After the Fall

Fernand Schwarz wrote about this book:

There are some people who are never aging, and keep their young rebellious spirit and their desire to make things and people better. Pierre Poulain is one of them. Conformists should not read this book.

He notes that the civilisation in which some of us were born is fading, and a new era of transition is rising.

The author, always preoccupied by the future of our societies, is giving us some landmarks, so we can place ourselves in this new epoch. He is speaking to those who want to live, and not just survive. It is actually difficult to be in-between.

From the rubbles of ancient civilisations, new ones are born and fed. Times of transition are like alchemical athanors, they transform and transmute elements from the past into new forms and beliefs. They are like bridges between two sides, the past and the future. The sooner we built them, the least damages occurs going from one side to the other. New alternatives are coming to light: new healthcare system; in agriculture; with new energies and in education. They cohabitate with new feudalism, fanatical ideals and the increase of pockets of violence.

Despite these contradictory and worrying scenarios, Pierre Poulain sees new opportunity to regain our freedom and serve an ideal.

In these complex times, his method is simple, “we defend an idea by practicing it”. Through this, he is in a multi-thousand-year line of philosophers in the classical tradition, such as Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Plato…

This love of the True, this way of practical wisdom, not seen as something intellectual, but as an apprenticeship to do good, is for him a rampart for peace, a way to bring down the mental fortifications of prejudices, doubts and fears.

He is bringing back to light a term which we forgot its origin, “the idiot”. In ancient Athens, it designated the citizens who would only take care of their own business and would not be preoccupied by the things concerning the community. Today we call them individualist, people who isolate themselves and end up alone. We mix up individualism with freedom, when in fact, it means that we only act according to our desires and passions.

We must get back the meaning of the dialogue and recognize in the other who we are. To bring back the unity in humanity. This is the dream of Pierre Poulain.

Table of Contents

  • The Premise: the Middle Ages to Come
    • An Imminent Death
    • To Live or Survive?
    • Freedom, What is it For?
    • All Spirituality is A Quest for Meaning
    • Meaning, Direction and Depth
    • The Danger of Separation
    • Does the Individual Still Have a Role to Play in this Tragedy?
    • The Tragic and the Call for Heroism
  • The Middle Ages or the Necessary Transition
    • Maintening Ignorance Through Isolation and Separation
    • Cultivating Your Own Enslavment
    • Can We Still Write History?
    • The Walls We Build in Our Minds
    • The Virtual is Mixed with Reality
    • Soft-totalitarism
    • Democracy or the Dictatorship of the Subjective Opinion
    • From the Honest Man to the Stupid Man
    • Bread and Circus
    • From Ignorance to Immorality
  • The End of the Middle Ages and the Premise of a Renaissance
    • Act for a Renaissance
    • The Intelligence of the Heart
    • To Make a Gift of One’s Presence
    • To Re-root Ourselves in History
    • Keep the Link!
  • To Be Reborn to What we Are
    • The Ecological Man, Keeper of the Maintenance and Well-Funcioning World
    • Philosophy, Culture and Volunteering
    • To Rekindle the Warrior Spirit

Published in 2017 by New Acropolis Cultural Organization, Mumbai, India
Web: www.acropolis.org.in

Available in other languages

Published also in Hebrew: אחרי הנפילה, ההיסטוריה נמשכה