Prof. Dr. Takis Alexiou - The Power of Friendship

Prof. Dr. Takis Alexiou

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

FROM THE TYRANNY OF MARKETS TO THE SOCIETY OF CITIZENS 4 SEASONS PUBLICATIONS 1

The Book “THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP - From the Tyranny of Markets to the Society of Citizens of Prof. Dr. Takis Alexiou was published, as an e-book, on January 2013.

Production Managing and Art Direction: Takis Alexiou. Front Cover: Michael Horne.

English translation: Sotiris Lappas Layout: Litsa Maranti. COPYRIGHT: 4 Seasons Publications,Τel:0030-6944128460, Fax: 0030-210-6011904, e-mail: profalex@otenet.gr 2

PROF. DR. TAKIS ALEXIOU

The Power of Friendship From the Tyranny of Markets to the Society of Citizens

4 Seasons Publications - Athens 2012 3

Demokritus 4

‘That, I think, is how things are. This is my theory. Try to improve it’.

Thales of Miletus ‘The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops / the fierce Poseidon / you will never encounter / if you do not carry them within your soul / if your soul does not erect them in front of you’..

Konstantinos P. Cavafis ‘I do not know to what extent humanity will consciously follow the law of Love. But there is no reason for concern. The law of love will work, just as the law of gravitation will work, whether we accept it or not.

Mahatma Gandhi ‘Were you of the opinion that your brain is functioning properly on its own anyway? If so, you have been fooled’.

Prof Gerald Hüther ‘The same areas of the brain that are involved in positive emotions are related to the ability of thought’.

Dr Daniel Goleman ‘The likelihood of higher evolution...is as open as the likelihood for humanity to evolve into a community of termites of the worst kind’.

Dr Konrad Lorenz ‘Only the one who builds the future has the right to criticise the past’.

Friedrich Nietzsche ‘Critical dialogue about wrongs is not an end in itself. It is the foundation stone for change’.

Prof Mahmoud Helmi ‘By beating every pain in the glare of your face/ the moment that our dreams come forth again/ Like lightning around the tree of life’.

Karl Marx ‘No intellectual has been misinterpreted as much as Karl Marx has’.

Panayiotis Kanellopoulos ‘My friends are my entire property’.

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Emily Dickinson

DEDICATED To Friendship, which, through Art, can change the World Peacefully. Because, as Naguib Mahfouz used to say, ‘Science is the language of the mind. Art is the language of the complete human personality’.

DEDICATED Also to those who desire a sincere constructive dialogue for a truly Democratic and Creative society.

DEDICATED Finally and mainly to all pupils and students who desire to claim on their own an alternative and essentially Democratic modern Education.

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Immanuel Wallerstein 7

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HOEVER ALLEGES that it is only a rainstorm and that it will go away’ is lying shamelessly. This is a crisis of no return for everybody. Naturally, not even for Germany or France, not even with the toughest measures...

Therefore, the winners will eventually be the countries that, without further delays, will begin the planning and the gradual application of a new social system that will be with us for the next 500 years or so, and for the first time in Human history will serve the real needs of all citizens rather than the greed and profit interests of the few. According to Karl R. Popper’s words (reminded to us by the historical Hellenist and political analyst of international acclaim Prof. Pavlos Tzermias): ‘What Marx is really trying to show is that there are only two possibilities: The constant continuation of an awful world (which is gradually becoming increasingly awful) or the final coming of a better one. Since it is not worth considering the first option seriously, Marx’s prophecy is completely justified’.

It is sufficient to understand that for this aim to be achieved we do not need an anticapitalist conscience but rather a prodemocracy one. We don’t need fronts for confrontation, collision and fighting in order to overthrow those in power.

Rather, we need a sincere constructive dialogue without egos and prejudice for the establishment of a better civil society.

Market Capitalism is bankrupt in the conscience of all Nations in the same way the Socialism of former Soviet Union is. Let us not go bankrupt along with them. There’s still time!!!

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EAR FRIENDS, modern Egypt produced two top intellectuals, Cavafis in Alexandria and Mahfouz in Cairo. I consider Cavafis, not arbitrarily, a child of Egypt because when he was asked, on a trip to Greece, why as a Greek he wasn’t returning to his homeland, his answer was: ‘I am not Greek, I am Alexandrian!’ So I am an Alexandrian too, 8

just like Kavafis, and I got to know Egypt better through the unique work of Naguib Mahfouz. The book that actually made me get to know him better than ‘The wisdom of a lifetime’ was the ‘Amman El Arsh’ (The Kingdom of the throne), which was first published in Arabic in 1983 and was only translated into Greek in 2011. I am referring to the principles and values of the nobelist author Naguib Mahfouz, regarding freedom, ethics, politics and of course Democracy...

At some point Osiris addresses King Mene says: ‘We have our own opinion as to how we will evaluate the people governing our country and their deeds...’ At another point, Mustafa El Nahas addressed President Anwar El Sadat saying: ‘I heard your proclamation about Democracy and I was left dumbfounded... Then I realised that you desired democratic governance albeit with dictatorial power’. He continues in Saad Zaghloul: ‘ Democracy is not granted, it is conquered... with unity and liberty, with work and science, with wisdom and literature, with a Government from the people for the people, with absolute social justice, with culture and, of course with peace’. We all know how far vision can often be from reality.

We all also know how blighted Democracy is nowadays in the Western world which, in Akhenaton’s words (in the same book), has surrendered to ‘the paganism of earthly things’ and in Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz’s (Nobel in Economics) words to ‘the exacerbated individualism and fundamentalism of the markets’.

I am referring to the topic of Democracy which is nowadays more timely than ever, not just for Egypt and the Arab world but also for Greece and the entire world. I would consider it criminal if the blighted (not calling it completely absent) Democracy of the West, which has nothing to do with governance by the people for the people, was exported to the Arabs as a standard to emulate. It’s high time the markets (with western politicians 9

as a vanguard) stop believing that they can re-colonise the world in the name, this time, of the ‘Democratisation’ of the peoples... The spirit of the great litterateur and authentic Democrat Naguib Mahfouz is not lost. The same is true for the ethos and dignity of El Ferdaus and many other Egyptians and Arabs. This is the best heritage for the predominance of a real Democracy in Egypt and the entire Arab world..

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HEN, 18 YEARS AGO, the essay ‘For a Unifying Movement and Policy in Greece’ (Takis Alexiou, PANIFE Publishing, Athens 2003) was first published, nobody was expecting the destructive crisis that we are going through today. At the time the crisis was mainly institutional and cultural, today it is financial too. Back then hardly anybody was listening... Now, more and more are eavesdropping and wondering. I recall, for the 100th time, the words of ‘Mr K.’ of Bertold Brecht who did not feel the need to live in a specified homeland: ‘I can be hungry everywhere’.

When, as the accused he was questioned by the judge if he would prefer to use a secular or a religious oath, he replied: ‘I am unemployed’... I also recall two short excerpts saying that: ‘The Unifying Movement is founded in 1993 under adverse conditions and in the great deadlock into which government and opposition have leaded the country in recent years. Everything has collapsed to a critical extent. If we don’t immediately commence the effort that will embrace individuals from all political parties of our country except for the extreme right and the extreme left, when will we act? What are we waiting for?

Finally, I recall the encouraging words of the late Academic Aggelos Aggelopoulos in the 2nd edition of 1995 which I am including: ‘Dear Mr Alexiou, thank you for your letter of 4.6.93 as well as for your issue ‘A lively teaching’. The face of the world would truly change if all nations, all people endorsed 10

Josef E. Stiglitz 11

the meaning of universality, the predominance of which your Unifying Movement is aiming at. With friendly regards.

