On the ninth day, two parallel lines will run towards future perfect, and some distortion of the track may disrupt anything that travels on them. On the first day a new era was set in motion. An express train with whistles blowing pulls a binary load, one carriage MAGA with incomprehensible wealth on board and the other containing deferred dreams and great expectations of most Americans who are shouting, keep us healthy. A healthy population is a wealthy population. Keeping Americans healthy is a very important determinant for MAGA.

Throughout history, many instruments have been tried to direct or redirect our world: exploration, tools, militarism, crusades, sanctions, prayers or resurrection, commercialism, nationalism, socialism, capitalism, globalization, and now the Doomsday Clock, the Great Reset, and now MAGA, but not classical philosophy as proposed by the World Philosophical Forum (WPF), Athens.

Eight days in January 2025: From the Capitol people’s house (Day 1, Golden Age—a notable step for MAGA), the snows of Davos, the Great Reset, and the SDGs vital for socioeconomic justice and the setting of the Doomsday clock on Mysterious Day 8, a horrendous step for mankind or a new heaven and a new earth (Revelations) with Elon Trump, Donald Musk, Genesis renewed or uncertain disclosures. It is already being referred to as a revolution in common sense, where the common sense is indefinitely fuzzy and far from clear to the change agents.

The World Philosophical Forum, Athens (WPF), currently has its attention focused on the crucial time gap between the 20th and the 28th of January 2025 and what comes in between, namely, Davos, January 20-25; 8 days that are shaking the world. On Day 1 (20th January, 2025), Donald Trump reenters the White House, and the world will be reshaped by a new mindset. No one can predict the new Genesis, but what I can say is that any utterance of Let there be light may not always brighten, and day 7 may bring too little rest. It is hard to imagine that President Trump can propose a plan for world peace. It is even harder to imagine anyone who can. He can, of course, rein in some world leaders and halt a war in Ukraine as he has already done in Gaza. However, the peace has not been won.

On the 8th day, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, with a focus on nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies, will reveal the setting of the hand of the Doomsday Clock (current setting 90 seconds). As The Bulletin articulates with an expert voice above the incredible noise of war, a new trinity will also get underway. The difficult decision is whether it will change or not, and if it changes, will it move closer to or further away from midnight? Whatever the outcome pronounced by knowledgeable and courageous scholars, there is an urgent need for action, here and now. The question is whether whatever courageous decision made in New York will influence political decisions in the direction of unbounded rationality.

In Davos (2025), as in the COP 29 summit (2024), money and profit will again have the last word while onstructed by all the future will happen, comes the claim. In Davos, though, a bed for one night’s sleep will cost $3000, which Martin Heidegger, there for health reasons in the 1920s, today could not afford 2025 prices. Davos does come closer to humanism in the call for “a more inclusive, empathetic, and sustainable future” and in its preamble, which touched upon some contemporary history of philosophy. With philosophy, whatever the happening, its future will be better.

In Athens the World Philosophical Forum awaits to see if its decision-making within its new order will be philosophically informed as snow on the slopes becomes less plentiful. In past philosophical reflections (In the shadow of Davos and Athens, 2024), I hazarded the thought that all models, resets, or approaches to restore, save, or change the world for the better are failing. It is also clear that none embrace philosophy, although momentarily its bells peeled loudly in the words of Ban Ki-moon, former leader of the United Nations, and Irina Bokova, former leader of UNESCO, who we recognize for their significant contribution to promoting peace, philosophy, and global citizenship on a worldwide scale.

At this time of year it is my habit to write a message that places elevated hope in those efforts I believe will make some noticeable and useful difference or provide some positive impact to the current status of our world. I must admit that I am thrilled when I receive some response, but my habit sometimes seems like drilling holes in water. As I write now, I can’t help but recall the summer of 1945 and the dropping of the first atomic bomb.

