A letter to a good friend (Part B)

My dearest friend, If I am not mistaken,you and your husband come from simple working class families,who nevertheless did their utmost to bring up and educate their offspring; both families had plenty of children.Is it possible that you and your husband believed that because both your families were poor,that that meant they were also socially inferior?I personally do not believe this,but I think that both of you are of this opinion.Your whole course of life with your husband and your philosophies clearly demonstrate that both of you consider economic privation a serious social stigma for anyone.It is a great shame that you call yourselves Christians,believers in Christ΄s philosophy of life;a philosophy espousing the virtues of simplicity and modesty.Shame also for all your prayers,for all the religious ceremonies which both have participated in,and finally shame for the hundreds of candles you both have lit in churches pretending a spiritual closeness to the “divine”.

When you and your husband decided to share a common path in life,I am sure that both of you must have had a common strategy with goals and points of reference.I believe that the most important goal of this strategy must have been your economic rise and the accumulation of wealth and material goods,leaving behind the destitute years of your youth.These were perfectly “normal” aspirations,and perfectly understandable within the context of a highly “competitive” and “materialistic” society.Your second goal mut have been “a step by step” rise of your social status through “a step by step”rise of your financial status.You both knew perfectly well that Greek Society,not a highly modern society,assigns greater importance on a person΄s material possessions than on a person΄s social or civilizing contributions.Once again, I consider this stance by both perfectly “normal” and understandable, recognizing the social and cultural limitations of Greek Society.The third goal for you and your husband I am sure must have been the “creation” of a “wholesome” family which would ensure social recognition institutionally.There would be institutional legitimacy to your “social existence” since within Greek Society the creation of a family is a prerequisite for any adult who wants to be considered “moral”,”normal” and “productive”by a “moral”,”well balanced” and “creative” majority.We therefore have your three “objective” and well appreciated goals,always within the context of a “modern” Greek Social Reality.

Today my dearest friend,both you and your husband have the financial means and the wealth not only to live an affluent life,but also to ensure this affluence to your children and gradchildren.Am I exact?? Concerning now your rise to the social upper classes,both of you have succeeded to a large extent,as I know well your close acquaintances; they belong to the wealthy strata of society eventhough their personal lives and personalities are in “shatters”. Finally,you have two adult sons who have completed their higher education abroad,and are almost ready to follow your husband΄s business paths,presuming that this decision must have been taken from “the moment they were born”.This has to materialize,sooner or later, at whatever cost to your children,psychological or physical.Something that I want to mention here is that both of your sons are “normal” males,with “normal”masculine needs and desires.

In brief we could easily conclude that whatever goals you have set with your husband in the beginning of your common life have been fully realised,from A to Z.This is absolutely true.Nevertheless,for a long time now things in your family are not going well,and the picture is neither pretty nor happy.I would say it is grey and depressing.What else my friend do you want in order to feel satisfied and contented with your life???Is it possible my dear friend that in the final analysis your “normal”goals and standards,which are also the “normal” goals and standards of most of society,are not so very “normal” or “natural”.Let us therefore see why things have gone so wrong,and why what is “normal” and “natural” for society has made people of all ages today sick and crazy.