25-4-95
The noblest of intentions can transform into threatening ideologies when they become obsessions and, even worse, when they become "fashionable." This seems to have happened with the much-discussed "Greekness."
We grew up in a generation with internationalist ideals. We lived through the great communication revolution, which brought us into contact with other cultures and arts. We accepted as our inheritance the intellectual wealth of the whole world. We embarked on the adventure of the European Union, with all its charming utopia and enticing prospects it promises. And instead of seeking, in the end, with interest and curiosity, the features that unite us with other peoples, or rather, with other humans, since the word "people" implies a schematic grouping, we preferred to emphasize what differentiates us. The distance separating calm thought from wild fanaticism is not great. It only takes the persistent repetition of a sufficiently flexible concept like "Greekness," combined with the reminder of nebulous dangers (always unproven and always from outside) that threaten it.
But the content of this "Greekness" is anything but certain. It ranges from extreme, childish patriotic fervor to more complex compositions consisting of traditions and religious delirium. The nebulous nature of the ideology allows in practice strange and original alliances between fanatical nostalgists of recent nationalist hysterias and pure former ideologues of the former left, or between murky opportunists and innocent, sincere religion and Greek culture lovers. The paradox is that over the centuries, the characteristics of "Greekness" were more oriented towards universality, dispersion, pan-spermia, and tolerance, rather than the demarcation that is being attempted today.
However, a mistake that at least the pure supporters of this isolation make is that they forget that each person is a unique unit, whose complex personality differs from that of their neighbor, as does the biological heritage of their cells. The isolation of one characteristic of a person and its exaggeration into a category type that links them preferentially with other similar specimens hides the seeds of racism. Each of us is not only Greek. We simultaneously belong to many other categories, which equally define us and make us related to other individuals of these categories.
Let's consider as a great achievement the substantial collapse of borders and Manichean distinctions. And let's not attempt to reinforce old discriminations and create new ones. After all, behind the emphasis of each particular quality, such as "Greekness," lies its evaluative overestimation, with the implied devaluation of the cultural characteristics of other "groups." And this is, besides being arbitrary, also dangerous.
Plato Rivellis