My Greek Odyssey

Greek Values

 

 A visitor to MGO named Ardi commented recently:

"I really think you are delirious and ill minded. You are so obsessed with your nationality (not a surprise since you are greek) that you actually made yourself to believe in some kind of divine "greek existence", just because you are greek. You speak of "values" and "links" between ancient Hellenism and the greeks of today as if you were telling a fairytale, a mythic story to amaze yourself over and over again.

Really, being a greek is no better than being anything else. And what are those divine "greek values" the you are going to give to pass over to your children? You'd better pass over some German values, or French, British. As for "greek values", you kidding me?

Imagine if the true great nations of today where like the greeks. Imagine the italians, bragging all day long about their roman ancestors, or the British about the British empire. What about the French? The Germans, the Dutch, or the Swedish and Norwegians. Maybe the Chinese and the Japanese. They are the mighty nations of today, the cradle of civilisation, centers of science and technology, phylosofy and medicine, not greece and certainly not the greek people. Greece is tourism and it should hold on to that. And you should stop dreaming with your eyes open."

Dear Ardi,

Thank you for your comments. 

To some it may seem that I am obsessed, constantly writing and talking about things Greek. I am admittedly a poor excuse for a Greek. I wasn't born in Greece, neither were my parents or grandparents. I don't live in Greece, I am not a Greek citizen, don't have a Greek passport nor do I own property in Greece. 

You may be surprised to learn that I quite agree with you. Greeks are not better than any other nationality. I challenge you to find anything I have written that says anything of the kind.  

This of course does not mean that the innovative and exceptional brilliance of the Greeks does not stand out in sharp contrast to that of other civilizations. It was their curiosity,their relentless questioning, their drive to explain human existence that was the starting point for achievements in logic, criticism, history, philosophy, rhetoric, dialogue, tragedy and analysis.  

It is the critical consciousness handed down to us from the Greeks that is responsible for the ascendancy of the West.  Science, technology, individualism, liberal democracy, natural rights, no matter how they have been influenced by other factors, came to us originally from the Greeks.  All those "great and powerful" countries you talk about owe their success to the Greek values that they adopted. We are all Greeks.

The West has also been predominantly Christian. Christianity is a hellenized Hebraism.  A development and completion of it. It was the Greeks who made the spread of Christianity possible. It was the Greeks who brought it out of its birthplace into the known world. The Greeks made possible both the rationalism that fueled modernity and the moral counterforce that fulfilled the very real spiritual needs of human beings. 

Unfortunately, the modern West, despite its wealth and technological accomplishments, has morphed into a barren spiritual wilderness with a mediocre culture where appetite and its gratification are the driving forces. Its values may be your values but they are not my values. The people of the countries you speak of have not only abandoned Christianity in large numbers, they have abandoned the critical consciousness of the Greeks.  They have lost the understanding that Greeks had for the limits or inherent destructive implications of unbridled rationalism and freedom. 

Greece is a puny country, small and insignificant. Perhaps that is because they too have abandoned the wisdom of their ancestors in exchange for the illusory and transient wealth of the mighty.  Yet, even the puny can sometimes teach the mighty valuable lessons and Greek history, throughout the ages, is replete with such examples. 

Greeks are not constrained by boundaries and by the small minds that create them. Our values are timeless. I will continue to teach my children Greek values: to question and look at the world critically, to value the dignity and worth of the individual, to love freedom. More importantly, I will teach them the central importance of a loving God in their lives. 

You see Ardi, Greek values are universal values that we ignore to our detriment. They are not the  exclusive possession of the Greeks who gave them freely to the world nor are they something the mighty can buy.  A country's worth is not determined by its possessions or its power, it is  determined by the content of what is in the hearts and minds of its citizens.  Poverty of the soul is poverty of the worst kind.

Who Killed Homer?

By Victor David Hanson and John Heath

The demise of classics means more than the implosion of an inbred academic discipline, more than the disappearance of one more bookosaurus here and there. For chained to this sinking academic bureaucracy called classics are the ideas, the values, the vision of classical Greece and Rome. These are the ideas and values that have shaped and defined Western civilization, a vision of life that has ironically come under increasing attack here in the elite universities of the West just as its mutated form is metastasizing throughout the globe. Very few in America now know much about the origins of the West in ancient Greece -- and our citizens are moving further from the central philosophical and ethical tenets that are so necessary if we are to understand and manage the leisure, affluence and freedom of the West.

