Dear friends, do not fear, and do not becalm. We have to be vigilant. But at the same time we have to be patient and to have confidence. The fight we are giving is not a 100 meters run. It’s a marathon. Actualy, it is a marathon with no finish line. It is the poet’s "continual revolution". It is the philosopher’s "I know that I know nothing". It is Oedipus’ answer to the riddle of the Sphinx: "Human".
The change that has begun is internal. We have been most apathetic; selfish; fascinated by our image and our consumption ability. We have been bribed by the system. And we believed that we could climb class; become comfortably numb. We were narcissists. We were individualists. We were individuals. And we ‘ve come to a social dead-end. The capitalist system used us as its allies. It did not educate us, it caressed our most humble and bestial instincts. But we were led from the American dream into the nightmare of the debt crisis of the countries. After the collapse of actually existing socialism, we are witnessing the collapse of actually existing capitalism. Now, in alliance with our needs, we re-discover cooperation and solidarity. Against the "rationality" of capitalism, we become absurd. We are re-becoming citizens. We are re-becoming humans.
The cynic philosopher Diogenes, who was unable to find a human among the crowd, would find among us many humans today.
We cannot, however, determine accurately the future. Nor we can predict it with accuracy. The thought and dialogue we are practicing all these many days do not suffice. We must do what we can: To help the massification of the movement of the Squares, and continue the fight. Regardless of the panicked response of the system. Do not fool ourselves, though: Nobody will hand over power to the people, just because we have convincing arguments. Thought without action is empty. Neither direct violence will destroy our masters, bacause action without thought is blind. The social changes are associated with radical discontinuities that can not be understood in advance in terms of specified causes. Neither presented subsequently as a sequence of events. The social change emerges from the social imaginary, without preconditions. However, this change, in order to be recognized from the wider society, should be established and understood as a social revolution.
No, we are not lazy dogs. No, we are not a party, and no, we are not having a party here. We are an image of the future. We are the yeast to the social revolution that’s coming.
We cannot, however, determine accurately the future. Nor we can predict it with accuracy. The thought and dialogue we are practicing all these many days do not suffice. We must do what we can: To help the massification of the movement of the Squares, and continue the fight. Regardless of the panicked response of the system. Do not fool ourselves, though: Nobody will hand over power to the people, just because we have convincing arguments. Thought without action is empty. Neither direct violence will destroy our masters, bacause action without thought is blind. The social changes are associated with radical discontinuities that can not be understood in advance in terms of specified causes. Neither presented subsequently as a sequence of events. The social change emerges from the social imaginary, without preconditions. However, this change, in order to be recognized from the wider society, should be established and understood as a social revolution.
No, we are not lazy dogs. No, we are not a party, and no, we are not having a party here. We are an image of the future. We are the yeast to the social revolution that’s coming.
From Syntagma Square, Athens, Greece,
solidarity to all the Squares of the world,
Diogenes the dog
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