Aggelos Aggelopoulos’.

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any will ask themselves what meaning can the words of a saint have in an era that is as tough as ours: ‘Faith is believing in what you cannot yet see and the reward for this faith is seeing what you believe in’, St Augustine. One can also doubt the words of a transcendentalist author such as those of Henry David Thoreau: ‘ This world is an empty canvas for our imagination’. Even the words of a nobel-winning theatrical author: ‘Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, seek what you imagine by mobilising your will and you eventually create what you seek’ George Bernard Shaw. It is the same with Nikos Kazantzakis who supports the view that: ‘ You have the brushes, you have the colours, paint heaven and enter it’.

Let’s leave out well known political leaders such as William Jennings Bryan who said: ‘Fate is not a matter of luck, it is a matter of choice’ and Abraham Lincoln: ‘Faith in things you can see and touch is not even faith. But Faith in the invisible is a triumph and a blessing’. But close our eyes, even to the top, Nobel-winning, physicist Albert Einstein, who believed that: ‘Logic will take you from point A to point B. Imagination will take you everywhere???’, I don’t think so! Because it is time to open the wings of Imagination and move to a real Democratic society without anyone that is trying to prevent us from doing so…

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ASED ON THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY and the structure of the three-sided human brain, sexuality corresponds to the instinctive or somatic mind, erotic love to the emotional and love to the logical...Friendship, if 12

present, accompanies the sum of man’s functions. It requires Self-knowledge and leads to Participation, which is the most important prerequisite for the foundation of a better society...

As far as Art is concerned I too think that ‘when poetry, like any art form, will be something everyone can do, the poet, like any artist, will be able to be’ in Argentine author Caesar Aria’s words ‘a human like everybody, he/she will be liberated from all the psychological misery we have called talent, style, mission, work and rest of the tortures’. That is he/she will be liberated from the misery of our catastrophic greed, exacerbated individualism and deified ego...

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UCH MEANINGS AS THOSE of Love and Friendship which in the past originated from the sphere of religions and had metaphysical content, were later incorporated in Psychology-Psychotherapy- Psychiatry, mainly due to the recognition of the important role of Emotional Intelligence (EQ: Emotional Quotient) and especially of the positive emotions not only in physical health but also generally in the evolution of Life. Finally, the meaning of exacerbated ego-individualism, the top negative behaviour that lies on the opposite side of positive emotions, entered the vocabulary of Neurobiology, the research of the human brain, the Economy and very recently Politics. The scientifically regulated meanings of Love and Friendship that follow as well as their major importance in overcoming the deadlock and creating a better society, should not alienate us. We should, at last, understand that any forms of violence originating from traumatic experience and negative emotions, even in Marx’s words: ‘ the only thing they managed was to perfect the state instead of dissolving it’. In other words, they managed to make it more authoritarian and inhumane... I therefore, reckon that the best society will not arise from the 13

ruins of the old one but rather by building the new one on new land, Peacefully!!!

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IGARETTE SMOKING seriously damages health...

But our indifference and anaesthesia towards everyone and everything, that (in our opinion) don’t serve our infinite EGO, damages health more seriously... The examples are daily and innumerable: We are redeeming the ‘respect’ of our children with extremely expensive gifts instead of offering them ethos and mental education. We are not punctual for our appointments and rude in our behaviour when we don’t expect an immediate service or benefit. The pet that keeps us company will eat whenever it hits us and the plant that beautifies and cleans the air of our home, that does not bark or meow, can wait for weeks for a little bit of water and wilts. As far as the person next door is concerned, he/she is completely absent...

And all this is so because we are rushing without knowing who or what, at the time when, except for our ego and greed, nobody and nothing is after us...

P.S. Indifference and anaesthesia is one thing and spite and hatred are another. Turning your back to someone else’s pain is one thing and torturing him is another. The worst thing that often occurs is ‘enjoying’ someone else’s pain, i.e. being malevolent and a sadist...

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N EARLIER DAYS, happiness constituted a module of poetry and philosophy, later extending into Literature, Sociology, Psychology and more recently into Medicine and Economics. The preference of the term ‘happiness’ to ‘friendship’ is by no means random within the framework of today’s self-centred society. That is due to the fact that happiness is directly connected to infinite individualism and 14

Martin Buber 15

the fundamentalism of financial markets whereas ‘friendship’ escapes the narrow bounds of one’s ‘self’ and extends into ‘You’ and ‘Us’. Happiness is an individual’s matter unlike friendship, which requires at least two or more conscious individuals...

When we understand that today’s political structure has unconditionally surrendered power to financial markets and that it is exclusive responsible for today’s crisis, we will be in a position to radically change things and bring hope and our smile back to our faces. We know that our entire life is problem solving (Karl R. Popper) but I would like to add that it is not the repetition and worsening of those problems, as is the case in this land on a day to day basis. Therefore we ought to exclude any form of violence, re-evaluate some meanings such us the ones of Friendship, Participation, Democracy (State), whilst fully utilising modern computer technology and especially social networking in order to achieve faster and more effective international communication...

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UR STARTING POINT IS THE FULL Acknowledgment of the fact that the fundamentalist economy of financial markets is founded on limitless individualism (selfishness) and is fed by the violence that we stupidly offer it to date. In simple words, modern inhumane society would end up being atrophic without aggression and violence and nonexistent without selfishness-individualism...

So, the matter of the establishment of a better society is a mainly biological-anthropological rather than a political-economic issue and it directly depends on our real Friendship training.

However, one calls Friendship; real, sincere, old, strong, good, actual, fine, unique, deep, heart-felt etc. Friendship is an essential I-You’ relationship, which requires a substantial 16

I-Myself’ relationship (Knowledge of self), extends into a substantial I-We’ relationship (Participation) Martin Buber. In Friendship’s case (I-You’) it represents one soul in two bodies (Aristotle). That is, a relationship in which explanations are unnecessary (Catherine Mansfield) and rhetoric, debates, disputes and rivalries (with which all politicians have inundated us) are completely absent. According to Robert McAfee Brown one ages internally, like society, when he ceases to maintain friendly relationships, which in Rachel Naomi Remen’s words are based on affectionate silence, that is by carefully listening to each other. Thus friendship cannot be but a sweet obligation and never an (interest-related) opportunity (Khalil Gibran), which contains love, trust, security and naturally happiness.

K.S. Lewis’ opinion that Friendship and Philosophy are as unnecessary as Art is not true because nowadays even the World Health Organization finds that Happiness (which is included in Friendship) constitutes a basic factor for health.

The view of Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler, that we are connected, does not constitute an innovation. That is, among other things what Goethe’s quote says. It emphasizes that if you treat people the way you should, you will help them become how they should be. However, one will enjoy the real value of happiness only if they share it (Mark Twain) because in Shakespeare’s words, the soul rejoices in the thought of good friends as well as with the affection that we feel towards them (Thomas Jefferson). We should not forget that a Friendship that was destroyed was never real (St Jeronimo) and that true Friendship is only built on foundations of Truth and Knowledge (Henry David Thoreau)…

I am continuing with the simple finding that Philosophy and therefore the philosopher is a judge and not the exponent of his era (Hugo von Hofmannsthal). Taking for granted the need to overcome criticism and achieving a proposal after substantial 17

dialogue and the stable desire to learn by approximating the Truth rather than being ‘right’. We are not allowed to be (even) minimally interested in making an impression. In Schopenhauer’s words, our aim is not to seduce but to teach and be taught: to be mentally liberated. Then and only then will we be in a position to change the world, always using a clear, simple and direct language whilst knowing that ‘mature people do not need leaders’ (H.G. Wells), but friends with self-knowledge and desire to participate, living nurses rather than dead people and corpses (Friedrich Nietzsche) who while they are invoking freedom and light, they are blind slaves of their limitless individualism-ego and sometimes unwillingly, supporters of a destructive fundamentalist economy and policy!