This ignorance of Greek wisdom should be of crucial interest to every American -- not because the West is being supplanted by some global multiculturalism (as so many academics proclaim), but quite the opposite: because its institutions and material culture are now overwhelming the world. The Greeks -- and the Greeks alone -- bequeathed us constitutional government, individual rights, freedom of expression, an open economy, civilian control of the military, separation of religious and political authority, private property, free scientific inquiry and open dissent. And for better or worse, these are the things most on this earth now desire.

But it is foolish -- and dangerous -- to embrace these conventions of the West without understanding that the Greeks also insisted that such energy was to be monitored and restrained by a host of cultural protocols that have nearly disappeared: civic responsibility, philanthropy, a world view that is rather absolute, a belief that life is not nice, but tragic and ephemeral (Greek words both), a chauvinism of the middle class and an insistence on self-criticism. The death of the Greeks means an erasure of an entire way of looking at the world, a way diametrically opposite to the new gods that now drive America: therapeutics, moral relativism, blind allegiance to progress and the glorification of material culture.

From Thucydides' account of the senseless murder of poor schoolboys in the backwater town of Mycallessos to Euripides' desperate Pentheus, Medea and Phaedra, we learn from the Greeks that man is, well, man. He's an insecure creature, in his aboriginal state not entirely vile but nonetheless capable of great evil should the custom, tradition and law of his city-state, the polis, ever give way.

For the Greeks, natural impulse unchecked by the constricting bridles and bits of law, tradition and civic order leads not to truth or justice -- much less liberation and self-fulfillment -- but more likely to a holocaust. Heraclitus says that people must fight for their law as though for the city wall. Both keep out the enemy within and without. The city-state was a social organization that curbed desire without stifling initiative, demanding responsibilities in return for granting limited rights. It was not a therapeutic institution or all-encompassing belief system that could free us by reinventing the very temper of man himself -- the aim of fascism, communism and, increasingly, modern democracy alike.

Yet the nature of this life-giving polis -- the relationship between the community and the citizen -- was also the chief topic of scrutiny for Greek artists and intellectuals. What is so often misunderstood about classical literature is that almost all of it was composed as a critique of Greek society and the very values that allowed it to flourish. The most important legacy of classical antiquity is this uniquely Western urge to pick apart everything -- every institution, tradition and individual. Only in this way do ideas change at all. Cynicism, skepticism, parody, invective and satire are all Greek and Latin words -- a rich vocabulary of public and private dissent unequaled in non-Western languages. The macho world created by Homer, the smug polis of Aeschylus, even Virgil's holy Rome -- all are held up for review, and none emerges unscathed.

The Greek legacy of philosophical and scientific inquiry imparts to its adherents the terrible strength to change -- or to destroy -- the existing intellectual and material environment radically, almost instantaneously. The Greeks bequeathed us the tools to alter the physical and spiritual universe, either for good or evil. They also gave us the means to curb our basest instincts in order to provide for the common good.

Strange it is, then, that the Greeks who started it all are so little known in modern America. Now, at the very moment in our history when the Greeks might be helping to remind us who we are, why we got here and where we should go, only a handful of Americans know anything about them.

Learning the Greek Language

Are you interested in learning the Greek language?  I have long maintained that the Internet offers a tremendous opportunity for providing the Greek Diaspora (as well as others) a way to study the Greek language and its rich literary tradition.  Recently, the Prime Minister of Greece, Kostas Karamanlis, on an official visit to Australia, made the following comments:

"It is these children (referring to Greek-Australians) who have the priority in our plans. We don’t want them to be deprived of Greek education, Greek traditions. We don’t want them to be far removed from Orthodoxy. It is the duty of all of us to keep these children in the national, cultural and linguistic embrace of Greece. Education and culture comprise a basic priority of our government’s overall policy."