There was so much to be made sense of then. 80 years on, I have not managed to do so. As my understanding of the atomic bomb and the enormity of its destructiveness grew, I became more focused, and so did the idea that if its horrors were well-remembered, they would act as a fail-safe to the future use of atomic weaponry. 80 years on, the available power readily available is far, far greater today than when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed. 80 years on, seeing my idea fading, I try to ramp up recall of effects of the heat of radioactive fallout.

One example would surely be the agony of a beautiful actress; one day an actress of incredible beauty, a national icon of Japan who was drenched by Hiroshima’s blast of nuclear light, brighter than a thousand suns:

  • After regaining her senses, her one thought was to inform the Emperor of the horror of the atomic bomb. She made it to the river, floated down it for some time, and was then pulled out by soldiers. Two weeks later, in Tokyo, her skin was gone, corroded; she had no hair; nothing remained of her youth and beauty. The happiness she gave to her doting audiences was no more. Her mission to reach the Emperor was complete and her life was over!

As I write, there is some intensely encouraging news from ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas in the search of a permanent ceasefire and immediate release of hostages after the death of 46,500 Palestinians, following on from the brutal attack in Israel on Israeli citizens. António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, Trump’s robust diplomacy to this success.

In Athens, during its 14th (2023) and 15th (2024) Dialectical Symposium, the World Philosophical Forum:

  • Called upon for a ceasefire wherever war rages, protection of civilians everywhere, and release of all hostages taken in conflict and prisoners unjustly held in prisons by states everywhere and

  • Proposed that a symbolic peace be staged in the sacred place of Delphi, Greece, and an agreed-upon statement be signed in the Old Hellenic Parliament, Athens.

In the meanwhile we have to remove ourselves from what we knew, reexamine mindsets, and re-reference the reality of our world at large on its mismanaged roller coaster as down we go, round we go, in a spin, with business unusual and as usual. Having said that, this will be my last such message. Is humanity threatened with extinction from existential problems? Is there a climate crisis?

Today, it seems that there is much more to be made sense of. As the world heads towards demise, it seems we have become alarmed, and avoiding demise becomes the most important and pressing goal. Even with that said, I lean towards a dreadful 50-50 outcome but with a separate and tenuous silver lining. If a dreadful coin is flipped, the dreadful coin will fall. My silver lining resides in the fact is that as yet, no foolish coin flipper has cast the die.

The only thing missing in the quest for leadership is the mastery of the riches of Classical Philosophy, which means they are deprived of the strategy of reasonableness, which can be a predetermined indicator of their subsequent collapse. What are the characteristic features of the leadership of the current world order now being imposed on all humanity by the US, which is gradually becoming more and more unreasonable and an element of world disorder?

Here in Athens, the World Philosophical Forum (WPF, Athens 2009) is dedicated to the restoration of classical philosophy as an unused tool of humanity to help find its route back to reason. In Athens, the WPF is concerned with the outrageous wages of scholasticism paid at the expense of Greek classical philosophy, worries that the search for the golden mean still remains out of reach, and calls the world’s attention to the current setting of 90 symbolic seconds to midnight on the clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist. From Athens we call all hands that can read a sextant on deck and advocate that the wisdom of classical philosophy finally be given a chance. The World Philosophical Forum suggests that action should be reviewed through the prism of philosophy. Number eight, or the eighth day, suggests the beginning of a new cycle.

To close, let me first call on the words of Eric Schwitzgebel as told by Nigel Warburton in the penumbral plunge Aeon:

  • Philosophy needs no excuse, and nothing else is more intrinsically valuable while philosophical inquiry makes the entire planet better than it would otherwise be and helps constitute the awesomeness of Earth. Nothing is more worthy of reverence and awe.

  • The distinctive value of human science lies in its philosophical potency. According to Igor Kondrashin and Leonard H. Le Blanc III, the Doomsday Clock shows a near midnight apocalypse: The time for the new world order (NWO) has come; there has never been a greater need for global citizens than at present due to the impending disasters of climate change and global warfare.