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AM TRYING TO EXPRESS, as simply and briefly as I can, what I perceive about the generalised crisis, which is not only Greek or European but Worldwide and I consider criminal the stance of all those who know the truth about what is happening and don’t tell it in its entirety. They are doing that by bringing forward meaningless issues such as loan contracts, the referendum, another recipe (for success), the elections and the like, systematically putting aside the issue of individual responsibility and the possibility of humanity’s ‘evolution’ into a termite community of the worst kind…(Lorenz).

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HICH TRUTH AM I TALKING ABOUT? George Irvin states: ‘You will only survive in the Euro with growth’ while Franklin Allen thinks that the best solution is bankruptcy. Genaro Zezzo sets the dilemma: changes in European institutions or ‘colony-states’ and the leader of the Socialists in the European parliament Martin Schultz states that ‘money is available but it is distributed in the wrong way’...

How many have we heard this in Greece??? Finally, Marina 18

Nikolai Kontratieff 19

Fragaki is convinced that the goal (within the framework of an alternative economic policy for Europe) is serving society’s (rather than the capital’s) needs by means of regulation and control of the financial capital. There is a view that considers an alternative financial policy capable of forcing capitalism to turning more humane... A view that completely ignores the basic principle that: ‘Systems are born, are of long duration and at some point they find themselves in crisis, they become divided and transform into something else’. In addition, ‘ the period of transition is especially unpredictable and receptive to individual and team actions’ Prof Immanuel Wallerstein.

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IKOLAI KONTRATIEFF WAS ONE of the most important Soviet economists and original reformer of the 20s. He was expelled to Siberia in 1930 by the Stalinist regime and ‘disappeared’... In memory of this great man and scientist, Josef Schubeter named the long-term variations of the economy, ‘Kontratieff Cycles’. These cycles consist of an ‘A’ (ascent) and a ‘B’ phase (decline) of an average duration of 25 to 35 years each. We all know that we are going through a phase of decline. What we, perhaps, don’t know is that this phase coincides with a historical 500-year cycle during which another, unknown one, will replace the capitalist system. It is certain that there will be a collision at the life and death level because according to the aforementioned top American sociologist, Wallerstein, we are talking about the building of the foundations of the historical system, which will accompany us for the next 500 years...

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HE SYSTEM THAT IS NOW IN A GREAT CRISIS is the system of the greed of the financial capitalism, the transitional period of which has already began, without us knowing which form this ‘other’ (next social) system 20

will take. What we know in all certainty is that in periods of crises the number of individuals with free will and conscious thinking increases, thus offering a unique opportunity of human creativity which could be in a position to think it through and find effective ways and solutions for today’s dead ends.

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REE WILL simply means responsible life stance that characterises the behaviour of the individuals who consciously cultivate substantial relationships with: a. themselves, b. their neighbour and c. society, Prof Martin Buber.

Individuals who sincerely accept their limitless individualismego and desire to participate in politics through substantial relationships of real Friendship... I am talking about the triad: SELF-KNOWLEDGE – FRIENDSHIP – PARTICIPATION. I am talking about the need for peaceful transformation of society through participatory procedures rather than through the conquest of state power...

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EORGE MONBIOT STATES that ‘it is impossible to read ancient and modern history without acquiring the ‘unpleasant knowledge’ that Homo Sapiens is a species with an unusual capability of violence and destruction...’ without mentioning that Homo Sapiens can also be capable of the opposite. The multi-award winning journalist and writer, like many others, thinks that ‘power never surrenders willingly (and that) if we want it we have to grab it...(something that) requires the active involvement of a network of revolutionaries who must be ready to risk their lives to change the world... (by coordinating) their attack … as members of a species rather than a nation...whilst seizing control of world politics’.

It is about one more case of complete cognitive contradiction and literal non-sense which is interested in power rather than change and completely ignores the fact that ‘life is not 21

primarily a quest for pleasure’, as Freud used to believe or a ‘quest for power’ as Adler taught, but a quest for meaning... (which allows man) to remain brave, dignified, and selfless (under the worst conditions) as Viktor E. Frankl (top Professor of Psychology who spent years in Nazi concentration camps) reassures us...

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HERE IS MUCH TALK LATELY about the ‘Real’ Economy, although (as the experts inform us) money belongs to the sphere of ‘virtual reality’... in any case what is missing is the realisation that the ‘real’ economy of capitalism is the one that brought forward the crisis. On the other hand there is Friedrich Nietzsche’s statement, which says: the real world is much smaller than the world of imagination’.

Although we need ‘warm’ money to face our immediate needs, what we need more than ever is Imagination, Jules Verne’s ‘rocket’ that will fly us to the Reality of a better world...

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HEN MONEY BECOMES the absolute goal in life there are no limits to acceptable behaviour’ (Nobel winning Economics Prof. Josef E. Stiglitz).

That does not only affect bankers and politicians but mainly us the citizens who, in our limitless individualism-ego and consumerism, which has been elevated to the level of psychotherapy (shopping therapy), maintain this inhumane market-based financial system... Therefore I consider this topic mainly financial rather than political (as many allege) or social. It is primarily an individual’s matter, i.e. a moral one.

Heracleitus used to say ‘Ethos Anthropo Daemon’ / ‘Ethos is man’s demon’ or, if you like, in modern terminology, it is a neurobiological matter because ‘we actually live in a world where not everything is the way it should be. ‘This, however, is the only one we have. As people like us made it the way it is, 22

Arthur Schopenhauer 23

we are the only ones who could change it. At first, of course, we would have to change ourselves’ as informed by Gerald Hüther a top neurobiology Professor at the university clinic Gottingen.

He added that: ‘the network of neural connections in our brain changes when people using it in a different way’... The way in which a human uses the organ of his thinking and its products depend directly on the type of emotion that possesses him/ her, on the motives that encourage him/her and the intentions that lead him/her... When the ego (and money) becomes the refrain of thought, feeling and action, one degenerates to the lower world of a beast (Geerk F.), i.e. to the barbaric world of the financial markets we have recently been living in, at such a high intensity. The ‘something else’, the other way we can follow, in - yet again - Hüther’s words, is the Road of Love and Friendship... this deep emotional giving, this deep emotion of unity among people... ‘So, whoever wants to use their mind that widely, must learn to love because Love creates in man’s mind the feeling that he/she is deeply bound with everything’.

Because positive emotions, Love and Friendship are the ones that expand not only our sensory and mental perception but also our emotions, conscience and free will, which are the only prerequisite for a real change...

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O, CAPITALISM DOES NOT ONLY CONSIST of banks, bankers and major shareholders. Capitalism does not equate to industrialists, entrepreneurs and major merchants. It doesn’t even equate to financial markets and the profiteering interests of the few. Capitalism is not about the major investors- all kinds of the ‘Soros’ type- and rating agencies... Capitalism and its worst type (which feeds the rest of its types) are none other than our limitless individualismego, this Chimera from which, Bellerophon, St George and so many other ‘Wisemen’ have unsuccessfully attempted to 24

dispose of for us, since antiquity. It is The monster which is not allowing us to pay attention to our neighbour, to feel them and sincerely care for them... Rumi, a great Humanist, Philosopher and Poet of the 13th century of Bactria, Central Asia, said ‘Love, Love, we have no other work...’ and this is the great goal which has to transform from empty words into action if we want to live better days... ‘I do not know to what extent humanity can consciously follow the law of Love. But there is no need for worry. The law will continue to be valid in exactly the same way the law of gravity is valid whether we accept it or not’ (Gandhi).

