Recently I read in the newspaper “I Kathimerini” (7.10.2022) an article by Christos Jannaras, which does not belong to fleeting “news” and deserves special attention (https://www.kathimerini.gr/opinion/561948970/to-timima-tis-poiotitas-2/). The philosopher-professor touches again (he has done this repeatedly, but how many worries…) the extent of the problem of the intellectual quality of people in our time. The quality that is reflected in the instrument of the intellect, language and the great, “up to disability, immersion in linguistic (and hence mental) retardation.” As he points out, “this is not a marginal social stratum that exists and persists (as the statistics make clear) in falling behind in school. Rather, we are talking about the phenomenon of universal self-abasement and neo-primitivism, where consumerism is absolutized.

Discussed today are the crises most amenable to technical approaches to systemic and managerial problem solving: the health crisis due to COVID-19, the climate crisis, which has been around for a long time, but is of our concern only now, given natural disasters. and growth beyond any foreseeable risk, geopolitics with domino upheavals such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and all contextual crises – energy, food, demographic/immigration.

These are crises that feed off each other, with a common inductive reference to an unprecedented global economic crisis as it manifests itself today. I’m referring to Nouriel Roubini’s remark: “Historical data show that a soft landing is extremely unlikely. This leads to either a hard landing and a return to lower inflation, or a stagflation scenario. In any case, a recession is likely in the next two years, ”the eminent economist notes.

Therefore, I am interested in the opinion of Mr. Jannaras on the absolutization of consumerism: what will happen to consumers who find themselves in a consumer impasse? will they plunge into a downward spiral of existential emptiness?

There is no safer way out of education. In particular, in our country no hint is made, no reduction is made to the long-term threatening crisis, which lies at the basis of all crises developing at the present time, to a spiritual crisis. Of course, the crises of education and morality, i.e. cultural identity in a globalized society of many speeds, imbalances and inequalities that undermine social peace and progress for many, represent a spiritual crisis.

In Greece, this crisis remains unaddressed. At the same time, the illusion of a developer amusement park of “good mood” (including in business) is cultivated by many tricks. And this is despite the fact that the impact on jobs and wages of employees, when cost cutting becomes the basic practice for the survival of companies, is sooner or later visible.

The image of a lack of leaders, from the smallest family business to public administration, where responsibility is artificially shifted from management to so-called “democracy” of decisions and choices at the school level and vast superficiality, is not unhappy for everyone. of them. Democracy, by definition, advances or degrades according to the level of intellectual qualities of its citizens. A kind of informal conspiracy of mediocrity prevails, with simultaneous pompous and garrulous appearance of virtual reality on paper. Such pompous concepts as “goal”, “strategy”, “innovation”, etc., are repeated autistically from all reality, with idiotic enthusiasm.

In a world that is getting nightmarishly worse, with so many “visions” of aeolian optimism or stupidity, and under the poisonous clouds of all these man-made crises – about which much is said and written, but few countermeasures are taken due to ignorance, incompetence or indifference – confirmation if not a very serious spiritual crisis, what danger could he now add to the basis of all other dangers…

However, the thoughtful Christos Jannaras and some others somewhere politely write about our country and the post-society it is preparing, with avatars of uneducated “specialists”. And I have nothing but to subscribe, with due attention, through this article.

* Mr. Yannis Rutos is a consultant for businesses and cultural organizations.