may have to set their watches back by as much as seven hours as they cross the border. And don't forget to change the date as well. Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled…

When they tap the chestnut at 3:30am for prayer, is that a bedtime event (their time) or a daybreak event (standard timekeeping)?

It is a daybreak event.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#49

Post by gambiting »

Mizza wrote: post #41
the_only_law wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is stopping them again?

I am an atheist. I still want to monk. I want to monk in my own way, which would probably be growing vegetables, keeping chickens, and making open source software. I don't see how that's possible given the way society is currently organized - it requires periods of time spent to commercial toil, in order to pay landlords, taxes, etc.

So I'm trying of think of something monastery like, but without the religious aspect, and I'm really drawing a blank. Since you basically surrender your life to the community and ultimately to whoever is leading it, the religious element seems almost necessary to make this work. I think the only exceptions to this are probably something like the military or meditation/yoga practice communities - but they almost inevitably come with religious elements to them(although in some you can be much more lax about actually subscribing to the spiritual elements).

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#50

Post by arthur_sav »

math_denial wrote: post #7

I often yearn for the "unearthly quiet" and structure of a monastic life. I am not religious but I just feel as if I don't belong in society: I don't care about work, jobs, careers, riches, fame. I would like a life of study, contemplation and silence.

Amen
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