What is Love? Love is empathy, solidarity, kindness, sincerity, honesty, dignity, enjoyment, joy, peace, freedom, security, sensitivity, dialogue and respect... In addition, positive emotions and constructive thinking which are not limited to man but rather they extend to all living organisms, the Nature and the entire universe...

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S FAR AS THE TRAGIC COGNITIVE STATE of the politicians is concerned I can only refer to the outstanding article of the great philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, ‘The Art of always being right’ in which he mentions the following tricks: ‘Anger your opponent’, ‘Interrupt, stop, deviate the conversation’, ‘Formulate a fake reasoning’, ‘Conceal your plan’, ‘Draw conclusions on your own’, ‘Reverse the terms’ and ‘Allege that you have won despite being beaten’...

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OR OUR LENDERS, I consider the chapter ‘The disasters of lending’ from ETHIKA of Plutarch (45120 AD) very interesting. He emphasised, among other things, that ‘They are turning the market into hell for the poor debtors. They are slaughtering and devouring’...He reached 25

the conclusion: ‘Do you possess? Don’t borrow because you are not missing it. Do you not possess? Do not borrow because you will not repay your debt’, eventually your freedom will be limited and a ‘for sale’ sign will be placed upon your dignity.

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OR THE DEBTORS, I believe that in no case should we be allowed to stick to the same old, that is we found ourselves owing and that we are paying for the mistakes and the swag of corrupt politicians who lead the country to this tragic condition. It is the debt of the debtors, (i.e. us the citizens who realise the situation we are finding ourselves in and are willing to act responsibly as individuals with free will and conscious thought) is to contribute all our resources towards the creation of a Participatory Democracy which will constitutionally protect the real needs of all citizens rather than the profiteering interests of the few (as the case has been to date even with socialist governments)...

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HE 20 (as well as the 8) MOST ‘DEVELOPED’ and ‘competitive’ countries of the world that want to define the fate of this planet are the ones that play host to most of the millions of the homeless, unemployed, hungry and poverty stricken people. That is despite the exploitation of other nations (by financial means or war) that is exercised by some of those developed countries. The now famous ‘growth’ and ‘competitiveness’ has absolutely nothing to do with civil societies. The latter need cooperation rather than competitiveness. As far as ‘growth’ is concerned, it should be aimed at the prosperity of all and the protection of the environment. In this spirit, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the worst way of measurement of social prosperity because it excludes the poor living conditions of millions of extremely poor, low-paid workers and pensioners. It also excludes the 26

Alain Touraine 27

category of depressed people who, although of middle or high income, feel ephemeral with a complete lack of the meaning of life. That is highlighted by the recent (especially last decade’s) unprecedented increase in the use of psychotropic drugs...

Professor of Economics Richard Layard (specialised in the topic of happiness) informs us that ‘People in essence have not become happier in recent years. They have become richer, they work less, they take more vacations, travel more and live longer... but they are not happier. This shocking fact has to be the trigger for more research...’ especially in the sectors of Psychology and Neurobiology of Social Sciences and Economy... Let’s take this opportunity to recall Democritus’ (460 – 370 BC) words who preferred ‘life in a poor democracy to wealth in a tyranny’. He believed that ‘poverty in a democracy is better than all the riches under an Aristocracy or autocracy, because Liberty is better than Slavery’…

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OFTEN HEAR THE ‘ARGUMENT’ that there have always been poor, penniless, homeless, hungry and poverty stricken people and they will always exist... I radically disagree and allege (with facts and no quotation marks) that at some point slave trade and slave markets were blooming and human life counted less that a flying disc in a shooting competition... At some point women enjoyed no form of equality and it was prohibited for them to study in the same way it was for AfricanAmericans... I can mention many more examples but one thing is for certain. At some point poor people will cease to exist as long as they are given the opportunity to live a dignified life...

What is more vital and noble for truly democratic social politics?

In order for that to occur, I believe that the ‘hermetically sealed’ profession of the politicians has to be opened up with immediate effect so we can rid ourselves of the totalitarianism of all parties which hold their interests higher than the country’s 28

history and the People’s future...

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ADLY, the limited use of violence is widely acceptable (in the same way poverty is), allowed and often forced in a supposedly democratic society... Question: Does leading an entire nation to despair and depression by making wrong political moves (on the part of government and opposition) constitute limited or extensive use of violence???

Does driving hundreds of thousand into unemployment by making wrong political moves (on the part of government and opposition) constitute limited or extensive use of violence???

Finally, does forcing even a single individual commit suicide by making wrong political moves (on the part of government and opposition) constitute limited or extensive use of violence???

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OW WOULD YOU CHARACTERISE the regime of a city (and by extension of a country) where ‘poverty of the homeless, the burnt streets, crime levels that equate to civil war, the decomposition of the city into the rich and poor, black and white, healthy and sick, rife corruption, wild panic and death’ take place and are being talked about in the book ‘On Cities and Women’ by the well known poet and painter Etel Adnan. It is about New York City of the U.S.A. A symbol of ‘Libetry’ and ‘Democracy’ of the western world, which, of course, is neither free nor democratic... We are forced to live in this insane world where everything is ‘the opposite to what it should be...’ Rumi. I recall Ferdaus’ case. She was a truly free and dignified lady who was, in effect unjustifiably sentenced to death (for killing a violent promoter). She refused an official pardon by the President of Egypt at the time, Sadat, so that she would not owe her life to power... What am I trying to say? It is time we wake up and see reality face to face on not so we can continue to accept it (as we have been doing to date) 29

but rather so we can change it peacefully, step-by-step... I wish every power had ‘whores’ like Ferdaus because it is certain that our world would have already been much better...

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N THEORY, THE QUESTION democracy or tyranny is not being asked. However, practically, under the inhumane conditions imposed by financial capitalism democracy has been completely catalysed and transformed into a ‘parliamentary’ tyranny. ‘...Into democratic governance with dictatorial power’ as described by Nobel-wining author Naguib Mahfouz in his exquisite book ‘Before the Throne’, whilst he referred to Anwar er Sadad...

The definition of democracy given by Philosophy Professor Karl R. Popper, i.e. ‘a state which is politically free when its political institutions allow its citizens to change governments without bloodshed...’ is by no means sufficient. That is because without the (existing) bloodsheds, ‘Democracies’ which don’t respect and systematically ignore popular command and the real needs of the nation and use violence, are not real Democracies. Once more, we are living, in Konrad Heiden’s words: ‘an era of mental and ethical dishonesty’ and the only way we can return to an elementary normality is by embracing Truth, Justice, and critical Dialogue and staying away from selfishness, arrogance, backstage, corruption, armament, secret funds, and worst of all, the secret and erratic diplomacy that has been adopted by political parties and mentalities to date...

