Social Media – The System Speaks in Our Voice
Six years ago, in the midst of a pandemic, I was witnessing a very rapid transformation in the power of social media and their ability to shape real social life. It was a time when these platforms had almost entirely replaced human communication, owing to...
Universitas Europeensis
I want to write about a part of history, a part of the history of knowledge. And while I may not have all the knowledge of history, I have a history with knowledge, which is why I searched and found some pieces of history and...
The historical scale on political thought
My experience from social life proves to me more and more every day that many of our political disagreements are mainly based on the different historical scale we use to develop our political arguments. When the questions are not philosophical, someone, in some way, uses...
France is dead… Vive la France!!!
I gave a great deal of thought to the title of this article, which is, in fact, the answer to a question I had been asking myself over the past few years: essentially, “What happened to France?” Eventually, I decided to give this bold answer...
The deadlock of “human nature” in politics
Have you ever had a discussion on politics, trying to find out what’s going well and what’s going wrong in this world, in its history and finally try to find out what could be a viable solution for humanity’s future? I guess you have. I’m...
On the eve of destruction
It’s the first time ever I’m so worried. We read the history books and the first thing wandered was almost always how people of these or other times couldn’t understand the tragic effects of political evolutions which lead to massacres, to total catastrophes. Our generation,...
French elections: in the UV political spectrum
One of the strangest French elections of modern times is taking place today in the Hexagon, the country of the Enlightenment and the world's fifth-largest economy. Elections held against a backdrop of constantly growing uncertainty about the country's future, its economy and, above all, the...
“Why Socialism?” – by Albert Einstein
As the first political article in this blog, I would like to share a unique reference, the political thought of the most brilliant mind of the 20th century. The following is the article “Why Socialism?”, written by Albert Einstein, in May 1949 and published in the...
Brexit, but why?
It’s June 24, 2016, today and we have an element to discuss. The Brits’ vote to leave the EU by 4% more than the supporters of “remain”. The consequences of such a thing and the time to occur isn’t known, but there are a lot...
EDITORIAL
An international new start
Several years ago, in June 30th 2012, I started writing in this blog my thoughts, sharing with people who know me and several more, as internet gives us this privilege. This post indicates a new start, parallel with the original blog written in greek. A...
POLITICS
You can’t be “sorry about your president”
Since 2017, one of the most powerful political positions in the world is occupied by a person who created a shock when he was a elected and it is a very common perception in the western world that he behavior is increasingly dangerous for millions...
How Americans Vote
In just a few days, Greece will be holding three elections, European and local, and all the usual clichés about “election fever” are making their inevitable appearance. Among the many things that unfortunately trivialise both the process and its significance — such as the sheer...
The Devilish “Brain Drain” and How to “Tackle” It
Having spent most of my life living in what, in Greece, is referred to as “abroad”, one of the things I have often had to discuss, and still do whenever I find myself back in Greece, is the so-called “Brain Drain”. This phenomenon is treated...
MEDIA
Social Media: mirror or distorted lens of society?
The calendar reads 2020. A major pandemic has touched the entire planet, changing the living and working conditions of billions of people. The "dream" of telecommunications has begun to replace, to some extent, the possibility of face-to-face human contact for many. Processes that traditionally took...
Game of Thrones’ Magnificent Homage to Historical Materialism
One of the most epic and successful series in the history of television has come to an end. The battle of epic proportions between houses, kingdoms, dragons, the living and the dead, free people and slaves, has finally reached its catharsis for millions of viewers....
The not-funny and totally outrageous video of the Nobel prize winner, Gérard Mourou
Earlier this week, the Swedish Academy, announced the physics Nobel Prize laureates for 2018. Among others, French physicist Gérard Mourou, of the École Polytechnique and MIT, obtained the prestigious prize essentially for his inventions concerning the amplification of the laser pulses. However, the respect of...
CULTURE
Wild Horse Nine – Imperialism’s Deathbed Repentance
Imagine a film in which an SS officer explains the operational plan of the Holocaust to a Jew, describes the crimes of political purges to a communist, presents the future concentration camps to a Roma person or a homosexual. Imagine that this very same officer...
Marie Madeleine – Haitian Realism as a Universal Parable
Jacmel is a city in southeastern Haiti, one of the poorest cities in the world, inhabited by some of the poorest people on the planet. In 2010, it was devastated by an earthquake that destroyed what little infrastructure existed, paving the way for even greater...