Nice words that we have heard before from Greek politicians of all stripes. I remain skeptical, but I do see signs of hope, especially in the realm of study programs for children sponsored by the Greek government. Nevertheless, the Greek State continues to ignore the usefulness of  technology in the pursuit of the Prime Minister's stated goals. Consider what one man has accomplished over at Ellopos and its sister site, Elpenor, without, to my knowledge any state assistance. Even now as you read this,  a project is underway in Greece to digitize the sum total of Greek Literature and make it available to anyone with a computer.  I dream of the day when anyone of any age can access the comprehensive totality of the Greek language, Greek literature and Art on the web.

Recently, GANYC  brought to my attention a nice site offering lessons including recordings and written materials in Modern Greek, available free of charge.  The Foreign Service Institute created these lessons sometime ago, so that some of the materials may be slightly dated. Another flaw, pointed out by George over at Ellopos is the Institute's failure to incorporate the use of Greek literature into the teaching of the Greek language.  Notwithstanding these drawbacks, these lessons are extensive and can give students at various levels of fluency a challenging learning environment. Check them out here.

I should also point out that Elpenor offers lessons in Ancient Greek here.

An Interview with Bruce S. Thornton

If you haven't read Professor Bruce S. Thornton's book, Greek Ways. How the Greeks Created Western Civilization, then you are really missing an important piece of writing that reiterates why the Greek legacy is still relevant, even today.  It is considered to be the sequel to the late  Edith Hamilton's best-selling, The Greek Way, whichcaptured the spirit and achievements of ancient Greece. A retired headmistress when she began her writing career in the 1930s, Hamilton immediately demonstrated a remarkable ability to bring the world of ancient Greece to life, introducing that world to the twentieth century.  Edith Hamilton showed us how much we owe to the Greeks and  Professor Thornton's book continues in this tradition. This is particularly important, in an era where we seen the Greek foundation of Western culture under constant attack by multi-culturalists throughout the West.  Our conceptions of what it means to be a rational and thinking human being have come from the Greeks. During periods of decline and decay, they continue to be the beacon and one of the most reliable guideposts we have for helping us find our way back. He acknowledges however, the other pole of Western culture, Hebraism, which is concerned with developing a consciousness of sin and emphasizes a strictness of conscience. Yet western Hebraism took the form of Christianity,  which is itself a Hellenized Hebraism.  Christianity did not destroy Hebraism but developed it further and completed it.  Professor Thornton writes:

"A materialist science provides the dominant worldview, in which religion has been banished from our political life and materialism has replaced spiritualism as the engine of the individual's quest for happiness. I say this simply as a fact, certainly not as something to celebrate. though many do. Man cannot live by bread alone, and we have created a world where the very real spiritual needs of humans have been trivialized into New Age fads and therapeutic narcissism. Moreover, a materialist society has been singularly unsuccessful at providing an alternative morality. For that unhappy development we must also hold the Hellenic tradition partially to account."

The following is an interview of Professor Thornton by Davlos correspondent, Nancy Biska. Davlos, by way of information, is a rabidly anti-Christian journal published in Greece dedicated to Ancient Greek culture.

Q. Would you comment please upon the two trends currently influencing American Academia today, that is, "Postmodernism" and "Multiculturalism."
A. Postmodernism is a childish and puerile construct, whose intellectual fallacies and inconsistencies are easily discernable. In its essence, postmodernism denies the existence of immutable truths, having to do with cognition, reality, etc., but paradoxically asserts that its own ideology is replete with knowledge and truth. It reminds me of that famous ancient saying that went: "All Cretans are liars," and this was said by a Cretan! Postmodernism is nothing new. Its ancestors were the radical and reactionary Sophists of the second half of the 5th century B.C. Multiculturalism is the ideological heir of the romantic nationalism which was so prominent in the 19th century, and whose monstrous descendant includes modern-day fascism. The idea that human beings are to be defined and acquire worth based on the chance happenstance of their birth into an ethnic category -- which is ostensibly possessed of mysterious and unique attributes -- is totally irreconcilable with the ideals of a free and democratic society. Multiculturalism, therefore, by its nature, enhances and increases the "politics of identity," the effort to insure preferences, rights, etc., for whole categories of people. Ultimately these categories, in the U.S., have come to rely upon their former unjust "persecution" as an instrument of power. They deserve to be officially validated, they say, as victims of persecution and exclusion. As a result, multiculturalism actually legitimizes categories as being inferior, by virtue of their being victims incapable of standing up to their victimizers.