A

LL OF A SUDDEN, our spiritual leaders have woken up and are deal with topics such as Nation-Europe and Globalisation (Nikos Paraskevopoulos), announce bad news from Europe (John Keane) and find that there is a deficit of Democracy in the European Union (Erik O. Eriksen). All of a sudden, they are informing us that Democracy is in decline 30

AndrĂŠ Breton 31

(Kostas Thouzinas) and that there is a new anomaly triangle, which involves the markets, the EU and the Memorandum Block (Stathis Kouvelakis). All of a sudden, they locate the embarrassment of politics (Dimitris Christopoulos), the political shortsightedness of governments (Luccino Galino) and highlight that Democracy is in peril (Luke Martell). All of a sudden they are wondering about whom the commander is (Guinto Rossi), they confirm the regression of Democracy (Jean Paul Fittoussi), by recognising that there is a European market oligarchy (Xenophon Kondiathis) and of course that Greece has become their toy (Gesine Letzsch). All of a sudden, the democratic deficit is the cutting of social unrest (Serge Halimi), there is a regression of Democracy (Giovanni Perelli), they are explaining why we should be angry, (Rebecca Herms) and why our rights are being attacked (Judith Butler). All of a sudden, they finally confirm the implementation of the coup by the markets (Bill Meyer) and many other similar things... i.e. we are stuck with findings and analyses that have been known for many decades, literally excluding the most important thing: the specific suggestions that we all need to make, each one of us from his point of view, for a better society we, our children and our grandchildren would want to live in with dignity

M

ORE AND MORE PEOPLE RECOGNISE the fact that the famous ‘humanisation’ of capitalism, or ‘popular’ capitalism (as is its alternative name) is not, at least in the long term, an alternative proposal for a Democratic society. Therefore, the recent use of self-managed non-profit credit cooperatives in the US, in which depositors are the only shareholders, capital is invested in development programmes of local small/medium-seized businesses or cities, just like the banks of the poor (Grameen Bank) founded by the Nobel-winning Economist Prof. Muhammad Yunus are 32

not drastic but rather they represent a reaction to an unfair existing system which, despite its old age, is still in a position to destroy or assimilate, i.e. engulf in its interests, every body that is considered foreign, in the same fashion it acted with Prof. Yunus of Grameen Bank who is accused of irregularities...

A

NEW BEGINNING CAN BE MADE with the realisation that a) the crisis of the financial capitalism is one of no return and b) we need to plan and build, without any further delay, a human-centric and socially fair system with environmental protection as a priority in this transitional period we are going through.

It is time we realised that ‘we need to declare that Democracy (where the people are the commander’s) which converts working people into responsible citizens (synonym of citizens with free will) is a basic prerequisite of economic and social straightening, at least in the countries that have chosen political freedom instead of (capitalist or communist) totalitarianism’ (Alain Touraine)...

A

CADEMIC JACQUELINE ROMILLY emphasised the fact that ‘in politics, transparency is not sufficient without help from a strong morality, i.e. intact honesty that will guide political choices’ whilst knowing, I’m sure, that in modern politics, not only honesty and morality are absent but also transparency. The thought process of politicians is not only unclear and party-bound but also selfish. Their word, is not only rough and contradictory, it is also hypocritical.

The sincere critical and constructive dialogue is still the aim although it’s the only ‘mechanism’ of problem solving and peaceful way out of the crisis. The president of PASOK and ex-prime minister has repeatedly admitted to the mistakes he, his government and party have made. For the hundredth 33

time the mistakes have been repeated. Most importantly, instead of them being penalised we are the ones to pay for them without having made the mistakes...Until when??? It is time politicians of all parties, and especially anyone who is in power, understood that they have to be penalised for their mistakes, not by handing in their resignations (which they never do anyway) but with their personal wealth, in the same way it happens to us when we cannot repay our loans and we lose our homes (due to unemployment-related weakness rather than a mistake)...

W

E HAVE RECENTLY BEEN (and still are) going through successive psychological shocks, not so much due to the consequences of the harsh fiscal measures that have been taken by the government at the expense of low and middle incomes but rather due to the violent juxtapositions among members of the government and the parliamentary group on vital topics which concern the present and the future of this country and due to the erratic behaviour of an ‘out of place and time’ prime minister who says one thing, means another and does altogether different things in the country and abroad whilst ignoring his partners, scorning an entire nation leading them violently into the abyss. Whenever this nation has expressed its resentment and frustration, it is being intimidated, beaten and bathed in carcinogenic chemicals and that overturns the most elementary logic and determination of Democracy, i.e. the system which is founded on Justice which in turn whilst searching for the truth resolves any differences that arise PEACEFULLY...

W

E NOW KNOW THE ANSWER to the question ‘whether the chicken or the egg came first’. Similarly, we know that the dead ends in societies originate 34

Gerald H端ther 35

from the dead ends of their constituent individuals. Therefore, the best societies need better minds that are not formed with violence, uprisings and revolutions but rather with peace and positive emotions, which accompany the desire of man for Knowledge. The Truth is directly connected to Knowledge anyway. It is not, however, connected to power, which always tends to be totalitarian by nature and intention even in the most advanced capitalist ‘Democracies’ like Denmark’s...

D

EMOCRACY is neither urban, nor centrist, allied, socialist, leftist and communist (“people’s). It is not monarchical or presidential. It is neither Christian nor Islamic; it is not direct or indirect… Democracy does not need an adjective to describe it! Democracy is an autonomous social system that is based, as I mentioned above and repeat here, on Justice which in the pursuit of Truth solves Peacefully any disputes that may arise.

Democracy and Capitalism or Democracy and Communism are incompatible because they have used and still use VIOLENCE. Extensive violence!!! The issue here is not which world we don’t want to live in but which world we do want to live in.

Democracy is Life and requires, in this order, true relationships with ourselves, our neighbor and our society… Democracy is the only Peaceful Social System that could be truly interested in the needs of all citizens and not the speculation of the few.

T

HE WELL KNOW PSYCHIATRIST and author Nawal El Saadawi alleged in a 2005 interview that ‘People must move…they have to act and overthrow these regimes... We cannot change the image of the... world if we don’t change its political systems...’ However, I wonder for the 100th time, is that the order of things? From the Egyptian revolution of 1919against the British occupation until the 1952 36

against the monarchy and the 2011 revolution against Mubarak, what has really changed other than the fact that the English occupation had become Egyptian, initially military and now probably religious??? After Cairo’s Tahrir square came Athens’ Syntagma Square’s turn and the question is: Now that we have awakened, can we realise that Democracy, as a social system, is completely absent from the entire planet and it itself is the main goal??? Democracy has its own structures in all walks of daily life and we have to utilise them, step-by-step in the 21st century with the change in our mind being the starting point.

This is the greatest ‘revolution’ of them all, in effect the only one that will be in a position to get us out of the dead end...

I

N CONCLUSION, I would like to emphasise, once more, that: 1st) There is no Democracy! However many attempts are made to humanise financial markets, they will be in vain because Capitalism, as a system, is nearing the end of its cycle.

It’s impossible to turn back the time a few decades, when capitalism had a less barbaric face than it has today.

2nd) Market Capitalism and Democracy are completely incompatible meanings.

3rd) Capitalism has no future and we are already in a transitional period with an unknown destination and with the knowledge that the resurrection of the communist model does not constitute an alternative solution for the 21st century.

4th) It is more than obvious that we need a better society. A civil society that is participatory and truly democratic which will result peacefully from radical reforms rather than violently from revolutions (Eric Hobsbaum), thus constitutionally securing (as I already mentioned) the real needs of all citizens rather than the greed and the profiteering interests of the few...

37

O

UR ANSWER to the reasonable question as to how one can rid oneself from this worldwide epidemic of greed which supports the market capitalism (called ‘fundamentalism of the markets’ by the top economist Prof.

