by Dr. Kostas Lampos
classlessdemocracy@gmail.com,
Neoliberal capitalist globalization[1] is becoming, day by day, more noticeable, both through the abyss of the catastrophic crisis of capitalism and the genocides it commits unhindered, and through the glaring silence and inaction of the global community, humanity, societies and of the institutions. This paralysis tends to replace visions and social struggles with virtual spectacles staged in the various televised Colosseums that passivate the deified masses, thanks to the so-called ‘social peace’, which ensures the arbitrariness of capital. And so that this is not perceived, the unrestrained political chatter by politicians of all kinds and shades has been reduced to a science, which often turns into a drug of conscience. In recent years, the crisis of political institutions in Greece and in the rest of the world is sharpening, deepening and widening to the extent that the attempt to depoliticize the forces of work, science and culture pushes them to the economic, political and social margins, a fact that is expressed by extreme right-wing and even neo-fascist choices, but also with mass, sometimes majority abstinence from political processes. Abstention, apparently due to frustration, because it is increasingly understood that they can no longer expect anything from the declining ‘bourgeois democracy’, because it has been abandoned by the hegemonic capital that is preparing, with dozens of parallel wars, the transformation of the formal of the local and national bourgeois democracy to a substantial totalitarianism in the form of ‘world government’. Levers of these plans are not the political clowns, the employees of capital, but the big economic groups themselves who envision the global hegemony of the West, but also of their counterparts in the East, over humanity, which exacerbates the crisis at the point. the melting of all fundamental social institutions, a condition for the pulping of individual societies and the imposition of the New Absolutist Order of Things.
Controlled political discourse hovers on the surface, like all dirty things, giving the impression that evil emanates from the superstructure, from ideologies, parties, party leaders, obscurantist and domineering priesthoods[2] with subsequent cockfights, as a catwalk for their recruitment by the ‘leader’ and result, the audience is satisfied with the change/switching of setting, protagonists and sidekicks, content with the comic-tragic happenings on the surface and not feeling the need to see what lies beneath and what is the relationship between surface with the bottom of everyday life, which in the dimension of time shapes human and social reality. This superficial and shallow attitude and behavior towards social phenomena has led to capitalist barbarism, the architects of which are no longer satisfied with the exploitation of ‘man by man’ and are planning through the ‘great restart of capitalism’ already ways and means of population deforestation of the planet from ‘useless people’, but also the construction of the metahuman, through the effort to directly control the functioning of the human Mind, to the extent that it still refuses to be subdued.
We as people, as societies and as humanity are at the most critical crossroads in our history and our survival depends on when and how we wake up from the slumber of ‘magical capitalism’. Capitalism, like any system based on social inequality, is not just an ideology, class and toxic institutions, parties and party leaders, bourgeois parliaments, subservient governments and pseudo-democracies, but a whole edifice, which, like any edifice, consists of roof, i.e. its superstructure, edifice and foundations. Therefore, if we want to find the root of evil, we must stop looking at the surface and dive into the foundations, the roots of evil, which result in fruitless rivalries, unnecessary social/class conflicts, and inhumane and destructive wars for the supremacy of the strongest. entrepreneur versus others, an imperialist country versus others, the ‘civilized’ West versus the supposedly uncivilized East. When, diving into the foundations of capitalism, we find that what separates people is not, as some theorists and ideologues of the system claim, the natural diversity of people, but the relationship of society as a single whole, as a set of social Egos, with the means of production, then it does not take much wisdom to understand that the institution of private ownership of the means of production is the cause of all the adventures of mankind[3]. And consequently, it will not take much wisdom to understand that by abolishing private ownership of the means of production the productive base of society is re-connected, so that every form of competition, waste, destruction and war, greed, as well as every morbidness of the anti-social I am removed. Thus, the unified, re-cohesive society/humanity, self-constituted and self-directed, as a single We, in the form of Direct Democracy[4] at all levels will be able to realize the timeless vision of the forces of labor, science and culture to establish civilization of social equality and the classless universal humanist culture.