Q. Why, in your opinion, were these trends created and adopted by so many "distinguished" scholars, and how did the American academic community come to accept such obviously false ideas into their universities and colleges?

A. 1) American scholars, and more specifically those found mostly in the humanities departments of U.S. universities, are woefully inadequate intellectually, thereby making them vulnerable to the fashions and foibles of the age. Additionally, the hiring, promotions, obtaining of grants and subsidies, are dependent upon how much the scholar in question has managed to publish; this holds true even if he's had nothing new or important to say. Plus, the theories of postmodernism and posts-structuralism provide unintelligible phraseology and a plethora of sugar-coated but essentially meaningless syntax that allows for the self-delusion of innovation and ground-breaking scholarship.
2) Postmodernism, and its disparagement of the principle of self-reliance, which has had such a corrosive effect upon western intellectuals for the greater part of this century, thereby causing the greater majority to lose confidence in their own capabilities and ideals, has also played its part by undermining the principles of rationality and democratic tolerance. The fact that these individuals are enjoying the fruits and benefits of these principles, both intellectually and materially, puts the onus of hypocrisy upon their intellectual inadequacies.
3) Multiculturalism, I believe, constitutes the results of the validation of a method of scholarship, whereby the creative abilities are marshaled to further the "politics of identity," rather than the accumulation of knowledge and the pre-eminence of scholarly discipline. The charge of "the white man's guilt" is helpful to this process. These academics, guilt-ridden because of the advantages they enjoy, in order to feel better about themselves, endorse the concept of diversity with which they, while not practicing it in their own personal lives, are forced to live with every day.

Q. Why are the contributions to Western Civilization by the ancient Greeks being played down and even denied by so many contemporary academics?

A. Multiculturalism is founded upon the principle that teaches that the West is dysfunctional, and is inherently criminal; and since the Greeks constituted the main inspiration and source of Western Civilization, it therefore follows that they are responsible and guilty of the same crimes. It is senseless and superfluous to comment further on such an unhistorical and pernicious falsehood.

Q. Do you believe that the ideals of Hellenism remain viable today, and if yes, how might they contribute to contemporary society?

A. Hellenic ideals, let's see: Individual freedom, representative government, rationalism and the right to define oneself and live according to one's conscience, are not only "viable," they are the very concepts which have triumphed to such a degree as to preclude any other alternatives. Even oppressive religious cultures such as Islam depend upon the science of the West to keep ideas like individual freedom from gaining a foothold among their adherents. That is why these ideals, and the sources from which they spring (Hellenism), must be taught, studied, and respected.

 Q. Where is globalization leading us? How do you envision this phenomenon?

A. An optimist might endorse the idea that globalism will lead to the diffusion of these Western values to every individual on the planet, which would mean material progress and individual freedom for all. On the other hand, a pessimist might believe that the price that we must pay for all of these benefits will be enormous: the marginalization of religion, the loss of traditional cultures, etc. We must also keep in mind that even now studies are being conducted to see whether the environment can support such massive development, and also, whether such development is even feasible in the third world.
It seems to come down to the fact that we are being confronted with some very hard choices indeed: Do we continue to enjoy the comforts our economic advantages bring; good health, nutrition, freedoms, etc., knowing that the price we must pay is the loss of our traditional cultures? Or do we continue living with our old ways, and have to endure hunger, political oppression, etc. Argument can be made on both sides of this issue, but the vast numbers who migrate out of the third world in order to come to the West, would seem to prove that most people will choose economic security and individual freedom even at the cost of losing their cultural heritage. We here in America have been living with the dilemma of having to make that choice for many years.

Q. Many of your colleagues would call you a "conservative."

A. American academics have been using the term "conservative" as a stigma, so as to avoid having to substantiate their positions with logical and fact-based argument. I am conservative in some of my beliefs and liberal in others. I believe in the Socratic Ideal, which I will paraphrase thusly: "I question everything, I seek the truth, and I let the political chips fall where they may."

Q. Why is it that, in spite of the availability of and access to knowledge and information on a scale unprecedented in history, most people seem more and more inclined toward giving credibility to specious and wrong-headed ideas and positions?

