I saw Angelos, a regular customer at the neighborhood cafe where I frequented, who at first glance seemed not to support any of the views strongly expressed by these customers who attracted attention, with a strong voice, with gestures, with the certainty that what they say is the right thing to do, but no one in charge listens to them.
- It is unacceptable for some people to block the highways! And the arguments began.
- Νο, They are right, they are the people of labor, thanks to whom we have food and agricultural production, who have come to despair and if no solution is given, they will cease to exist. And the arguments began.
So I noticed that this man seemed to applaud both one and the other view, but without any strength, simply so as not to displease the company. However, he seemed to me a confident man, that he had something and was hiding it inside, so one day, when the two of us were at the table, and there were none of the usual noisy groups, I asked him without hesitation for his opinion.
- But I think the subject has already been discussed several times.
- I, Mr. Angelos, asked for your own, personal opinion (you thought you would slip away).
He took a deep breath.
- Once upon a time we had a small local production. We produced with difficulty, we exchanged, we traded on a local scale, and in general we were poor.
The investors came, the big companies, the department stores.
It seemed to us that a new world had opened up. Huge stores, with a lot of items, cheap goods, open at all hours, and you could find everything in these big stores.
It seemed to us that our horizons and possibilities were broadened.
But someone underwent a dramatic change, do you understand who?
- Clearly, the small local traders.
- That's right, the small traders stopped being competitive with the large chains, as a result, and their shops were deserted.
The local economy is giving way to the global one.
Another example is primary agricultural production. People who have been working their fields for generations, who have both the fields and the equipment, as well as the know-how and experience, are forced every year to face ever-increasing operating costs, ever-increasing expenses for fertilizers, seeds, water, electricity, and every year the prices of the products are ever-increasing, in some cases they are so humiliating that it is not even profitable to harvest the products, since not even the labor costs for the harvest are covered.
You see, the price of their product is no longer determined by local supply and demand, but by the New York Stock Exchange, having entered the global economy.
- Should they change methods, products, should they improve their productivity, should they develop networks and groups of producers?
- I am afraid that they have tried all of this and continue to try to evolve, however the only measure that kept them alive was a state or European financial support, recognizing that yes you cannot be competitive in the international economy, but you must continue to exist, so that food can be produced, which is why I subsidize your operation.
However, you understand that if agricultural costs rise sharply every year and selling prices fall, this subsidy is called upon to fill a bottomless barrel. Because the Government will have to cut the extra money from somewhere. Where will it cut it from? From Pensioners? From Salaried Employees? Or will it have to impose new taxes, leading to the withering of other sectors of the economy?
The Farmers, seeing that they no longer have any means of livelihood and having come to despair, ask for a solution from the Government, going to extremes: They close the roads and the highways, making it difficult for the economy and society to function. They commit a kind of self-attack, since this action of theirs burdens everyone.
We are experiencing something similar to the story of Erysichthon.
- What is this story?
- I will tell it to you in my own way:
"Erysichthon was King of Thessaly, a province of Ancient Greece that was fertile, blessed and rich.
Erysichthon was therefore easy to constantly collect taxes, which made him one of the richest Kings. His wealth made him indifferent to other people, and to his contact with the Gods, so he was cruel to people and disrespectful to everything sacred.
One day he decided to cut down the trees of a sacred grove, dedicated to the Goddess Demeter of agriculture, with the aim of building another palace there to satisfy his arrogance and megalomania.
In the center of the grove, there was the sacred tree, where people believed that the Dryads, the sacred nymphs of the forest, lived. There the priestesses came to make offerings, perform their ceremonies and be able to gain contact and enlightenment from the Goddess Demeter.
His soldiers poured into the surrounding trees, but Erysichthon, with his axe, went to cut down the sacred tree himself. At the first axe, the priestess of the Goddess Demeter, Nikippe, appeared before him.
- Man! The tree you are going to cut down was here, long before humans came. All the people who passed by, whether travelers, priests, or soldiers, all of them understood that this tree was sacred, that through it the Gods give their gifts to people and they respected it. Stop immediately because great harm will come to you!
- A decrepit old woman will not stop me, do you know who I am? I am the lord of the region, everything you see belongs to me, and you will not tell me what to do! And with his axe he went to kill the priestess Nikippe.