Capitalism, knowing that the humanistic transformation of society/humanity is today, thanks to modern science and technology, not only necessary but also possible, provided that society can liberate science and technology from capital, does what, what he can to divert the forces of labor, science and culture with the aim of preventing this development. That is why it intervenes methodically in the superstructure by dissolving and rearranging the political and party landscape from time to time, systematically projecting on the surface, in the superstructure, convenient submissives, ready to discipline the choices of every would-be ruler in East and West, resulting in subjugation up to destruction of every insubordinate who consciously refuses to become a traitor to his principles, himself and his country. A result of this toxic behavior of hegemonic capital[5] is the progressive alienation of its civil servants, even from basic bourgeois morality and dignity. Thus, professional politicians come to the point of fighting, publicly claiming a position of political administrator, mediator between power and society, either as government officials or as party leaders or as parliamentarians, ministers and prime ministers with the sole purpose of misleading societies and turning them into legitimizers of the ruler’s power, at the expense of their own interests. For all this the system sets up nurseries of willing general-purpose and all-purpose submissives, whom it places, rearranges, plants or uproots, according to its circumstances and priorities, sometimes as academic ideologues and sometimes as party leaders, ministers and prime ministers, or advisers etc. etc. Substituting capital, politics from citizens and the state to make it a matter of ‘political mediators’, it trivializes it into hollow institutions and cheap spectacles, like Debates, where set-up protagonists chatter uncontrollably about meaningless topics, to distract attention. viewers and the public from the essence of politics, which is none other than the search for the cause of every positive or negative social phenomenon, such as social equality, prosperity, real democracy, cooperation, environment, culture, peace, etc., but also social inequality, poverty, unemployment, hunger, environmental destruction, war, etc.
Historically, Europe, despite its colonial and imperialist crimes, has always been the first to find its way to the next stage of history, which was progress compared to the stagnation of other regions of the planet. Unfortunately, however, in the 21st century, at the crucial historical moment when humanity can take the next step towards progress in overcoming capitalist barbarism, Europe is absent from this invitation of history, because it has chosen to exchange its independence, so against the East, as well as against the West, with its submission to the hegemonic plans of Americanism on behalf, supposedly, of the West. All this is happening at a time when Americanism is in decline and the West is losing its primaries one by one to the rising East, which forces Americanism to drag the entire West into a high-risk military/nuclear adventure in its active war zones Ukraine and the Middle East, whose neo-fascist leaderships have accepted the role of spearhead against Russia, with an ultimate target on China and ultimately the entire East with a central target on Eurasia, the global energy bank of questionable profit-making fossil fuels while causing enormous damage to humanity and planet Earth.
This choice of Europe to ally itself with the would-be Western hegemon, i.e. Americanism, has weakened it at all levels, leading the European Union step by step to disintegration, with a return to the 19th and 20th centuries to repeat history, but this time not as a farce, but as a definitive tragedy. This retreat of the European Union will not only destroy the European peoples, but the entire humanity that expected and expects European neutrality to act as an anti-hegemonic, anti-capitalist and peaceful force that would overthrow the plans of would-be rival hegemonies. Thus humanity, with Europe absent from its historical role, is dragged into war with the consequence that the next one, if there is one, will be fought with clubs, as Albert Einstein predicted.
But the truth of the ages and the Logic of social struggles point optimistically in the opposite direction. They indicate the direction of the timeless vision of the forces of work, science and culture which is gradually taking shape as a timeless strategy of social equality and classless humanistic culture, as the bright path of history, which even at the last moment will frustrate the plans of the architects of capitalism brutality. A dive into the roots of evil, into the institutional foundations of the system of slavery and destruction, is enough to identify the cause of the whole nightmare adventure which is none other than the individual ownership of the means of production, to radically change our attitude towards in capital, struggle and life and therefore come to the decision to abolish that which alienates us, abolishes us and threatens to destroy us, destroying the earth’s biosphere, the womb and creator of all life. This is exactly the work of the forces of work, science and culture, modern multidimensional people, homo humanisticus universalis, who are gradually ceasing to be homo economicus individualis, idle herds of chattering politicians and vulgar rulers. The complete humanist revolution on the basis of the reconnection of the productive base of society and in the form of Direct Democracy and Classless Humanist Civilization[6], can vindicate all previous incomplete revolutions, so that humanity can run from the prehistory of destruction to the real history of social equality, creation, gentle progress, global prosperity and world peace. And because this case is about the roots of evil and is of vital importance to humanity, we cannot leave it in the hands of professional politicians who dance in the superstructure to the beats of powerful oligarchs. That is why it is time as forces of work, science and culture, as individuals and as social entities, to dive into the roots of evil, so as to change the edifice, changing its roots, its philosophy, its principles and the measure of reason that ‘the measure of all things is man’ and not the profits of the few, linked to the violent alienation of people, the destruction of societies and the earth’s biosphere.
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Short CV:
Kostas Lampos, (85), studied economics in Zurich, Athens and Berlin where he was awarded (1981) a Doctor of Economics at the Freie Universität BERLIN. He taught at the Higher Industrial School of Thessaloniki (University of Macedonia), the National School of Public Administration and the TEI of Athens (University of Western Attica). He was the publisher and director of the HUMANIST Magazine, from 1965 until 1967 when its circulation was banned by the Junta, president of the Central Administration of the Economic Chamber of Greece (1986-1989) and director of the Agricultural Bank of Greece (1984-2004). He took part in dozens of scientific conferences in Greece and abroad and has a rich written work.
- His main works are:
- Unterentwicklung, Akkumulationskanäle und Kapitalbildungsmöglichkeiten in den unterentwickelten Agrarländern, F.U. Berlin, October 1974.