Stiglitz) is the following: as with any disease, therapeutically and with substantial Friendship (a non-political term) as the medicine. Friendship requires Self-knowledge and leads to Participation through conscious and aimed socialised Art. Karl Marx assured us that ‘ideas are chains, nobody can be liberated from without breaking his heart’ i.e. without being deeply shaken and recognising the current negative (selfishindividualistic) life stance as the wrong one, in Hüther’s words. It is about a new approach in the sphere of Education and Culture in general with creation of a more human and environmentally friendly socio-economic model as the next step.

I

T IS NOT POSSIBLE, it is not democratic to have the fate of a state depend on whether leaders (of the two major political parties which have lead the country into the abyss in the last 37 years) can agree or not. Elections and multi-party governments cannot be the solution to the problem for the very simple reason that the problem is market capitalism, which is supported by the two majority parties and their branches in any way possible. The so-called traditional and progressive Left has no complete and realistic alternative suggestion for a better democratic society, which other than time primarily needs Imagination: New minds and new ideas which are completely absent in the entire spectrum of modern politics...

A

PART FROM Andre Breton who was prompting us to denounce parties since (as early as) the 1950s, it is time to recall Simone Weil’s words which indicate 38

Simon Weil 39

that individuals who want to offer their services to politics with Justice and the Truth as their guide, have to be supported by their Friends rather than by parties because: ‘A political party is machine of collective passion production. A political party is an institution made to exert collective pressure on the thinking of any person who is a part of it. The first and only aim of every political party is for it to be reinforced without any limitations. This triple feature shows that every political party is totalitarian by nature and intention. Political parties are institutions that have formed formally in public so that they can kill the meanings of Truth and Justice in one’s soul’. What is then absolutely necessary is that we as tax-paying citizens turn our backs to party totalitarianism and stop paying for their financial wrongdoing and loans and carry the financial burden of the elections! Until we get rid of this political and economic gangrene they should lift the burden of their expenses in full transparency. At this point it is worth mentioning the webbased financial backing of US President Barack Obama in the previous elections by friendly voters... The socialist, social democratic, labour and the various conservative and neo-liberal policies that are at the financial markets’ disposal are doomed in the same way people that are nostalgic of the communist social model of the former Soviet Union are...

R

ECENTLY, THERE HAS OFTEN BEEN TALK of ‘egos’ as far as the behaviour of various political personalities of Greece -among others- is concerned... Any self-criticism?

I don’t think so! Acceptance of a destructive behaviour that concerns the fate of an entire country? Not even! In spite of the great crisis, nobody is acquiring conscience and free will straight away. This is a therapeutic process, a procedure of mentality alteration which requires time, however sincere anybody’s intentions are who desire to rid themselves of their 40

limitless individualism-ego which are, without any doubt, a worldwide epidemic, the worst humanity has known to date...

A

CCORDING TO PROF. JOHN WHEELER (Albert Einstein’s and Niels Bohr’s colleague) ‘we are not simply spectators who happened to find themselves in a cosmic scene. We are conditioners and creators who live in a participatory universe’. In Bertolt Brecht’s words: ‘Man is not the drop in the river of life, he is the force that creates and moves the river of life’. As conscious people with free will we can become such a creative force and inhabitants of a participatory universe and cannot but reject, in the most categorical way, every form of violence and tyranny. We should contribute with our life and work in the planning and consolidation of a Participatory Democracy, a society of Active Citizens, the State of Aristotle...

I

HAVE WONDERED MANY TIMES, how it is possible for the language of violence and war (rather than the one of Peace and Dialogue) to dominate among partners and allies of a Union of peoples and countries with a common currency.

That does not only concern the ‘tough battles’ often fought by our governors in Brussels but also with ‘popular uprisings, revolutions and wars’ that are suggested to citizens by leftwing parties. The latter are unable to understand the obvious.

That elections and the expected shift in political correlations that they are categorically defending as the only democratic way out of the crisis will not really change anything. They should have known that creative thinking is not collective. It is an individual’s matter and the individual does not acquire a conscience and free will all of a sudden. That means that what they are pursuing is not for the people’s sake, as they allege, but rather the preservation or the improvement of their 41

party’s percentage points. The are ignoring the fact that the only substantial question that has to be answered is whether, in this period of transition from one type of society to the other, the living conditions of the entire nation will be, relatively speaking, more humane and dignified, within or out of the Euro zone...

D

EMOCRACY OR TYRANNY? In the European Union or out of it? In theory, at least, no such questions are being asked. For the simple reason that the social conditions within the Euro zone for the next few years of the transitional period from the inhumane market capitalism to a peaceful society of active citizens will be unquestionably better within the European Union, taking into account the fact that the crisis is not only Greek. It is also European and a worldwide one. The processes that will take place in the coming years for the transition to a real Democracy will not only be national.

They will also be a matter for Europe and the entire world...

T

HE MOST BASIC PROBLEM of life is uncertainty and the unpredictable. The western dream of turbocharged – capitalism (represented by Germany more than any other European country), i.e. the conquest of the (European) world is, in terms of the chaos theory, a fantasy because chaotic systems can overcome every effort, prediction and handling we put in. That, in plain words, means that we ought, at last, to realise that we are not nature’s (and by extension society’s) modulators but rather it’s creative and (participatory) partners (Dr F. David Peat – Prof John Briggs). Let me clarify that our individual and collective ‘chaotic’ behaviour, which originates from our limitless individualism-ego, i.e. ‘the waste of our mind’ according to the top psychiatrist Prof. Irvin Yalom, bears no relation to the scientific theory of Chaos...

42

Nawal El Saadawi 43

A

N OBSERVATION: The view of our north-European partners that in Greece (as well as in Portugal, Italy and Spain) there are no responsible citizens whilst they have a surplus of those in their countries is wildly inaccurate because their famous ‘responsibility’ is limited to the full subjection of a great majority to an inhumane social and economic model which is now ageing (Samir Amin). This kind of ‘responsibility’ is a dangerous fantasy that has nothing to do with the free will we are obliged to develop if we want to avoid further problems and create a better society. Have we wondered how it is possible for the seventh most developed and competitive country-economy (Italy) to be on the brink of bankruptcy and for Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Belgium and France be following in their footsteps???

E

UROPE’S HISTORY began with a wonderful Greek myth starring the love of Zeus, patron of hospitality, the oath, justice and democracy. The history of modern Europe of the 20th century is a history of barbarity, pain and misery with two world wars, colonies, nazism, fascism, with prisons full of political prisoners, concentration camps, torturing, exploitation, starvation, unemployment, poverty and innumerable victims. The barbaric colonial policy, which was applied in earlier years in the name of civilising the ‘primitive’ nations, has recently started being applied in the name of the ‘democratisation’ of the politically ‘uneducated’ nations.

That is they are virtually the same thing... Europe, these days, is dying through an inhumane economic system and the deification of the markets, with Germany as its champion. It is clear that Europe of the hard core is aiming to subject the ‘disobedient’ countries of the South financially (changing even their political map in the process) and extend its influence to the borders of its empire, whilst donating free ‘lessons of Liberty 44

and Democracy’ to the Arabs that have recently revolted...

Göbbels, the Propaganda minister of Nazi Germany used to say: ‘Talk, talk, something will stick’, meaning the Jews among others who ‘stunk’. Nowadays, we have the southern European countries (PIGS), which stink like dirty pigs... What is strange though is that whilst the Germans consider the word pig (schwein) as a bad swear word, it is also their favourite food...

W

HEN THE PACE OF LIFE is defined by money rather than by man, something is not right... Nowadays we all know (experts and non-experts) how criminal the view was of the well-known Nazi-friendly architect and town planner Le Corbusier, that ‘the city of speed is the city of joy’. Within this framework, machine-like houses and fastfood outlets were bound to be created, thus destroying all that had survived the frenetic pace of an inhumane ‘’Profitopolis’.