Then the priestess transforms into the Goddess Demeter herself. The soldiers, seeing the glory and wrath of the Goddess, abandon Erysichthon in fear, while he himself falls to the ground, unable to do anything.
- For what you went to do, I curse you, from now on you shall eat, but not be satisfied!
From that moment on, Erysichthon returned to his palace and began to eat everything he found in front of him, but having an insatiable hunger that would not stop at anything. He ate everything in his palace, even the animals, his servants disappeared for fear that he would eat them too. His soldiers had already abandoned him, so that he could no longer collect taxes.
The only person who did not abandon him was his only daughter, Mistra, who had magical powers, but Erysichthon sold her into slavery to get food.
Erysichthon, finding nothing to eat anymore, since all people and animals were moving away from him, began to eat himself, his own flesh, and thus he found death.”
- So what could be the solution?
- Let's look at a human value that, in my opinion, is the key to the current situation. Let's look at it with two examples:
First, let's assume that we are in a city somewhere in America. There is full technology, amenities, competition. In a certain area there are a lot of apartments that are empty. Their owners ask for 3,000 dollars in rent.
There are people who work in offices, they are American citizens, but they still can't pay the rent because their salary is 3,000 dollars.
Please reduce the rent, because it is impossible for us to pay this price!
But their owners answer: I don't care, that's all I want!
Ordinary citizens then stay in their cars, set up a tent next to it and stay on the street. They go to work normally, their children go to school normally, they barely make ends meet, they are afraid because there is crime everywhere, which stems from the many desperate people.
In the second example, let's assume that we are on an isolated, non-touristy island in Greece.
There are small houses and neighborhoods, people have their own small gardens and most of them are fishermen.
They live in their small houses, they don't have many amenities, they do most of the work themselves.
Everyone has their own home. If a stranger is found, they don't let him sleep on the street, they consider it a given that they should host him and offer him a sofa in their home, so he can sleep and a plate of food.
If there is a tomato left over from the garden or some fish, they try to find someone to give them to, without money of course. There are no rich people among them, they always have the key on the door, every evening they go out for a walk or to drink coffee in cafes, they don't have much, but they live a simple life, as if they were in paradise.
- What is the human value that is not present in the American example and is present in the Greek example?
- It is obvious that it is the value of sharing. However, I do not think that it is possible to go back in time.
- Yes, of course. However, we can use this value, not to go back in time, since the local economy is becoming global for better or worse, but because the existing conditions have changed in our modern era.
-That is?
-In the past, we had to fight a constant struggle for survival, with intense competition, because there was simply not enough food for everyone. It was not possible for everyone to have normal homes, for everyone to have enough clothes.
Now it is much easier to produce more food, to have better homes and supplies. So what has changed in our time is that the basic things that humans need are now enough for everyone! But many people want even more, and even more, and that's where the problem arises, they all want to become richer and richer, indifferent to other people.
- But I think this characteristic is deep in human nature.
- Certainly, it is related to the basic instinct of survival.
However, when an era changes, human characteristics must also change. And our era, in my opinion, brings the challenge for people to learn to be able to share, and to leave behind this crazy greed that will bring us close to the consequences that Erysichthon experienced.
The current era is based on profit, farmers are no longer food producers, but are called to be small entrepreneurs.
But there are other entrepreneurs, the big ones, who are global players, who impose their will on the small ones and eliminate them from the game.
Farmers therefore find themselves with an agricultural product that they can sell at humiliating prices that do not cover their expenses at all, or have it sit filling their warehouses until it spoils.
- So what can we practically do?
- To get out of the box where we are trapped.
There could be a system that is not based on what I have, but on what I share. It could be an alternative trade platform where one would post what one shares.
Creating the platform would not be something difficult to do. The most difficult thing is for everyone to recognize within themselves the necessity of sharing and not hoarding.
This will either be experienced by suffering, and being forced by the unpleasant and destructive consequences to find it and act, or by reflecting on the first signs and realizing what they should do.
There is another interesting parameter: In the universe there are natural forces and natural laws. We can certainly understand that in every action we take, there is a reaction, which comes as a result of our action, after some time has passed.
I could add that there is also a multiplication, when we give to other people, we are given much more and when we take from other people, much more is taken from us. Maybe we could experiment with it then….
Either collectively or even on an individual level….
Image created by ChatGPT
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