Digger: Art’s Social Critique Through a Plot Twist
Is cinema a form of sleight of hand? Why shouldn't it be? After all, its very effects, its ability to create illusions in order to reveal reality, are among the elements that distinguish cinema and make it such a popular and widely loved art form....
La Gradiva: A Tale of the Generation Inheriting the World
The lives of teenagers in cinema are usually written by adults. Everyone has been through that stage of life, yet no adult experiences society, the contemporary moment, at that age. And in a context where the pace of social change is constantly accelerating, such an...
“Notre Salut”: The Salvation of Cinema’s Telling of History
In a world where political and social developments increasingly tend to resemble processes that the generations alive today have known only through the accounts of their elders and the history books, what is the role of cinema, and of art more broadly, in speaking in...
“Perfect Days” and the greatness of grand scales
What materials make up a life? What role do maturity, experiences, memories, and stimuli play in building a world in which one will spend the years given to them? How does one choose what is worth it from the infinite possibilities of experiences? How far...
Leila’s brothers and a victimized generation
Saeed Roustayi's film, for better or worse, is a reflection of its time. More specifically, not only of its time but of an entire generation that finds itself in a world it doesn't understand what's wrong and has grown enough to have the right, the...
Jules et Jim: the psychological realism in the tragic narrative of Truffaut
In the early 1960s, François Truffaut had already declared war on the traditionalism of French cinema, with the declaration that officially opened the doors of art history to the Nouvelle Vague. As a critic, he had denounced the easy path of cinematic Frenchness, which, by...
A historical and materialist Triangle of Sadness
The Palme d’Or of 2022 was the magnifying glass that History needs, in order for someone to focus on a very small scale, on micro-societies, and to understand the laws of social development on a larger scale. Of course, being an artistic work, apart from...
Aphrodite’s Child – 6 6 6: When Greeks Made Great Music.
Greece produces more culture than it can consume. Perhaps that’s why it often prefers to consume more accessible products, those made by small people for even smaller ones. However, at some point, inspiration emerged from this modern Greek culture for a work that would shock...
The narration of Theo Angelopoulos’ “Borders”
I decided to share a conversation in a few pages, the kind of conversation I would have leaving a cinema, conversations that are missing, along with films that are missing. Can art, as we move away from the great ideological ruptures of the 20th century,...
Never too old for what it never dies
Jethro Tull is one of the groups that shaped the unique and gone musical style of progressive rock. Prog had a uniqueness of variety in sound, with every single group using a different mix of styles and traditions to make their music. Many different combinations...
Pride in the Struggles of the Working Class, Which Know No Racism
Pride, directed by Matthew Warchus, is a profoundly instructive political narrative, rich in remarkably apt symbolism. Released in 2014 and screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Pride also received nominations at the Golden Globes and the BAFTA Awards. The British film tells a true story...
Designing the 20th Century: Art Deco and Bauhaus
Industrial development, the liberation that followed the catastrophic First World War, and the transition from the politically aged societies that produced it to the political structures of the states that emerged after its end, created the need for many questions to be answered—about the very...
Luciano Pavarotti: Vox Angelica
On September 6, 2007, the most angelic voice humanity has ever known fell silent forever. Luciano Pavarotti, struck by an incurable illness, left the earthly world behind, leaving a vast legacy: cultural monuments clothed in his interpretations, thus establishing a unique and universal reference point...
Time for Space
I was given a ship in the middle of the ocean I didn’t know where we’re coming from I often ask my companions I’m listening to their stories I’m amazed with their tales I still wonder where are we coming from I still wonder why...
Ten music pieces for ten paintings
In order for someone to understand art, what they probably need is to find a way to “communicate” with its creator. Many times, different fine arts “join forces” so that they can reveal to a wide audience the power and the essence of each work....
The Tenement Museum: A Museum Dedicated to Immigrants in New York City
New York is an international metropolis, a global capital, and consequently its visitors, and even more so its residents, are fortunate enough to have access to an enormous variety of cultural attractions of exceptional quality and aesthetic value. Yet, amid this ocean of possibilities, alongside...
SCIENCE
The Colorado River Is Under Threat from Climate Change
One of North America's largest rivers and one of the most important on the planet, the Colorado River flows through the southwestern states of the United States, meeting the needs of approximately 40 million people. Beyond that, the Colorado is also “responsible” for the creation...
The time has come: prepare for InSight landing!
After a long journey of about 7 months, which began at the Vanderberg Air Force base, California, on May 5, InSight is expected to finally reach the Martian surface on November 26. This will be a huge step forward for the scientific endeavor of our...