Hence it became clear that already from the 1970s man needed another type of city (Josef Lehmlock & Wend Fisher)...

Time is a function of thought. In the same fashion, Truth is a function of Knowledge. Empirical knowledge we have from ‘Profitopolis’s around the world suggest that they are seriously and irreversibly damaging human (physical, emotional, logical and mental) health... Recently, in spite of the continuing western ‘workaholism’ (which is, as we all know, a serious mental disease) the climate is starting to change radically with the creation of a series of ‘slow food’ restaurants in the entire western world, as a result of a humanistic philosophical trend known as ‘slow living’. Thus, the theory that man learns from his mistakes when he recognises and accepts them is confirmed and that is very comforting because industriousness is one thing and work holism (a mental disease and indicative 45

of enslavement of man to the barbaric power of the markets and the profiteering interests of the few...) is another…

C

hange, become yourself’, encourages us the well-known German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

He couldn’t possibly have known the myth that his countrymen (completely unjustifiably) launched about the slow-moving and lazy Greek. Branding the Greek politician and especially the Prime minister unreliable was, however, utterly justified. We have even become a television series (‘Go Greek’) on British television... As we all know, however, generalisation never corresponds to reality! Perhaps by changing the title to ‘Go Karagiozis’ (who is lazy, subservient (hunchback), a crook (long arms) and of course wicked) would it represent something real as far as the behaviour of some Greeks and especially politicians are concerned??? Even today, Karagiozis’ figure (of Ottoman origin) which has been nominated as a national hero of modern Greece, he is an object of ‘entertainment’ value in primary schools and other venues of the entire country. This east-derived shadow theatre figure cannot possibly carry all the blame for the plight of this country.

However many of us abandoned this mentality, fell in the nets of mimicry of a greedy western consumer culture, which wore jeans, drank Coca Cola and danced Rock... It seems, therefore, that it is time to come round and become ourselves again.

T

HE NEW PRIME MINISTER OF GREECE has unwittingly put the two parties of power, their fellows and the parliamentary left-wing parties in trouble for the following reason: the fear of them weakening due to the possibility of his success in his difficult task, i.e. even the temporary relief of a nation which is forced to survive without electricity. Thus the possible contribution of the new prime 46

Friedrich Nietzche 47

minister as a technocrat rather than a politician can signify a) the beginning of the gradual disintegration of a wasteful totalitarian party establishment and b) the creation of the best possible transitional economic climate in Greek society for the planning and materialisation, without violence, of humane society...

P

ARADOXICALLY, a minister and executive member of PASOK is asking for ‘national self-reflection’ at the national parliament at the time when a much more experienced colleague (from the same party) of his rightly pointed out on a TV show that in the future: ‘there will be a demand for democracy in political parties’. That is, there was justified talk of totalitarianism in political parties for however long market capitalism’s barbarity dominates...All this because, in an ND’s ex-minister and executive words on the same show, ‘there was no dialogue culture’. This means that the main prerequisite for a functioning democracy, which is the critical and constructive dialogue, did not and still does not exist... The only logical conclusion is that we should immediately start working, overcome hate-filled criticism and the well-intentioned wishful thinking and plan (in a coordinated manner) the next social and political system that will serve the real needs of all citizens, i.e. we should peacefully plan and build the Real Democracy of the 21st century which, by continuously evolving, will accompany us for approximately 5 centuries, bearing in mind that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is a state of the heart, not something that comes on Earth or after death’ Friedrich Nietzsche.

T

HE ‘GOLDEN RULE’ i.e. the English term for Hillel’s well known principle “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow’, as well as Kant’s position regarding the 48

respect for the individual and his/her opinion in conjunction with joint restriction of freedom are in no way sufficient to describe a state as politically free... I also believe that the Popper’s extended assessment that ‘we are free when we can rid ourselves of the people governing us without bloodshed’, is not enough. However much we want to commend Democracy in the western world, by describing it as the best political system, it has had and still has elements of violence, bloodshed, starvation and misery which are becoming of increasingly explosive proportions in recent years of crisis around the world… Thus a state is politically free, therefore democratic, only when violence, bloodshed as well as exploitation and injustice are precluded though participatory processes of the many. In simple words, when the state stops serving speculation and profiteering of the few who are housed in banks and financial markets and turns its attention to the real needs of the many, i.e. the citizens of a country without uniform restrictions and clearings...Personally I reckon that the issue, although apparently political, will not be resolved by professional politicians who represent or succumb to the interests of an inhumane capital market but rather by conscientious, peaceloving, active, determined citizens, artists and art lovers, the number of whom is on the rise every day...

A

CCORDING TO THUCYDIDES, Pericles supported the following view: ‘Although only a few of us are capable of planning and applying a policy, we are all able to judge it’. That in no way suggests that the People that consist of you and me, i.e. individuals with free will and conscious thought, cannot have ideas or govern. This would suggest that because some of us cannot construct a musical instrument we would be incapable of playing music.

Democracy has never been Real to date. I support the view 49

that it can and must be! I am not biased against Popper’s views the opposite is actually true. I deeply appreciate, beyond our common belief in the Enlightenment, the Rationalism and the critical dialogue. I believe, however, that a lot has changed in the last 17 years since his death and we have a ‘holy’ obligation to see things from scratch, based on the new dataevents. He was a fan of the Thales of Miletus concept. That is, when talking to his students he used to say: ‘That how I think things are. This is my theory. Try to improve it.’ Therefore, I add Democritus’ words, which read: ‘poverty in a Democracy is better than all the wealth under an aristocracy or a monarchy.

Because freedom is better than slavery’. I emphasise that this is not valid any more because in the so-called democracies the poor cannot even survive... Freedom is definitely better than slavery. I wonder though, what can you do with freedom when you are unemployed, homeless and hungry??? In recent years ‘democracies’ have ended up becoming parliamentary tyrannies of the financial markets thus making it impossible to differentiate between Democracy and Tyranny.

Within this framework of thought Democracy should not continue to function in a reactionary manner by only securing, in Popper’s words, the anti-dictatorial ‘institutions. The time has come for Democracy to function in a creative manner by securing Friendship and the institutions which will respond to the real needs of the many (everybody) rather than the interests of the few. Then and only then will the people dominate in Democracy, just like it should have been from the start. That is when the crisis will end and humanity will prosper...

S

O, NO TO THE POWER OF THE PARTIES, the backstage dealings and secret diplomacy, the not-so-well intended ‘national interest’, the propaganda, defence expenditure and war.

50

Karl Marx 51

YES to Democracy, transparency, and solidarity of the Peoples, Respect of the Difference, Education and Dialogue.

NO to the barbarity of the financial markets, the exploitation, injustice, profiteering, deliberates and targeted violence.

YES to Culture, Social Justice, and prosperity of all citizens, conscious and targeted Art. There are many who don’t adopt Gandhi’s passive stance.

They consider violence as the only solution or in the bestcase scenario as necessary evil... However, I estimate that today we are in a position to reject violence and all destructive emotions and cultivate the positive ones (Daniel Goleman) by overcoming passive resistance and realising the sole Truth of the verse of our great poet Cavafis: Laistrygonians and Cyclops / wild Poseidon you won’t encounter them/ unless you bring them along inside your soul, / unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

H

OW CAN I STOP writing this essay when millions of things which are really shaking and shocking us on a daily basis? I am not referring to the newcomers at the podium of the parliament, who are mostly young and hopelessly shallow (if one thinks of the political future of this country)...