- Imperialism and Underdevelopment, Berlin 1975.
- Immigration. ‘Blessing’ or Curse? Berlin 1978.
- Dependency und fortgeschrittene Unterentwicklung dargestellt am Beispiel der Landwirtschaft Griechenlands R. G. Fischer Verlag, F/M 1981.
- Dependence, advanced underdevelopment and rural economy of Greece, AECHMI, Athens 1983.
- Cooperatives and Development, KOCHLIAS, Athens 1986, ILIANTHOS, ATHENS 1989 and TYPOTHITO-DARDANOS Publications, Athens 1999
- From the crisis to the overcoming of Greek Regional Capitalism, AECHMI, Athens 1988.
- Coordinates of National Agrarian Reconstruction, ILIANTHOS, Athens 1991
- The Rio-Antirrio Connection and the enemies of development, Athens 1992.
- Introduction to Economic Planning, ILIANTHOS, Athens 1996
- Americanism and Globalization, Economy of Fear and Decline, PAPAZISSIS, Athens 2009.
- Direct Democracy and Classless Society. The long march of humanity towards social equality and Humanism, NISIDES, Thessaloniki 2012.
- Who’s Afraid of Hydrogen? The hydrogen revolution, free energy and the liberation of humanity from fossil fuels and capitalist brutality, NISIDES, Thessaloniki 2013.
- Classless Democracy and Universal Humanism, in: Direct Democracy in the 21st Century. Searching for the essence beyond myths and ideologies, (Editor, foreword and participation), NISIDES, Thessaloniki 2013.
- God and Capital. Essay on the relationship between religion and power, KOUKKIDA, Athens 2015.
- The birth and death of individual property. Private property as a matrix of violence, power, inequality, criminality, obscurantism and immorality, KOUKKIDA, Athens 2017.
- Thoughts on an economy of social equality and freedom, in: A better world is possible. To establish the culture of social equality, (Editor, foreword and participation), KOUKKIDA, Athens 2020.
- Social inequality and Classless Humanism, ON TIME BOOKS, LONDON 2020. 19. Images, stations and memories (1939-2022), KOUKKIDA, Athens 2022.
- Paths of life, pages of history, KOUKKIDA, Athens 2022.
- Toxic Institutions, Identities, Societies, KOUKKIDA, Athens 2022.
- Social Inequality and Classless Humanism, KUKKIDA, Athens 2023.
- Platonism as a dominant ideology. The other reading of history, KOUKKIDA, Athens 2024.
- Sciences and Power. The sciences as a language and ideology of power, FOR PUBLICATION.
- CONTRIBUTIONS
- The upgrading of economic studies and social developments in Greece, ECONOMIC CHAMBER, Athens 1984.
- Agricultural sector: Current concerns, AGROTIKI TRAPEZA, Athens 1985.
- Problems of Agricultural economy. Perspectives of the Agrinio School of Economics, ECONOMIC CHAMBER, Athens 1986.
- Prospects and conditions for the development of modern Greek agriculture, Proceedings of the First Development Conference of the Region of Western Greece, Region of Western Greece, Patras 1989.
- Economic theory as a metaphysical dominant ideology, in: Economic Theory. Seeking and finding. Honorary volume for the emeritus Professor of Economic Theory, Georgios Hatzikonstantinou, TZIOLAS, Thessaloniki 2021. C. TRANSLATION: Alexander S. Neal, Theory and Practice of Anti-authoritarian Education, BOUKOUMANIS, Athens 1972 and KOUKKIDA, Athens 2020. D. OTHER PUBLICATIONS. Dozens of his studies have been published in Greek and foreign scientific journals and in many foreign languages and hundreds of his articles are hosted in the daily and magazine, print and electronic press.
[1] Lampos Kostas, Americanism and Globalization. Economy of fear and decline, PAPAZISIS PUBLICATIONS, Athens 2009.
[2] Lampos Kostas, God and Capital. Essay on the relationship between religion and power, KOUKKIDA PUBLICATIONS, Athens 2015.
[3] Lampos Kostas, The birth and death of individual property. Private property as a matrix of violence, power, inequality, criminality, obscurantism and immorality, KOUKKIDA PUBLICATIONS, Athens 2017.
[4] Lampos Kostas, Direct Democracy and Classless Society. The long march of humanity towards social equality and Humanism, NISIDES PUBLICATIONS, Thessaloniki 2012.
[5] Lampos Kostas, Toxic Institutions, Identities and Societies, KOUKKIDA PUBLICATIONS, Athens 2022.
[6] Lampos Kostas, Social in/Equality and classless humanism, KOUKKIDA PUBLICATIONS, Athens 2023 and Lampos Kostas, Social in/Equality and classless Humanism, ONTIMEBOOKS PUBLICATIONS, London 2021.
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