If the ancient Greeks were alive today...

8/13/2019 If the ancient Greeks were alive today...

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Anaya Willies November 2013

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If the ancient Greeks were alive today

If the ancient Greeks were able to witness what has become of the world

after all of the breakthroughs they contributed to, they would be as much as

amazed as they would be disappointed. If they knew the impact that their work

still has to our days, they would know that they became immortal, that they didnt

die for nothing, but at the same time, they would be able to corroborate that even

though we have made incredible advances in technology, people in general have

not changed. We are still looking for the same things that they were: love, power,

happiness, but with a different approach as they did and this should let them

down because we havent found the key to true happiness.

The ancient Greeks established the bases for the society that we know

today and since Homers Odyssey came to light, the foundation of literature was

settled and years of change and evolution have lead us to a world full of

knowledge and with access to infinite possibilities. But humans as we are, we

tend to adapt everything that we can lay our hands on to our own benefit, and

depending on the context, we have changed, or even destroyed the legacy of

our ancestors.

We have some terrific examples of magnificent artists throughout the

ages. The old scholars would love to meet them. Plato and Shakespeare

discussing their ideas of love over a cup of tea. What a joy for Galileo to

encounter Eratosthenes and exchange their theories about the world. Or having

Jules Verne, H. G. Wells or Isaac Asimov meeting Lucian of Samosata who is

considered to have written the first science fiction novel. It would not only be


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memorable, but the Greeks would have the impression that mankind did evolve

and became perfect. On the other hand, what would someone like Lycurgus

think about our governments today? Seeing that the senate that he worked on is

still valid but no longer acting as he had planned. What would happen if we could

take any of these great masters and we asked them to exchange their elevated

concepts with someone with the likes of our Mexican President Enrique Pea

Nieto? I canteven bare to think of the idea of the Greeks wasting their time with

someone with such poor culture, letting aside that he cant even formulate two

complete sentences!

In the ancient times, the Greeks considered anyone who spoke a

different language a Barbarian. Now, with such a vast amount of languages, not

to mention dialects that are spoken in the world, what would the Greeks think?

Would they consider us all savages? This might not be wrong. The change that

all different tongues have suffered with the passing of time is beyond description

and even might be hard to keep a track of. If you take a look at the past of your

own language, you will discover that its not the same that it used to be 500

years ago. Language is constantly evolving, and it doesntseem like is going to

stop any time soon. You dont need to go back so far in time to notice this

change, you can corroborate it with young people from this age. As an exercise,

you can try to talk to any regular youngster by any media that you prefer: letter,

social network, e-mail, etc., the result of this test will be catastrophic if you have

some respect for grammar, orthography, or even syntax. They are not worried

about making mistakes and sometimes even consider that they are innovating

language. They are only making it poorer. They are true Barbarians. Greek

philosophers spent their lives studying language in order to perfect it, to create


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art, to leave their mark on history. Today, language is no longer as important as it

was then; we, in general, only use it to communicate to each other, and not in a

sophisticated way. People are no longer interested in that kind of studies,

because, who wants to spend a lifetime studying language when we have to

worry about more important things? Who needs a scholar when we have all the

information we need on the Internet? We think we know it all because we have

access to a universe of information when in reality we are more lost than ever.

Information is power.One of the most famous quotes in the history of

human race, but is it true? The venerable Greeks knew all about this. They

agreed that information was very powerful and precisely because of that it was

not meant to be accessed by everybody. In order for you to be able to read the

studies of the great thinkers of the old days, you needed to be a scholar yourself.

The public in general was not prepared for the ideologies, complex concepts and

the new approaches of the pundits, and more than that, the illiterates agreed

with this. They knew that only the people who were experts in a copious amount

of subjects would be able to rule their nation. Today, it would be expected for us

to have followed their example, only that we didnt. The fact that we have

advanced technology and are capable to communicate with anyone on the

planet, know their culture and exchange our points of view, doesnt make us

more refined than the Greeks.

We would let down the mentors of the world if they could witness that we

are no longer searching for the meaning of existence and instead we focus our

strengths in material things, trivial things because we think that we already have

the answer to everything. They would expect more from their own race. They


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would want for us to do great things. The ancient Greeks aimed for immortality,

what are we aiming for?

If the ancient Greeks were alive today...

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