A letter to a friend (a personal letter which will follow). Introduction
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.
The following verses have been taken from the poetic work “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran(1883-1931), a modern poet who greatly influenced the generation of the 60s in the West. He helped this generation in its existential efforts to understand better the meaning of life and the meaning of human relations beyond the established social roles and morality.
Having taught children and young people for the last 35 years,especially children and young people with learning disabilities and behavioral problems,I want to touch on and discuss briefly a recent phenomenon,especially in developed societies,the question of teenage addiction to “chat sites”and “chat rooms” on the Internet.They spend incredible hours every day,chatting(written form) in front of a computer screen with strangers, distorting the basic social functions of interpersonal relationships,as well as the dialectic process in human evolution.This is once again,a perfect tool of “globalization”, promoting a “virtual reality” content in the minds and souls of young people.
For the last 20 to 30 years, the American public as well as people around the world, have been bombarded by the American Mass Media (A.M.M.) about how democratic American culture and American politics are, and about how it is the sacred duty of every American citizen to protect the democratic ideals of their “Constitution”. That it is their natural god-given “right” to export these American humanistic ideals to the rest of the world, even if this is accomplished by the power of force and economic domination. The A.M.M. with its formidable global network and propaganda means ranging from financial newspapers to internet services, and from television news programs to big budget Hollywood movies and T.V. shows, has been able to convince, mostly Americans, that there is no ideological or political contradiction between a democratic nation – state and a military empire which disposes hundreds of military bases around the world, most of them located on independent foreign soil. I believe the same type of political dilemma and ideological contradiction have existed in the leftist political movements whose leadership promoted the idea of social revolution in order to acquire political hegemony. In both instances, the ideological contradictions are so enormous that the societies affected have had to accept a life of “virtual reality” in almost every aspect of their existence, with dire consequences to their long term welfare, their social cohesion and balance.
Having spent almost half of my life on the North American continent, I am well aware of the power of the American Mass Media (A.M.M), especially American Television, to influence, to cajole and to brainwash, as well as to selectively inform its American audience about what is happening beyond its own national borders. Being part of the 60s generation, and also having lived in other continents, I find the A.M.M. today as compared to the 60s and 70s has honestly deteriorated both in content and in purpose.