A. The American Educational System is so bad, that we've developed a population that is for the most part incapable of telling the difference between what is blatantly false and what is true. American mass media aggravates this problem by projecting a steady stream of deceptive but pleasant imagery, and continuously bombards our society with such deceptions designed to appeal only to the emotions.

Q. Is this projection of pleasant and emotional imagery, based as it is on distortions and untruths, dangerous? Especially since we are now going through a very critical period of history. If yes, why?

A. Using the mass media, it is possible today to project destructive ideas immediately and worldwide in such a way as to create an atmosphere not conducive to the development of critical analysis

Q. What, then, would you say is the therapeutic antidote to the spiritual toxins of our age?

A. Bring back the Greeks! Study their dazzling literature, because they were the ones who developed the critical thinking with which they defined the principle problems of humanity; the very same problems we are confronting today.

Q. Do you believe that the U.S. can continue as the dominant nation on the planet in the light of this all-encompassing tolerance she's shown in the fields of education, culture, and the mass media?

A. So long as the physical sciences resist these movements, the essential work in the military, economic, and research spheres will go on: this will ensure the continuance of American dominance. However, I'm more concerned with the degeneracy of values and character that has afflicted us. Should we ever have to confront a real crisis, and the American armed forces were called upon to engage in a war which resulted in large numbers of casualties for America, I really don't know what the reaction would be. I'm really not sure of what would transpire were Americans called upon to suffer the kinds of casualties that occurred in the Second World War, for instance. Both Americans and Europeans have become "soft" as a result of the material abundance they've enjoyed in recent years: this has given rise to higher expectations as to what constitutes human happiness. We've forgotten the tragic wisdom of the ancient Greeks, who knew that human aspirations and expectations were subject to the whims of fate. They taught that hardship and disappointment were the means by which we could grow in character and become better human beings.

Q. At this vitally important juncture for the world and for humanity, which path should America choose: that of freedom of thought, of speech, of rationality, or that of the mysticism of theocratic tyranny and dogmatism?

A. There is but one answer: our civil society must be distrustful [of authority] and ever vigilant [against the usurpation of our freedoms by government]. Euripides, in his Bacchae, demonstrates for us the dangers inherent in mysticism, as does Thucydides, in his account of the civil war in  Kerkyra. And we, especially, must guard against every form of mysticism, theocratic tyranny, and dogmatism, because these invariably restrict freedom of thought, of conscience, and [the freedom to acquire] knowledge. These values have, in the past, been systematically sacrificed on the altar of utopian dogmatism.

Bringing Greek Studies to Our Public Schools

All of us want what is best for our children, especially a good education. Unfortunately, some schools fall short for a variety of reasons. The preferred solution in many school districts is constantly begging for more funds. For many liberal politicians, the mantra is always "we need to spend more money for the children."  Quality education is not dependent on the amount of money spent per pupil.  There are other more important variables involved that we seldom take the time to examine in a thorough way.  Things like teacher quality, curriculum, parental involvement and ultimately student motivation and discipline impact on the end product of the educational process much more than monies spent. I daresay that there is more learning going on in a dilapadated one room school house in Africa than in some of the more affluent school districts in the United States.

Are American schools producing the kind of educated citizen that our country needs so desperately?  I think the answer is a resounding, NO. The failures of public and even private education are deep seated and endemic. As a parent I don't claim to have all the answers. I do know this however, kids need two very important things to succeed in society. One is a love of learning and the other is the ability to think critically. So the question all of us should be asking is how do we instill those two qualities in our children through the educational process.  One approach is to reintroduce the benefits of Greek paidea to the classroom. To the ancient Greeks, Paideia (παιδεία) was "the process of educating man into his true form.  Since self-government was important to the Greeks, Paideia made a man good and made him capable as a citizen.  Greek Paidea played a formative role in the education of our country's founding fathers. The American experiment is based in large part on the seminal influential role of  a classical education on the thinking of educated Americans during the early history of our country. 

Despite a concerted effort to dumb down American education to produce non-thinking automatons who are more concerned with political correctness and what they are wearing to school, there is reason for hope. The Examined Life program is a growing consortium of school  districts aimed at strengthening  Greek studies in the schools.  The program’s goals include professional scholarship,   development of curriculum materials, and a community outreach on the history, culture, and accomplishments of ancient and  modern Greece. The program takes as its theme the Socratic call to the examined life. As we enter the 21st century it  asks participants to explore what it means to be human through  the lens of Greek antiquity.                  

