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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)

#61

Post by ModernMech »

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.

If you don’t care about careers, riches, and fame, and want to engage in a decade or more of quiet contemplation, then join a Ph.D. program. You will be very poor and exist apart from society, where you are neither student nor employee. You can study as much as you want!

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

#62

Post by sliq »

nspattak wrote: post #34
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.

who, how or why does it matter if that was the concept or is just a side effect?

because intention defines how to judge an action. if somebody moves a knife into your body, then it can be a violent attack or a medical procedure. if you devide boys and girls into groups then it can be seen as sexism or a as a mindful act to ensure privacy and intimacy.

it's the same here. these men just want to be alone.

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

#63

Post by [deleted] »

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)?

[deleted]

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

#64

Post by teddyh »

sliq wrote: post #44
teddyh wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Who are you quoting? Are they here? No? Then stop arguing with them here.

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

#65

Post by ModernMech »

gambiting wrote: post #49
Mizza wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 inevi…

Why doesn’t academia fit the bill? They even have funny robes and hats.

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

#67

Post by sliq »

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 bizarre "feminist" actions (which happen quite often there).

Intention matters.

[repost as my comment was deleted by "woke" mod]

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

#68

Post by the_only_law »

ModernMech wrote: post #65
gambiting wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 inevi…

Why doesn’t academia fit the bill? They even have funny robes and hats.

Isn’t one of the big problems with academia that you’re still heavily beholden to economic interests? See: all the talk on HN about research being about quantity over quality.

At least in the US, it’s also incredibly expensive, especially if you’re not part of target demographic whose spent some years optimizing to reduce that cost.

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

#70

Post by belorn »

In gender segregated monasteries, how common was there of rules against inviting members of the opposite sex? As I understand it, there existed many different enclosed religious orders, both for men and women, and most Christian orders seems from a glance to be exclusive.

Orphans who grow up in such places must have gotten some very strange perspective about the world.

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