Euripides Phonissai (531)
Eteocles, my child old age has not only evils it has something wiser, which the young do not have, the experience of life Euripides Bellerophon Youth, of course, my child has strength and action but in knowledge the old surpass them you see time has taught them much
Euripides Erechtheus
Love the company of the old hate the evil customs they are only capable of making you laugh the indulgence of evil pleasure lasts a little
Alexides Demetrius
A man in character is in a way very similar to wine the boiling must cease and the fermentation must stop so that take on its quality and become pleasant for everyone so too the young man must stop his blood boiling so that the youthful impulse calms take on the harsh form of man and thus become more pleasant in everything
Kratitos Antiphanes
You have reproached me with old age as a great evil that in the event that no one will acquire it has death as his punishment which we all desire but which if ever approaches us, fills us with sorrow so much so that by nature we are ungrateful! no one is so in love with life as the one who is getting older
Commentary
1/ The sudden invasion of digital technology has taken over the world by surprise and in Greece it has marginalized an entire generation. Because of this, the suffering we endure to survive in the new digital age is indescribable. Daily problems insurmountable from paying a bill to paying the Taxes and so on. Otherwise, the lying politicians praise with hollow words “THE HONORED ELDERLY” And this is because the governments of those years, despite receiving the relevant funds from the EU, did not take care to educate the elderly in the technologies imported at that time. The result of this is the following oxymoron: The grandfather has zero experience of modern technology and asks the grandchildren to help him do even the simplest act. I consider this a bankruptcy of modern society so as not to characterize this as a criminal act. Thus they wasted their old age, they put it in the corner as useless and their experience of the previous very critical times went to waste. Because who goes to get advice from a person ignorant of modern life who has been thrown to the sidelines like a set lemonade stand?
2/ The crime was committed against the most valuable generation which was tche last to live in three great eras, namely: a/ The Agricultural with the old methods, b The industrial era just before the Second World War and shortly after and / The Digital era that we are experiencing. Many of the experiences of this generation went to waste.
3/ We are reaping the results of the interruption of the interaction of generations today: (lack of patriotism, ignorance of history, love for the homeland, spirit of mutual assistance, wild morals, drugs, weakening of family ties, aggression of young people, etc.) The experience of the most fertile generations (born in the 1930s and before, 1940s, and perhaps even 1950s) where the most painful and crucial events for our homeland occurred was lost.
4/ We, the older youth, had as teachers the oldest wise people, of broad education, who passed on to us their knowledge and experiences, the ones that are not taught in schools.
5/ At the festivals of the succession of generations in Sparta, the speech was first taken by the dance of the elders, who sang: “We were once strong young men”, which in modern Greek means “We were once strong young men”. To the above speech, the dance of the men then responded ostentatiously: “We are now, if you do not say, take experience” (=We are now, if you want, try it). Then the dance of the boys took the speech, who declared as a promising oath: “We are now, we will eat many carts” (=We will become better). This choral discourse with its counter-discourses, Plutarch rightly characterizes them as “greatness befitting virtue according to age” (= proud boasting of virtue according to age).
6/I, the writer, owe much for my education – beyond the schools listed in my biography – to my spiritual father, my wise uncle Panagiotis Konstantinidis-Triphylios, hero of the Asia Minor Campaign of 1922, learned poet and writer. Today such bright spirits are hard to find (14/7/25)
*Amphiktyon Major General (retd) Konstantinos Konstantinidis Author, Member of the Society of Greek Writers amphiktyon@gmail.com http://amphiktyon.blogspot.com/ https://amphiktyon.org Anyone who wishes to be deleted should return this with the indication “deletion” “in accordance with article 14 of law 2672/98