What would it take for us to see the ecological and cultural crises sweeping the planet as possible harbingers of a higher transformation and metamorphosis, a second global Renaissance? Big economic and political change can be traumatic, for individuals and communities. What if the global upheavals shaking our modern way of life actually are part of a natural cycle in evolution, a necessary correction in aiding the appearance of updated human potential?
Considering the possibility of a new global Renaissance could also mean revisiting and questioning some of the pillars of modernity that have marked social and cultural progress. Can the individual, the “I” - centric, embrace a new form of community and shared human experience? What about a religion of the future, centered on inner development rather than dogma, to bring people together with a knowing that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves?
A personal and collective metamorphosis could revive the sacred nature of art, which throughout history has been an expression of humanity and a shared experience of a universal impulse.
We explore the many questions and perceptions about a possible new global Renaissance in the first part of a Portals conversation among Aviv Shahar and Sylvie Barbier, French - Taiwanese artist, entrepreneur and educator, and Rufus Pollock, entrepreneur, researcher and technologist. Among their many projects and passions, Sylvie and Rufus co-founded Life Itself, dedicated to wiser living and social transformation.
Among their insights:
This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
“Second renaissance, I think, is to put a name onto what we're collectively experiencing, which is the death of modernity, and the birth of something to come, which we don't know yet. And that moment of death and birth is the second renaissance, like the first Renaissance, the first Renaissance appeared after great moment of difficulty of hardship with the Black Death, where many people died. And they could not say that they were going through the Renaissance.” (Rufus)
“I remember asking a Zen teacher once, when do people change, I asked him, he said when they have to. So the point was that people normally needed quite serious crisis of some kind of fortunate personal life before they take on deep change. And similarly, as a civilization, the sad thing is, I think that we're going to have to confront a very significant crisis to really change.” (Rufus)
“But art and religion are sacred, right? You can't touch them. But why can't we touch them? Because we're trying to say there's something of the essence that is untouchable, that is eternal. But somehow along the line, what becomes untouchable might be the words, rather than the essence, and or the cultural frame in which that religion was born.” (Sylvie)
“People have a lot of maybe even collective trauma about the word religion. And it's important to heal that word. In using it I want to reconquer this word ‘religion’, which is to relink ourselves to each other and to something greater than ourselves. And I think art plays a huge part in that, because art is to express our humanity, what makes us human. We can so easily forget what makes us human. So I think it's essential to reconnect.” (Sylvie)
“The dance is sometimes in describing all this stuff, it can seem really like wonderful, but a bit magical. It's like, you know, we need to go from "I" to "we". Sure! Yeah, and one big question is like, how do they connect? How do they dance between those, how do you actually dwell in those? That's a really rich question which even Buddha, you know even some of the great traditions don't really have a sense of like, how do you organize society? It's a very relative question, you know, what does it actually look like? You know, what does production look like? Buddha very wisely didn't talk about this.” (Rufus)