Soon after the Greek philosopher Pythagoras crossed the Adriatic Sea from his native island of Samos, arriving at the Italian city of Crotona, it is said that he was hounded by local youngsters.
They had heard from the sailors on whose ship the foreigner had travelled that he could perform marvels such as none had seen before.
He at first told them that these miraculous things were performed through him, but were not from him and that they should rather be ascribed to ‘The One’ (τὸ Ἕν), the worship of which single, transcendent Deity was to be the whole focus of Pythagoreanism.
From curiosity over supernatural phenomena, the youngsters now turned to curiosity over philosophy, asking that he teach them about his mysterious God.
The philosopher’s response, however, was disappointing to the more raucous among the Crotonan youth: “If you wish to know God, worship Him; and if you wish to worship Him, do good works.”
“What good works should we do?” His interlocutors pressed.
“Works such as might honour your fathers and mothers and be a credit to your families,” he answered.
Seeing how brashly they spoke to a stranger—indeed, one very much their senior, for Pythagoras was around 40 years old when he came to Italy—the Greek thought it best to first teach them filial piety and so recommended that they go attend to their household duties and their parents.
But there was actually a subtle lesson here, as Iamblichus relates in his biography of Pythagoras, for the priority which a parent has over a child in time—in terms of the order in which the one comes into the world, serving as the instrument for the other to do so—is an analogy, a metaphor, for the priority which God has over all things. The structure of reality, including biological reproduction and temporality, reveals things about God’s character.
Not surprisingly, many of the local parents found Pythagoras’ teachings amenable, and he soon developed a community of followers.
Philosophy was suddenly fashionable, and being known as a student of Pythagoras became a status symbol, whereupon a wealthy man by the name of Cylon approached the newcomer.
Cylon’s experience in life had hitherto been that status was a purchasable commodity, and so he offered Pythagoras money to take him as a student. The sage, however, refused. We are told that Cylon’s physiognomy and gestures bespoke a temperament ill-suited to contemplation, and so he was entreated to be pious and do good works but was barred from joining the philosopher’s inner circle of dedicated students.
Jealous of those possessing something he could not buy and not particularly endeared by the intangible goods of family loyalty and monotheism that the Hellene had brought to his city, Cylon began trying to drive him away.
To this end, he found a formidable ally in one called Ninon. A poor man, Ninon preached radical egalitarianism to those persons in Crotona who had either fallen short of the Pythagorean school’s barriers to entry or generally mistrusted philosophy and the Greek’s new religious ideas:
“Why should some be esteemed over others? Are we not all equally able to perceive reality? Do you suppose you do not know as much truth as any other person who lives or has lived before?”
Ninon’s social egalitarianism was based on a flat epistemology, a materialistic worldview. He was an empiricist, uninterested in the exacting (spiritual and logical-deductive) disciplines that reveal truths below the surface layer of human experience.
And this anti-philosophy caught on.
Soon, a mob was roused, killing some Pythagoreans and driving others out of the city.
Pythagoras himself was either in Delos at the time or went there presently, emigrating with the families of his students to the community near that Greek temple, for he was held in high esteem by the priests of Delos, who considered him a manifestation of Apollo and messenger of the Divine.
Following his death, however, the Crotonan followers of Pythagoras were invited to return to their native city, where their property was restored to them, for Cylon and Ninon had fallen into disfavour, and a new governor wished to make amends.
What can we learn from this?
The idea of non-purchasable goods and of knowledge requiring spiritual piety and logical thoroughness can indeed be an impediment to the Cylons of the world, as can a strongly pro-family worldview, which will always interfere with naked market logic and political control.
In their fight against religion and family, Cylon types will sometimes mobilise the resentful and economically downtrodden who would otherwise be their class enemies. A Ninon, able to speak to the masses and whip up resentment, presents materialistic egalitarianism as emancipatory (when, in reality, it will only render people more vulnerable and more easily controlled).
The global oligarchic project to displace religion, break down the family, and concentrate political power relies on creating an underclass of state-dependent persons who can be called upon to defend the elite’s interests against reformists.
Cylon needed his Ninon; George Soros needed his Pablo Iglesias types.
Resistance requires asserting that truth is not a purchasable commodity and that the family and natural institutions analogize transcendent realities.
The proliferation of a flat, materialistic outlook in society is a sure sign that a predatory elite is mobilising and exerting its influence.
