Sergios Saropoulos
Bio
Philosopher, Journalist, Writer.
Found myself in the words of C.P. Cavafy
"And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean"
Stories (32/0)
How should we perceive Immigration?
In this article, I give a plethora of approaches to something so simple and yet such a taboo. The freedom in the movement has to be in the modern discussion of politics, for the simple reason that no country or person has the right to take away from people their basic right of looking for a new place to live. We have seen other people being able to travel almost in any place of the world and others not being able to travel to more than two countries. Freedom of movement can be the next step towards a better future for everyone and against poverty. If money moves and people cannot, not everyone might have the same right to the same financial opportunities. Certainly, we shouldn't fool ourselves. Freedom of peoples movement can be just a start and not the realisation of global equality.
By Sergios Saropoulos2 years ago in Humans
Hitchhike
Hitchhike OUT / ROAD / EVENING A man drives on the road alone. Only the sound of the car and the tires can be heard. The man is tired and looks at the road with a lost gaze. The road can be seen only by the lights of his car. At one point the lights of the car show a girl at the side of the street, the driver in astonishment looks in the rear window of the car to check at the woman. The car slows down and then stops on the side of the road. The woman approaches the car, then and stops a few meters behind it. She says;
By Sergios Saropoulos2 years ago in Fiction
Unfortunately, we are years away from the political cinema of the past.
Well yes, as you understand from the cover image I did watch the recent film with the title "Don't Look Up". I personally believe that it was a well-scripted and well-directed film, with an impressive cast and a good sense of humour. And here comes the "big" But. With a few "scrolls" on social media, I saw from many viewers and writers, an effort to depict the movie as a really provocative satire, to such an extent that elevates political humour to a new level. With all respect to the creators and the amazing cast of actors, the level of political humour could barely surpass a John Oliver's episode of news commentating. My point here is not to project a nostalgic point of view, on which I only appreciate specific eras of cinema, not that I do not. But I really believe that there are some amazing examples of political cinema, even this year with Michel Franco's film "New Order", or with "Stalin's Death" some years ago. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but films like that, are getting less quoted on mainstream media and less accessible on mainstream platforms and average cinemas. But was there a period in which political films were mainstream? If you asked that question while reading this paragraph, then thank you. Well in this article I would explore how political films used to and can still influence cinema in a profound way. Bringing some examples of my own upbringing in Greece I country of exceptional filmmakers like Theo Angelopoulos, Costas Gavras and many others.
By Sergios Saropoulos2 years ago in FYI
To the only person that truly believed in me.
It was a Tuesday's evening, I had already been tired from seven hours of school and I was sitting in a small classroom. It was my tutoring time. This time it was just me and a teacher. Her eyes were black and her eyebrows were thick, painting the whole portrait of her face. Her forehead was full of wrinkles. Wrinkles that I truly perceived as proof of wisdom. Her voice was deep and strong, each word coming out of her mouth felt like a speech. I was looking at her and then the first tear comes out of my eye. But this time I was not crying out of fear or desperation, I was not crying because I was afraid. The tears coming out were tears I never felt before. It was the first time I was crying of admiration, I was crying because it was the first time I felt a sense of responsibility. I could not disappoint her, she was the first person to believe in me.