The Greek Studies proposal rises from the recognition that  Greece's central importance in the curriculum is being challenged  and marginalized in the growing amalgam of recommended subjects.  Although there has been a commitment in recent years to the  topic “peoples of the ancient world,” the powerful  legacy of Greece is at times taught superficially or from                     outdated texts and materials. In addition, scant attention  is paid to modern Greece in the curriculum yet Greece’s  legacy continues in the arts and humanities as well as in mathematics and the sciences.             

The program supports groups of teachers and administrators  (20 per year) called Greek Study Fellows to meet regularly with outside scholars in a series of seminars. The program encompasses seminars, workshops, and ongoing discussions  of ways to integrate knowledge and teaching; it also includes  a study tour of Greece; it insures, on the completion of  the project period, the continuation of professional development  activities in the realm of Greek antiquity. In conjunction  with the program, the teachers create a pool of sources for the teaching of ancient Greece including websites, books,  maps, slides, videotapes. After the project period, Greek   Study Fellows make themselves available as leaders and mentors   in school systems in New England and elsewhere.                  

Rooted in the pathfinding efforts of Barbara Harrison, Newton teacher, and a small corps of Newton educators and Brandeis University professors, the program has broadened  from one school district to include a consortium of school  districts. The program is gaining in visibility and momentum.  The first cohort of Greek Study Fellows (1999-2000), completed its formal tenure in December, 2000.               

Administered by the Newton Public Schools in cooperation  with Brandeis University, the program is steeped in scholarship  and academic fervor to enhance current teaching, curriculum,  and outreach; but also in great passion for Greece and a desire to spread philhellenism in ever widening circles in the United States. Currently 120 Greek Study Fellows carry forth the glorious and indomitable Greek spirit--ancient and modern--to the public sector, to schools and school districts,  to teachers and their students. In December 2006, at the end of Cycle 7, 140 teachers in 12 school districts will  directly impact over 10,000 children, and thousands more indirectly.

For more information, visit the Examined Life: Greek Studies in the Public Schools website and don't forget to read this article from the Hellenic Voice Newspaper here.

The Electronic Kafenion

 

The kafenion (coffee shop) was a major congregating point in the life of a Greek village. It was usually located at the village square. Men often retreated to this male sanctuary to socialize and most importantly to talk. Greeks love to talk, discuss, and argue. Sometimes it is hard for outsiders to figure out whether Greeks are having a discussion or getting ready to come to blows. I remember inviting a Marine buddy from Tennessee to join me at a family gathering in New York City. This guy grew up on a farm and he was a little overwhelmed by the noise and vastness of the city. When we arrived home, my mother and aunts were laying out a vast smorgasbord of Greek delicacies and my Dad and Uncles were in the midst of a debate on some aspect of the always turbulent Greek political scene. Children were running around and it was quite noisy. My friend was visibly uncomfortable and turned to me and whispered: "What are they all fighting about?" I told him not to worry unless everything went completely dead silent.

The early Greek immigrants to America, who were mostly young men, did not have a lot of free time for recreation. The little time they did have was spent in a little piece of home known as the kafenion. Yes, they even brought them to America. A few tables and chairs, a Greek flag and a picture of Venizelos or King Constantine on the wall. They drank the dark, thick Turkish coffee in the little demitasse cups, ate confections known as loukoumia ("Turkish delight") or mezzedakia (appetizers) like tomato slices, meatballs, feta cheese, olives, played backgammon or cards, gossiped and argued endlessly about how to fix the world. Put five Greeks together in a room and you'll invariably end up with six different opinions.

The kafenion was traditionally males only, no self respecting Greek woman would be found in such a place. Now women are just as likely to be there as men. Things are certainly changing; the kafenion is giving way to trendy coffee bars, cyber cafes and patisseries. Lately I've been thinking about the birth of the new "kafenion" on the internet. The internet is a modern marvel, capable of generating both evil and good things. One of the good things it has done, in my humble opinion, is it has become an "electronic kafenion." Now I'm not suggesting that we fore sake human contact with others and communicate soley through electronic means. My point is that the kafenion was a place where Greeks congregated with others in their horio (village) and now the electronic kafenion is a place that Greeks from all walks of life, male, female and all over the world can come together and exchange ideas. They can even carry on "Socratic dialogues." For further explanation, go to: http://www.sfcp.org.uk/socratic_dialogue.htm. Now if we can only figure out how to serve mezze with our discussions.