A voyage to Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”
In 1980, the most iconic writer in scientific communication and a brilliant scientist, Carl Sagan, while being a professor at Cornell University, decided to have a 2-year sabbatical in order to launch a great project: to summarize the scientific knowledge obtained by humanity until his...
April 12, 1961: A day to follow
In my opinion, there are two important days in the history of humankind. I don’t know the date for the first earlier one, but I’m sure that the second was April 12, 1961. Our species achieved twice to do a step forward, towards a largest...
TRAVEL
America II: Arizona Dream
Arizona is truly a dream, a region that offers incredible, almost magical images, difficult to describe. That is why any attempt to capture the impressions of a trip to the state of mythical westerns and the astonishing wonders of nature is a very challenging task....
America I: Following Rio Grande
A transatlantic voyage is always a special occasion. As we leave Europe, we leave behind this really particular continent, as it is true that there is no equivalent in this world and it is our big home. A home not described politically or even as...
HISTORY
When capitalists try to “reclaim history” …it gets really funny!
There are many reasons to claim that American History, or better said, the History of the USA, is one of the most interesting subjects to read in the dawn of the 21st century. There are already enough data from the evolution of the first British...
The day when a hero was murdered and the most brilliant star shone
It was October 9, 1967, when the Elysian Fields of revolution welcomed one of the most brilliant symbols, on the top among all those who shone with their lives the route of humanity forwards. That day, in Bolivian mountains, the idea of selfless fight was...
100 years ever since the first bridges were built to let the future pass along
There were two great steps of the mankind, so far, in the history we know for our species and our ancestors. The first, which marked our birth, was that bold step of an old ancestor who stood up to contemplate the endless horizon and conquer...
SPORTS
¡AD10S!
Today, when Your life among us has come to an end, I feel the need to write about my own life. How many people, I wonder, have that privilege? To have others speak about them and still have so much to say about themselves? However...
The “Cosmopolitan” and Reactionary IOC Cannot Stand Anti-Racism
Over the past few months, following the cold-blooded murder of African American George Floyd by heavily armed police officers, a massive ideological confrontation over racism has erupted across the world, and naturally in the United States, the epicentre of these events. Under the weight of...
A legendary rugby match – 30 years later
It has been 30 years since a day that belongs to the anthology of rugby, particularly remembered in France, but is also among the fundamental elements of the culture that shaped the sport during its epic evolution. On May 26, 1990, Racing Club de France,...
Liverpool was made for me, and I was made for Liverpool
It’s time to tell a story—a retrospective that has been circling in my head constantly these last few days. Essentially, it is my answer to a “why”: an attempt to trace the cause behind the birth of feelings I had never known before, after events...
The vindication of history
There are significant events that happen from time to time and provoke exaggeration in their commentary, called unparalleled, incomparable, and other similar adjectives. However, beyond the commentary concerning the uniqueness of an event in eternity, there is also a simple objective admission. An event can...
PAOK: an endless black and white devotion
It's winter, a Sunday, and the afternoon is drawing on. A sunny day, with that biting cold so characteristic of Thessaloniki, and the sun has begun its descent towards the horizon. On days like these, the heart of the city shifts, and so do its...
BOOKS
Ernest Hemingway – A Moveable Feast
In 1964, Ernest Hemingway published a collection of his writings about his life in Paris during the 1920s. At that time, the future famous author worked as a newspaper correspondent in the City of Light in order to make a living and develop his writing...
“The Grapes of Wrath” are still being written
Usually, when I decide to write a book review on this blog, the project involves a book that I want to share with a wider audience, a new release, a hidden "gem," or simply something interesting that is not already in the awareness of many....
Cosmos 2: Attempting the impossible
40 years after the writing of one of the most beautiful books of all time, the legendary Cosmos by Carl Sagan, the endeavor to write its sequel is certainly a huge challenge and a very lofty goal. Carl Sagan, with his opus magnum of scientific...
Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan was a brilliant scientist, contributor to great endeavors of humanity in our voyage to what we call the outer space, the exotic worlds that no one of us has ever stepped on, no one of us has ever been born in. However, Carl...
The Penguin History of the World, by J.M. Roberts & Odd Arne Westad
I’m a passionate of history and more precisely of global history, the ensemble of the evolution of humanity on our planet, from its first steps until our time. Having a scientific background, in what is known as natural sciences, I’m strongly excited to know how...