Monthly Archives: May 2009

2009

Aristotle Onassis – an ideal type of a modern “Neanderthal” (Part A )

thumbon_ne There are two basic reasons why I have chosen Aristotle Onassis as an ideal type of a modern “Neanderthal”;one is personal and the other is more general. The first reason has to do with the older son of the woman friend to whom I have dedicated all those personal letters in my site. The son had been my student since he was 12 years old until the time he went abroad for his university studies. His father, who is a truly successful businessman, had only once given him a book as a present(from what I know), and that was when he was 17 years old. This particular book was the biography of Aristotle Onassis, and his son revealed to me that his father wanted him by reading this book to acquire the “proper guidelines” in becoming “socially successful” and of course “financially powerful”. “At that time”, the son considered his father΄s gesture as strange, while I don΄t think he ever read the book.

“Playing it dumb”…..!!!

I have a former student who is doing postgraduate studies in a European country, and who is a regular reader of my site. I honour him, I respect him and I love him very much because he is a young person who is trying to “disentangle” himself from the mediocrity and the greyness of the established social roles, so that he can evolve into a real creative individual with a universal conscience. Yet, I consider it a bit strange when this young man, often expresses the opinion that my texts are not very optimistic. And I always try to explain to him that just the process of trying to identify what is real, is an act of faith and hope. Turning now to my friend Phedros from the swimming pool (extra-The psychological state of the young today, 2009-02-01), our exchange of messages have almost but stopped due to the fact that I had been trying to explain to him my position that it is not enough just to recognize all those harsh and impersonal everyday realities;but it is also very imperative to question all these everyday realities, in a substantial way if they subvert our personality and our psyche. And this can be realized only when one begins to recognize and respect one΄s own personality and the creative potentialities of life itself, not the limited and unnatural framework of a “virtual society”.

Why is the disappearance of the “Neanderthal” Man 30,000 years ago, significant today? (Part A)

The “Neanderthal” Man represents a branch of the human specie who lived for more than 200,000 years in a large geographical area,covering all of Europe and reaching into Central Asia.More specifically,we could say that the “Neanderthal” Man was the only humanoid who had lived in this vast territory for 200,000 years;a territory which included the Iberian Peninsula,Italy,regions north of the Pyrenees and the Alps, central and eastern Europe,and portions of Asia.The name “Neanderthal”is derived from the Neander Valley in western Germany, where in 1856 the first fossils of a humanoid were found,and were identified as such.What is of great interest,is the fact that for 200,000 years,the “Neanderthal” had absolute dominion over all this vast territory,surviving drastic climatic and environmental changes,especially within the course of the different “glacial” or “ice” ages,when about 45,000 years ago ,another human specie began to arrive in eastern Europe and in the Iberian Peninsula;originating from the Middle East and North Africa.The crux of this interest lies in the fact that within 15,000 years of this “new specie” arrival,the “Neanderthal” human specie had completely disappeared,and was completely replaced by this “new human” invador.This “new human specie” was given the name “Cro-Magnon” after the location in France where the first fossils of this human specie were found in 1868.The “Cro-Magnon”Man is the sole “human” ancestor of modern human beings(Homo Sapiens);their DNA is identical, while no trace of “Neanderthal” DNA(mitochondrial DNA which is Matrilinear) has been discovered in “Cro-Magnon” bones.Nevertheless,we have to mention here that DNA evidence shows that Neanderthals had a DNA which is very similar to that of modern humans.