Saturday, 4 January 2025

KNOWLEDGE IS NOT SOLD BUT GIVEN

 

KNOWLEDGE IS NOT SOLD BUT GIVEN

 Written by Konstantinos Konstantinidis of Amphiktyon

Studying our ancient sages, I came across a topic that I always consider to be relevant, and that is the unpaid and unprofitable work of tireless spiritual people. The modern man of matter is unable to grasp that the spirit and Wisdom are not a commodity for sale. Nor can they be locked up with copyrights and other “claws” by the “merchants” and “smugglers” of ideas. The same applies to the Beauty of youth, and it is not for sale. Because according to Socrates, if someone sells beauty for money to whoever desires it, they call him a prostitute. However, if someone meets someone who is beautiful in body and soul and makes him their friend, we consider him wise. Of course, today, with the subordination of everything to material interests, friendship has also ceased and individuals have become isolated, slaves to the small screen. He says the same about Wisdom. Those who sell it for money to whoever wants it were called sophists, as if we were saying "prostitutes". On the contrary, those who gave their wisdom to the public without money were called "philosophers". In our modern era, everyone sells their knowledge and no one works for free, with very few exceptions. The results are the obscuring and distortion of ideas by the media. Personally, as paradoxical as it may seem to you, after my retirement I have always worked for free. In the newspaper I used to send my articles to, they forced me to accept remuneration and I succumbed for a while to this regime, which is also established internationally. Very soon, however, I left and created my own website to send my ideas to the public for free. The same applies to my books that I publish as a self-publisher. I posted them on the internet and they become the property of every reader. Readers who have the ability to distinguish who is a merchant of ideas and who is giving away their knowledge free of charge are considered wise. One can see this from the number of friends of a website on the internet and this is the satisfaction superior to material gain. In this way, Virtue is also promoted. However, the prevailing perception today is that the excellence of an intellectual person is judged by the “fund” he makes. Many have told me this in order to reduce my contribution, but without me being concerned with the issue of the excellence of the “fund” which for me is a minus. I often study books by ancient sages and glean topics that are still relevant today and bring them to the surface. Many consider writing to be a pointless task and a wasted effort since the authorities do not listen. But we persist, like a rock with the wave. He who torments himself and suffers for something good rejoices like the fisherman who catches even one fish. The rewards of labor have little value. We labor to confront Turkey, to improve society and to benefit the homeland. Once Antiphon asked Socrates why, while he knew politics, he never got involved in politics? He said: "In which of the two ways, Antiphon, would you take part in politics? By getting involved myself, or if I made sure that there were as many CAPABLE people as possible involved in it?" And then they had the same problem, namely the quality of politicians. We have a quality problem after the change of government: Prime Ministers below average (with few exceptions), party leaders who are saltimbancos, MPs who are docile. Geostrategically on Turkey's chariot, Foreign Ministers who are crying, phobic-nurses, a dependent country, mute, speechless, suffocatingly isolated, last in terms of per capita income (below even Romania) The only one that renounces its sovereign rights (X.Y and EEZ) and refuses the connection of the maritime zones with Cyprus. Finally, Mr. Mitsotakis, instead of being our leader, came out as a "tactician-administrator" inferior to the circumstances. It could have been if he had good advisors, but his advisors (ELIAMEP) prevented him. The bad thing is that the media praises him as charismatic. But the people are slowly starting to see. (4/1/25)

 * Amphiktyon, Major General (retd) Konstantinos Konstantinidis

Writer, Member of the Society of Greek Writers

amphiktyon@gmail.com

 http://amphiktyon.blogspot.com/

 http://amphiktyon.org

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