Personally speaking I have learned a great deal from the exchanges I have had with people on this blog and on Phylax Blog.  If they're not careful, Greeks can easily find themselves in an echo chamber. They need to be exposed to different points of view and they need to get their point of view across to others. They need to think critically and challenge there preconceived ideas. The electronic kafenion is a way to do this. I am always pleasantly shocked when I go to "Site Meter" on my blog and find out how many different countries my readers hail from.  We are just scratching the surface. I truly have come to believe that this is a powerful tool for bringing Greeks and those that aspire to be  "Greek"  together. I do not say that in a strictly ethnically oriented sense. As I have said before, being Greek  as the philosopher Isocrates understood it, was partaking of Greek paidea (education) and thinking and acting in the classically Greek manner. Some of our brothers and sisters in Greece and elsewhere fall short of the mark, whilst some "xeni" (foreigners) aspire to reach it.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Ted Laskaris of Phylax Blog and Epithesis Now for leading the way. For bringing Greeks together and for introducing me to blogging. Bravo Ted and to all who take the time to comment and listen. Hope we will continue to have many kavgathes (arguments) in the future and continue to Hellenize the world.   Semper Fi, Stavros

The Best and Brightest

This post was written for WWW. PHYLAXBLOG.COM

Peter Diamandis is chairman of the X Prize Foundation, an organization dedicated to opening the space frontier to average people. Diamandis, however, is far from average. He was born in New York City, the son of Greek immigrants from Mytilene. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, he is the impresario behind the creation of the $10 million prize to encourage the development of private spaceflight.

The X Prize was won in 2004 by the creators of Space Ship One, the first non-governmental piloted and produced spacecraft. Now Diamandis has won a prize of his own, the Heinlein Prize, worth $500,000. It was established by the estate of science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein, to reward individuals who make practical contributions to the commercialization of space. Diamandis has also created the first US based weightless flight airline, the world’s most successful space tourism company, and the International Space University.

So what’s he planning to do with the money? “It’s what I’ve been doing with the money.” he said, “focusing on creating what I consider to be the critical parts of a commercial space industry.” Another Greek success story in the United States, one of many throughout the Diaspora. A friend of mine used to say: “The chief Greek export is talent.” How true. After all, Greek immigrants are the risk takers of the Patrida. They have a fire in the belly which cannot be satisfied in the land of their birth, no matter how much they love it or how nostalgic they are for it. Greece is no longer a desperately poor country; exporting its excess population and living on the receipts sent home. It has taken its place in the European Union and developed its economy and infrastructure. Immigration has slowed, but hasn’t stopped. With so much human talent that Greeks have demonstrated throughout their history, why isn’t Greece poised to take advantage of it? Could Peter Diamandis have replicated his meteoric success if his parents had stayed in Greece?

For the answer, one only has to look at the sorry state of tertiary education in Greece. It is a system that is run by the state, a recipe for disaster in the best of times. Its employees are trade unionists who are more interested in job security than educating young Greeks to compete in the 21st century. Greek youth are prisoners in a system designed to cull the test takers from the rest of the herd of secondary school students and thereby bestow on the select few, slots in areas of study that many do not aspire to or are ill suited for.

Many capable and talented Greek young people, unable to gain entry to state universities, are left to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, efforts to introduce non-profit institutions of higher learning to meet the rising demand for more university slots and foster competition, are being opposed by professors and students alike. No one wants to rock the boat. The system has been reduced to the lowest common denominator, and neither student nor teacher receive praise or negative feedback for work they do. Mediocrity is enshrined and perpetuated, producing large numbers of good little government employees who fit right in to the existing culture of non-work in the Greek public sector. Everyone is happy. As a result, Greek education emphasizes rote learning, avoiding the development of critical thinking skills in the tradition of Greek Paidea. The bottom line is that unless Greek educators make radical changes, Greek youth will not be able to make the kind of contributions to civilization that Greeks have made in the past and sadly, Greece wll continue to bleed its best and brightest.