From The Second Annual Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship Festival

From The Second Annual Hero's Journey Entrepreneurship Festival
http://herosjourneyrenaissance.org/
Ideals in Innovation
by Dr. E
Da Vinci wrote, "the depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserve" and Martin Luther King Jr. agreed, "If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values--that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control." And the title of John C. Bogle's Battle for The Soul of Capitalism says it all, as it suggests we read Adam Smith in order, with A Theory of Moral Sentiments preceding The Wealth of Nations, for as Socrates stipulated, all true wealth comes from virtue--the immortal soul, and not virtue from wealth.
There's something going on. A renaissance is rising--artists, authors, and inventors are turning towards the classical ideals so as to render them real in the living culture. A fellowship of creators, each walking the hero's journey by the immortal stars of classical antiquity, is seeking to serve the soul in art and literature--in video games, music, and film. It's been a long time coming, as the rising generation has been seeking that third act--that classical, epic thunder that we can call our own.
Come join us on March 8th as we celebrate the ultimate Renaissance Man--Leonardo da Vinci--while saluting those marking rugged journeys in the realms of screenwriting, video games, film, academia, and robotics--robots inspired by da Vinci's designs.

The Dark Ages lasted for hundreds of years--from 476 to 1000 AD. Art, innovation, and literature declined along with contemporary written history. A general demographic decline accompanied limited cultural achievements. Aristotle wrote "When storytelling declines, the result is decadence," and as they turned away from the classics and higher art and towards bread and circuses--towards reality TV and spectacle--the soul, and thus civilization, faltered.

The Italian Renaissance, which spanned the period from the end of the 1400's to about 1600, sailed beyond the Dark Ages by the immmortal stars of classical antiquity. Renaissance scholars again sought out the Great Books and Classics in the ancient monastic libraries and incorporated them in education and culture. And so too do we march on--following the lead of the immortal heroes such as da Vinci who stated, "Who sows virtue reaps honor," and "Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art." Da Vinci wrote, "the depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserve" and Martin Luther King Jr. agreed, "If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values--that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control." And the title of John C. Bogle's Battle for The Soul of Capitalism says it all, as it suggests we read Adam Smith in order, with A Theory of Moral Sentiments preceding The Wealth of Nations, for as Socrates stipulated, all true wealth comes from virtue--the immortal soul, and not virtue from wealth.

Vast opportunities exist to incorporate the soul of The Iliad and The Odyssey--of Shakespeare, the Bible, and The Inferno--in video games. The Mona Lisa, two dimensional and stationary, yet towers over the female characters in modern games in spirit and soul; as do Dante's Beatrice and Odysseus's Penelope. Knowledge of the classics--the spiritual eternities--not material wealth--became the true mark of wealth during the Renaissance, and so shall it be again. The movie 300 demonstrated that the rising generation is longing for the classical spirit and soul; and Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101 is revolutionizing academia with its simple precept that the spirit of our law and literature--of The Constitution and Hamlet--derive from the same place--the classical Judeo Christian heritage. And so that which had been divided into business, law, film, art, and accounting; is reunited in truth and the simplicity of soul--in a classical liberal arts education--in a foundational renaissance.

There are two Hero's Journeys in every class--the first is through the Great Books, and the second is the one each student walks alone--in a business plan or screenplay for their living venture; for the reason we read the Greats is not for tenure, but to embolden the natural ideals of our soul and gain the courage to follow our better angels and nobler dreams. The Odyssey has lasted over 2800 years because it reminds us of that immortal justice--eventually truth prevails.

Opportunity abounds to not only read those dusty old texts, but to render their ideals real in the living context via action. We've been leaving billions on the shelves--billions and far more, including those mythical entities which cannot be counted, but which count for everything. And so me march--we march for the renaissance. --Dr. E

All men whom the higher Nature has imbued with a love of truth should feel impelled to work for the benefit of future generations, whom they will thereby enrich just as they themselves have been enriched by the labors of their ancestors. --Dante

http://herosjourneyrenaissance.org/