Global citizenship matters. It is the only tangible way to achieve a permanent and just peace among all nations. Global citizens are developed over time. No one is born a global citizen. It is a choice that informed and intelligent people willingly make. Global citizens are marked by their increased educational levels, their innate understanding of a global shared humanity, and a wider world perspective. These traits are learned over time. From the very beginning, global citizenship was firmly anchored in the desire to prevent wider national or even world (global) conflict. This stemmed from the common belief that the more we knew about the other person, the less likely we would go to war with them. Can you help resurrect classical philosophy? Does anyone listen? Does anyone really care?

The World Philosophical Forum, Athens:

Says thanks to the Biden administration for its ear to our several messages, reminds Vladimir Putin of our attempts to reach him for the sake of the Russian people, and congratulates the incoming President of the USA, Donald Trump, while suggesting:

  • Suggests to Donald Trump that the warrior culture consider wearing the garments of philosophy and that he gives much more thought to public health, Obamacare, and support for WHO. Speaking in Chicago before the National Assembly of the Medical Commission on Human Rights (1966), Martin Luther King Jr., to whom Donald Trump referred, declared that of all forms of inequality, health injustice is the most shocking and the most inhumane. Keeping Americans healthy is a very important determinant in MAGA.

  • Supports the Bulletin’s driving belief that politics in the service of power and economic gain constitutes a causal agent in the misappropriation of the fruits of human genius; the same genius can take back control, adding that the chances will be better with the deployment of practical philosophy and restates.

  • With respect to the international community, we have noted the incredible things done by the United Nations, contributed to the concept of the WHO we want, and have continually drawn attention to UNESCO’s promotion of philosophy while calling for some form of retrofitting and stating that it was nothing less than reprehensible to undermine the World Health Organization in the time of COVID. The 73rd World Health Assembly, 2020, was convened in a climate of international dissent wrapped up in tensions between the USA and China while America and Europe are becoming more divided on China issues: arms control and trade. Our world already had divisions and is fragmented. The US has been threatening China with trade sanctions for some time, one focus being violations of US intellectual property rights. A further bone of contention is China’s Belt and Road Initiative extending into Europe. We have suggested the use of philosophy in capacity-building, advocacy, and awareness-raising, as well as in peacekeeping. Once again we urge the appointment of classical philosophers in controversial and complex activities and remind ourselves that when populism and fanaticism enter politics, disaster is never far behind.

  • While the World Economic Forum commits itself to improving the state of the world by engaging the foremost political, business, cultural, and other leaders of society with enormous knowledge to shape global, regional, and industrial agendas, it has never invested a shred in philosophy. We do stand in the shadow of existential issues, and doing nothing is not an option. The focus of the World Philosophical Forum in Athens is practical classical philosophy. Greater efforts must be made to reshape the future and to palliate the rapidly growing sense of concern, telling us that there is little or no time left to look back. Our state of civilization is in jeopardy, and our leaders and society at large have failed to see the danger to humanity and do what is needed to change course and pull back from the abyss.

In 2019, the World Philosophical Forum (WPF) appealed to Greek members of the European Parliament, members of all member states, and candidates of all political parties, asking for their full support, as well as the support of the UN, WHO, EU, and the Council of Europe, to help stop the growth of social dementia by immediately reviving classical Greek philosophy in lieu of predominant scholasticism and fostering global citizenship in support of solidarity.

At its inauguration in 2009, the World Philosophical Forum, Athens, reintroduced the Dialectical Symposium to Greece and monitored existential issues: nuclear threat, climate change, and artificial intelligence. It has followed closely the observations of His Eminence the Pope, great scientists, erudite scholars, and youth as they have called attention to and worried about the shipwrecking of our wonderful civilization and has also noted that the political decision-making process of how to hang on to civilization is not that well worked out.

My setting of the Doomsday Clock is 60 seconds to midnight.

P.S. made in press: On the 8th day of 2025, the Doomsday clock and an indication of extreme danger were set at 89 seconds to midnight to symbolize a world perilously close to the precipice and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing its course increases the probability of global disaster. Blindly continuing on the current path is a form of madness.