This personal letter is directed to a real live person, a very good friend for almost twenty years. We became very close friends, as well as with her husband, first of all because I gave to her two sons the best of me as their private tutor, starting from late childhood up to the very difficult teenage years. As her husband had said many times, I was a different type of teacher, one who functioned on the ideals of ancient Greece, not only promoting the sanctity of knowledge but also the importance of freedom- freedom of expression and freedom of thought. My points of reference were always the spiritual and intellectual world of the children. I do not expect my friend to read this letter, due to various circumstances, but I would like it to serve as a sociological testament concerning today΄s human “craziness” which is quickly engulfing all social groups and all families, in most of the “developed” and “developing” countries of the world. I believe that a real and personal description of simple everyday human exchanges can better demonstrate the true existential condition of society than a “scientific” study whose essence is a one-dimensional dogmatic view of life based on established norms and values.

I use the single word “craziness” to define the present situation of human beings, because there is not one person of whatever age who is not directly or indirectly suffering from some type of a psychosomatic illness. Starting from the dismantling of the body΄s immune system to everyday migraine headaches to sleeplessness, to phobias and metabolic disfunctions, to anorexia, hypertension, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and the various types of cancer. To a lesser or greater degree, all these health disorders are the natural consequence of an unnatural and inhuman life style which one could paraphrase it into three words:GREED, EGOTISM and COWARDICE. These three aspects of the human character have through time neutralized those precious primeval and primitive senses which permitted the human species to survive in primitive conditions for a million years (small bands, no clothing, no fire, few tools), coping with much more powerful and hardy animals, as well as the enormously adverse natural conditions.

Today΄s social “craziness” fits perfectly with the personal letter I shall write because after twenty years of deep friendships with the whole family, especially with the two young sons, my good friend and the mother of these two lovely boys decided to ruin this relationship because she wanted in a desperate way to win in a game of cards, a game where there was no money involved. I am sure that the real problem was not the game of cards, having played with her and her husband for the last fifteen years, while she knew fully well that I do not really mind if I lose. But now, at this critical time of human “craziness”, she could no more cope socializing with a familiar person who did not want to be competitive, and who maintained a calm and peaceful attitude to things, while at the same time and in a civilized way challenged the distorted and false aspects of society΄s virtual realities – the harshness and the disparity. Also a very important discrepancy on her part was the fact that my steady and solid values for a non-antagonistic life style, supporting harmonious human exchanges and a critical thought process based on the common welfare of all (which is the only truth) had by now entered the souls and minds of her adult sons, while today΄s extreme circumstances of psychological insecurity just pushed her to the brink. She had to take control of the situation!!!

I fully understand that egotism, competitivess and personal success are the critical factors of our time, but I am not willing to distort even the most simple concepts of fraternization and leisure because people want desperately to feel powerful and at the center of all. As a consequence the letter which will follow will outline positions and thoughts which define 99% of today΄s human beings. It concerns people who are living in delirium, with no equilibriums or universal visions in their lives. This because they have based all their hopes and dreams on their enormous ego, their emotional miserliness and on society΄s virtual reality which promotes the incessant acquisition and consumption of material goods in order to fill in the emotional, ideological and cultural emptiness which exists today, our alienation from our deep true nature and potentials. Today΄s life style and human coexistence are steadily eliminating whatever is natural, concrete and creative in a human being, from the condition of our health to the simplest joys of everyday life. Things today are tragic but everyone pretends ignorance, and in limbo they continue with their standard unimaginative routines.