By Sergios Saropoulos2 years ago in Motivation
FUKUYAMA AND THE “LESSER EVIL”
We could easily say that contribution of Francis Fukuyama regarding the conversation of capitalism and democracy has been quite important. Specifically through his work; The end of History, in which he argues that the so-called end of history might not be as utopian as we imagine it to be. According to Fukuyama, many progressive intellectuals in the 1980s and in general in the 20th century thought that as human societies will evolve, eventually will achieve a teleological purpose of taking the form of a communist utopia. Teleological as a term comes from Aristotle and it could mean any action or any occurrence that has a purpose or a goal, from the ancient Greek word of "telos" which meant purpose or objective and ironically is still used today in modern Greek, meaning the end of something. The irony is that even its modern use is still connected with the idea that the end of an action always services a purpose being fulfilled at the moment it ends. But what is the position of Fukuyama on this idea both about the teleological end of history or the belief of the intellectuals of the 20th century that hoped a utopic communist end? Fukuyama even though he mentioned that he agrees with Marxists in the progressive perception of history, with societies becoming more complex and developed in social organization. He disagreed in the terminal point of society being a communist utopia, but rather something more familiar to what we have in most societies today, a form of market orientated liberal democracy (Fukuyama, 2012). He believed that humanity will never reach this "fantasy" of an utopian communist society, but even if we take the Marxist historical model, society will only reach the phase which a Marxist would characterized as a bourgeois democracy. According to Fukuyama after the complete failure of the totally state planned economy of the former socialist states, a market economy is necessary and even the best given form of economic plan. Thus the only model that includes a market economy and includes a political and economic plan is liberal democracy, following of course in the financial sphere the capitalist values of private initiative and economic freedom. For him a high form of human civilization would be the one producing higher levels of prosperity and happiness for the people living in it, and in that case something close to today's liberal democracy (Fukuyama, 2012).
By Sergios Saropoulos2 years ago in The Swamp
Is European Union suffering from an unavoidable Democratic Deficit?
Why does the no-demos argument create an inescapable democratic deficit in the EU? Introduction The democratic deficit is a term with a plethora of interpretations that you can easily hear in times of political crisis in modern-day western democracies. For many years it has been closely affiliated with nation-states in Europe and of course with the European Union (EU). In times of crisis between member states of the EU and inside European politics, it is commonly used as a term by many Eurosceptics, most of the times against the existence of the European Union or from other politicians to protest various issues from the lack of democratic legitimacy in EU institutions to the increasing bureaucratic matters. I think we should examine this term neither from an ideological perspective nor as a manifestation of political propaganda by Eurosceptic politicians. In my opinion, even for the most prominent advocate of the EU and even for those who romanticize a vision of a stronger EU with a more active role in the political and financial status quo of Europe. The research and the debate regarding the existence of a democratic deficit should not be treated as a theory that would harm their European vision. On the contrary, it should be carefully examined as a form of positive ‘self-criticism’ by and for the EU institutions and for the EU as a democratic entity.
By Sergios Saropoulos2 years ago in The Swamp
Examples of Authoritarian Capitalism in the past and today.
AUTHORITARIAN CAPITALISM In this article, inspired by Fukuyama's belief that liberal democracies are more successful than authoritarian capitalist regimes, even though they are both implementing the economic theory of capitalism. I would like to examine some old and current cases of authoritarian capitalist regimes. To see if they are really less successful or not than their liberal counterparts and how democracy can be best implemented with a system that can easily and in many cases successfully be combined with authoritarian regimes. Since authoritarianism is the opposite of a free democratic society. Is the existence of authoritarian countries following capitalist economic models proof of the existence of a contradiction between capitalism and democracy?
By Sergios Saropoulos2 years ago in The Swamp
This is how the Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus perceived our world.
INTRODUCTION Heraclitus was a presocratic philosopher who lived in Ephesus of Ionia (modern Turkey) between the 6th and the 5th century, from his birth in 544 BC until his death in 484 BC. He was the son of Vlysson and belonged to the family Androcleides who were considered to have played an important role in the creation of the city; Ephesus, the city Heraclitus. The main source of the biography of the philosopher is Diogenes Laertius, but some question the validity of his information. The book of Heraclitus on Nature has not been saved in its entirety, we do not know exactly when it was lost, but it may have happened when the temple of Ephesus burned down or in the fires of the library of Alexandria. Apart from Diogenes Laertius, we draw information from numerous authors who mentioned his work either to applaud him or to criticize him. Among them, we can mention Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Plotinus, Theophrastus and others. One hundred and twenty-six quotes from the work of Heraclitus have been saved. This fact makes the reconstruction of the whole of thought and theory of Heraclitus quite challenging.
By Sergios Saropoulos2 years ago in FYI