Storytelling, Myth-making and the Shaping of Universal History

Ushering in the New Year with a new RTF symposium

What is the relationship between fact and fiction when works of fiction are composed by personalities who objectively exist as individuals, in space and time?

Certainly many individual authors of fiction see themselves as little more than creators of pleasantries to delight, and entertain the fancies of their audience with little more animating their souls.

Others are motivated by a desire to accumulate wealth or win prestige without a sense of their moral relationship to their fellow citizens.

Still others recognize the power of their artistic craft to shape the trajectory of culture beyond even their own life times.

It is to this latter category that this Rising Tide Foundation symposium has been designed to explore.

In the course of this exploration, we will find that some among those storytellers and mythmakers have chosen to serve powerful interests intent on enslaving society, locking citizens ever more deeply into a realm of illusions akin to Plato’s cave, while others among this category have chosen to set their artistic powers in defiance of such aims striving to use the power of metaphor to liberate the cave dwellers.

The great actor/singer/activist Paul Robeson stated this explicitly in Spain during the dark days of civil war in 1937 saying:“Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice”

In the course of this symposium which will stretch from January to April 2022, case studies of great writers will be explored from ancient Greece, India and China to the modern post-renaissance period. Each presentation will evaluate such questions as “what was the context in which this authors found themselves?” “What were the cultural defects these authors were identifying and attempting to remedy using their art?” “How does storytelling uplift the hearts and minds of an audience to understand the deeper principles of both nature, and our own sense of self?” And where applicable: “What were the political realities/intentions/policies that were preventing a better future from taking hold in their life times and in their specific circumstances in space and time which their stories sought to intervene upon?”

To participate in the live sessions, simply upgrade to a “paid subscriber option to this substack”. If resources absolutely do not permit this, write to info@risingtidefoundation.net

Symposium Schedule

Title: Rediscovering the Odyssey of Homer: Was it History or Myth?
Date: Sunday January 2 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Gerry Therrien
Bio: Gerald Therrien is a historian and author of a four volume series on Canadian History entitled Canadian History Unveiled and has lectured on topics ranging from poetry, ancient Athenian culture, the renaissance and the Haitian Revolution.

Title: Classics and Classics… The Three Kingdoms. (Ancient Chinese Culture, literature)
Date: Sunday January 9 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Dr. Quan Le
Bio: Dr. Le is a practicing psychiatrist and geopolitical analyst with a focus on Asian history, culture and world religions.

Title: China’s Culture: Past, Present and Future
Date: Sunday January 16 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Tennenbaum
Bio: Jonathan has Ph.D in mathematics and works as a researcher and consultant on economics, science and technology. He has written extensively on fundamental problems in the natural sciences, and most recently authored a provocative series of articles on artificial intelligence for Asia Times. He is also a classical pianist and lecturer.

Title: Cervantes and his World
Date: Sunday January 23, 2022
Speaker: Adam Sedia
Bio: Adam is a poet, essayist, translator, and classical composer. He has published three volumes of poetry Visions Beyond, Inquietude and The Spring’s Autumn, and his poems and essays have appeared in publications including The Chained Muse, The Society of Classical Poets’ journal, and Indiana Voice Journal. His music can be heard on his YouTube channel. He lives in his native Northwest Indiana with his wife and children, where he practices law as a civil and appellate litigator.

Title: Rabelais and the Peace of Westphalia
Date: Sunday January 30, 2022
Speaker: Pascal Chevrier
Bio: Pascal is a teacher who has worked in Canada’s Arctic. He has lectured on topics ranging from cultural warfare, literature and history.

Title: James Fenimore Cooper’s lesson in Political Intelligence
Date: Sunday February 7, 2022
Speaker: Cynthia Chung
Bio: Cynthia is Editor and Co-Founder of the Rising Tide Foundation and is a writer for the Strategic Culture Foundation. She is a classically trained pianist with experience leading choral works and holds a BSC in Molecular Genetics.

Title: Pushkin and Statecraft
Date: Sunday February 14, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Valeria Nollan
Bio: Valeria Z. Nollan is professor emerita of Russian studies at Rhodes College. She was born in Hamburg, West Germany. Her books and articles on Russian literature, religion, and nationalism have established her as an authority on topics relating to modern Russia.  Between 1985-present she has made twenty-six extended research trips to Europe, the Soviet Union, and Russia.  She has given lectures and poetry readings at major institutions of higher learning in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia; Havana, Cuba; Rome, Italy; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and London, UK, among other cities.  Her first poetry book In Search of Rachmaninoff was published by the Rachmaninoff Society in Amsterdam in 2004.  Her second poetry collection Holocaust of the Noble Beasts was published by Goldfish Press in 2020. 

Title: Schiller’s Insight into Universal History: Mary Stuart and the Geopolitical Realities of 16th Century England
Date: Sunday February 21, 2022
Speaker: Nicholas Jones
Bio: Nicholas is a professional dancer with La Grande Ballet de Montreal who has performed around the world and recently founded the Artists Alliance for Africa as a non-profit devoted to bringing classical artistic training to children in Kenya with the goal of establishing a full academy in Africa.

Title: Schiller vs the Congress for Cultural Freedom
Date: Sunday February 28 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Irene Eckhart
Bio: Editor-in-Chief of Arbeitskreis for Peace Policy and Nuclear Free Europe and teacher of German literature and history.

Title: Ancient India and the Vedas: The Untold Story
Date: Sunday March 6 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Dr. Raj Vedam
Bio: Working at the confluence of applied mathematics, engineering, algorithms, and computer science, and using tools of Archeo-Genetics, Archeo-astronomy, Archaeology, and pursuing evidence of knowledge transfers from ancient India, Dr. Raj Vedam has put forward a strong thesis with verifiable facts, on the antiquity of the Indian Civilization, and the many discoveries made in ancient India. He has delivered over 100 lectures in India and the US, on the subject of scientific validation of narratives on history of India, in which he has developed a deep interest. He has conducted a dozen high school teacher training workshops in India on a multi-disciplinary approach to history. He has also revised history textbooks for Texas Education Agency, as well as the state of Telangana.

Title: TBA
Date: Sunday March 13 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Stephen Doyle
Sunday March 13 at 2pm EST
Bio: Stephen is a retired 3rd generation Royal Canadian Airforce officer with an expertise in celestial navigation, and anti-submarine warfare. His recent RTF lecture on Hapgood’s Map of the Ancient Sea Kings can be viewed here.

Title: Jonathan Swift’s intervention into world history
Date: Sunday March 20 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Matthew Ehret
Bio: Matthew is a co-founder of the Rising Tide Foundation, Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review and Senior Fellow of the American University in Moscow. He is a writer for the Strategic Culture Foundation, The Cradle and Washington Times.

Title: TBA
Date: Sunday March 27 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Martin Sieff
Bio: Martin Sieff is Adjunct Professor of Transnational Threats at Bay Atlantic University and a senior fellow of the Global Policy Institute and the American University in Moscow. He is the author of seven books including “Cycles of Change: the patterns of US politics from Thomas Jefferson to Barack Obama‘ – and “Gathering Storm: The Three Great Eras of US History and Coming Crisis that Will Lead to the Fourth”

Title: Shakespeare and the Histories
Date: Sunday April 3 at 2pm EST
Speaker: Cynthia Chung
Bio: Cynthia is Editor and Co-Founder of the Rising Tide Foundation and is a writer for the Strategic Culture Foundation. She is a classically trained pianist with experience leading choral works and holds a BSC in Molecular Genetics.