I am neither referring to the ‘screaming’ defenders of the poor who live in private luxurious villas with swimming pools nor to the ones who suddenly acquired a beard and defend the right of the ‘workers’... I am leaving out the German minister of Greece that we recently acquired... I am referring to the news that pupils are now fainting in schools due to malnutrition at the time when the president of the parliament is announcing that, the approval of the ‘goal achievement’ bonus for the personnel of the parliament and a vice-president of PASOK utilises ‘French’ to call the Greeks not only ‘coprites’/’trash’ 52

but also ‘malakes’/’wankers’...

We have to take responsibility; I estimate that we are obliged to admit to being ‘wankers’, exactly like they have to admit to having been and still being ‘pimps’ of the worst kind, completely destroying in a period of 38 years!!! What is important to emphasise is that we have all woken up and all of the unrepentant ones will disappear not only from the Greek Parliament but also from this country... What is worse? Corrupted Greek politicians or workaholic German superintendents??? I feel that soon we will be needing none of those two!!!

I

N SUMMARY, I CONSIDER THAT: The better society that we all long for will not come by demolishing the old one using crowbars and Molotov cocktails, but by building a new society, on new foundations, PEACEFULLY. Any attempts to restore or update a wreck society are doomed to fail and therefore hopeless.

The fundamentalism of the money markets is directly connected to our excessive individualism and extreme selfishness, which lies on the opposite side of the positive feelings of Love and Friendship. It is also based on the blind, mimetic, consumerism that was promoted to psychotherapy status (shopping therapy)...

Current research on the human brain and neurobiology focuses on the sense of Friendship and that of Love, thus proving the great importance of emotional intelligence and positive feelings in general, not only for our health but also for the general evolution of human life.

The overcome of the world economic crisis is not a financial, nor a political or social subject. It is mainly a personal and moral question, in other words, a neurobiological issue. It is a question of Education and Culture. Because our society will change for the better only to the degree we change as 53

individuals, acquiring a conscience and a free will.

Now, we all know that the merciless financial capitalism has absolutely nothing to do with a Democratic Society of Citizens, and we are also aware that our desire for true Democracy requires innovative individuals wit Self-awareness, Friendship relations and Participation in common issues.

In this effort, the conscientious, sociable and targeted Art can offer o lot, widening human perception and opening new horizons in the quest for a better society that will support the real needs of all citizens and not the profit interests of the few.

That is why we turn to the G20 and say: You are 20 from a violent world that will soon be gone. We are millions from a peaceful world that is on emerging...

I

N A FEW WORDS the most important thing is to realize that: The cruel social system of the money markets that excludes Democracy and leads us deeper into destitution, is coming to an end and any effort to keep it going will be short and temporary.

Next we must realize that in order to change society we as individuals must change our mentality first.

And our new mentality must be one that will lead us out of our uncontained selfishness and towards Friendship that requires Self-awareness and coincides with Participation.

I will close with a question, the answer of which verifies the above claim: What did we really achieve in the last 38 years after ‘Democracy’ was restored in our country and why we put up the same banner in these year’s Polytechnio celebrations as the original one, ‘Bread-Education-Freedom’?

54

Carl Popper 55

Takis Alexiou was born in Alexandria, Egypt on January 5th, 1942. He studied Architecture in Germany (Diploma in Architecture and Planning, Technische Universität, Dresden, 1964). In 1967 he completed his postgraduate Studies in Perceptual Psychology and in 1968 his Ph.D. in Engineering. He has worked, as an Architect-Planner, in various projects, for Greece, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Kuwait, Zambia and Iran. He is member of Architectural, Technical and Town Planning Associations of Germany, Switzerland, England and Greece and has participated in various seminars, symposia and conferences in Greece

and abroad. He has given many lectures at European Universities, in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Greece and was visiting Professor in the University Offenbach/M., Germany. He gave lectures and established workshops about Dialogue, Democracy, Architectural Design and Arts at the Open University of Ag. Paraskevi and he was for several years Professor at The American University of Athens.

He has held many private and group exhibitions in Dresden, Basil, Paris, Venice, London, New York, Tokyo, Istanbul, Nicosia, Alexandria, Athens, Rhodes, and many others. He has been Chairman of the Centre of Arts 4 Seasons and President of the Panhellenic Historical and Philosophical Society, organizing International Symposiums and Conferences about Human Rights.

He composed a music tetralogy in four parts: “Under Ones’ Breath”, “The Song of the Birds”, “Voices without a Face” and “Red Wind”.

He is awarded with the “International Cavafy prize” and declared as “Great Benefactor” for his philanthropic activities for the Greek Community in Egypt.

He was granted first Diploma at the International Art Addiction, Stockholm/ Sweden. ABI /USA included him among the 5000 personalities in the World and awarded him with the International Peace Price 2010 for practicing Peace in thought, action and example locally and globally. Finally IBC of Cambridge (UK) awarded him as one of the 2000 intellectuals of the 20th century and Who is Who Zug/Switzerland included him in his editions. His name is mentioned in various Greek and Internationals Encyclopedias.

He has published numerous articles and books of architectural, educational and social content. Among them: The Psychology of Architecture in the example of the Art Museum, (1968), The Third Cavafis (1982), Iaponia – Japan – Japon (1984), Abdi Ipekçi (1986), Live Teaching Book 1-6 (1989-1993), For a United Movement and Politics in Greece (1993), Japan: The Country of Zen (1995), Nazism and Religion on the Threshold of the 21st century (1995), For the Woman with 12 Designs by Takis Alexiou (1995), 40 Years Later – Nikos Kazantzakis (1997), Farewell Darkness – Drawings and Writings (2002), Beyond the Tyranny of Contemporary Architecture (2004), Time of Fear has passed (2004), Ypatia, the Way to the Freedom (2006), Prisoner of Conscience 56

(2006), The Aesthetics of Love (2008), Back to the Senses (2008), The Circle of Harmony (2008) and The Power of Friendship (2012), which has been, up to now, translated in 12 languages.

In 2009, as Chairman of CA4S-AthensArt, he created and manages till now the www.athensart-2010.ning.com Site. In 2010 he organized the AthensArt International Arts Festival in Technopolis/Athens, with the participation of over 300 artists from 5 continents and 72 countries of the World. Till then he has organized many group and philanthropic exhibitions in Greece and abroad, giving the opportunity in every artist and art lover, without any discrimination, to participate, promoting “The Positive Side of Life” and his strong belief that “Friendship through Art can change the World”, peacefully. “…Democracy is not bourgeois, or centrist, allied, socialist, left wing or communist (populist), a monarchy, presidential, Christian, Islamic, direct or indirect... Democracy does not require adjectives! Democracy is an autonomous social system which is founded, as I have mentioned before and I repeat, in justice, which whilst searching for the truth resolves any differences that arise peacefully!!! Democracy and capitalism or Communism are incompatible meanings because they have used and still utilize VIOLENCE (and that’s extensive violence). It’s not about what kind of world we don’t want. Rather it is about the world we want to live in. Democracy constitutes a meaning of Life and requires substantial relationships with ourselves, our neighbor and society in that order... Democracy is the only Peaceful Social System which can truly take an interest in the needs of all citizens rather than the profiteering of the few…

The overcome of the world economic crisis is not a financial, nor a political or social subject. It is mainly a personal and moral question, in other words, a neurobiological issue. It is a question of Education and Culture. Because our society will change for the better only to the degree we change as individuals, acquiring a conscience and a free will…and our new mentality must be one that leads us out of our uncontained selfishness and towards Friendship that requires Self-awareness and coincides with Participation…”

Takis Alexiou Statement 2012

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