To tell the truth, I’ve been watching with embarrassment these days all this “Mazonakiada” , all this torrent of fragmentary information and impressions , about an artist known to the general public who suddenly – and tragically – passed away.
I must admit from the outset that I had never been to the shops where he sang, that his songs were not really to my taste, although he himself seemed likeable to me. And that’s it.
Generally, when a person leaves and the soil covering them is still fresh , it is not the time to make in-depth judgments about their personality. Here, silence is preferable – and more honorable .
Even more so when his family and the perhaps problematic relationships of the deceased with his loved ones are involved. The memory of the departed and the pain of those left behind require us to respect such moments. And here the best thing we can do is remain silent .
* However, the “Mazonakiada” that continues so many days later, in all the media , shows that there are some things far beyond the deceased himself .
— There’s something about the way society elevates “stars”, then deconstructs and destroys them, and then mourns them .
And this is called blatant hypocrisy . Which does not allow silence .
— There is something to do with the “night” and its relationships with its people ,
— There is also something to do with how some professionals operate towards people who are trying to stay forever young ,
how scientific medical associations operate against the vanity of those who want to defeat time ,
how the state’s control mechanisms operate against both the night and the illicit trade in eternal youth ,
and how the media , which should be controlling all this – and don’t – work : one day they advertise some problematic medical methods as “miraculous” and the next they denounce those who practice them as “saltybugs” …
And the very elite of society, which was quick to exploit the services of all of them, suddenly becomes “frightened and surprised” and pretends to have nothing to do with them .
This is no longer the hypocrisy of some .
It is a generalized expression of decadence .
And all this does not justify silence .
Because they don’t concern our fellow human being who has passed away.
They concern all of us who remained …
* First of all, the “night” . In all times and in all societies, it has always been in the gray area of the Law . It had abuses , dependencies , protection and circuits that live in the twilight …
As long as they remain in the semi-darkness, they are tolerable.
When they are presented as “standards” and “values,” control is lost .
All of us, when we want to let loose, perhaps do things or tolerate things that we don’t want to see in front of us in our normal lives , in our families , in our work …
This is not “hypocrisy” – it is a rule of human life .
The fact that at some point we will go out and have two more drinks does not mean that… we accept alcoholism as a normal state in our lives .
Our behavior at the “extreme” moment when we want to relax and “empty” our soul from our anxieties is not confused with our “normality” , with the rules that we ourselves have adopted for our lives and for our relationships with those around us.
Bad lies. We all “sin” , but we don’t want to live in “sin” , nor can we stand to live in a world where “sin” has been elevated to “virtue” or “success” or recognition – or the only path to social advancement …
And today the ball has been completely lost. And that’s not the “night”‘s fault, which always does that. It’s our fault! For taking the night out of the twilight and shining the spotlight of social recognition on it.
We abolished boundaries , we reversed standards , we elevated vice or antisocial behavior to virtue .
There have never been – nor will there ever be – “communities of saints” .
But decline begins when boundaries are abolished , rules are relaxed , value standards collapse , and value scales are reversed . The unacceptable becomes the “standard” and the worthless is presented as a claim .
* Let’s go to scientists and their associations . It is obvious that people are looking for ways to improve their image , to prolong their youth . And Science is looking for ways to meet this “demand”. There is nothing unnatural, nothing “bad”, in this.
When, in the past, people were faced with problems of daily survival , no one cared how a sixty-year-old would behave romantically as an “uninhibited teenager” and how a sixty-year-old would attract men as a 25-year-old.
Times have changed, societies have tasted “abundance” . And then they often paid for it, crises have passed, but the pursuit of vanity has remained . Today, when many people still have problems making ends meet, societies have adopted models of generalized prosperity and the demand for prolonging youth is intense. Even if it concerns, mainly, the upper social classes .
The problem is that scientific societies cannot separate the wheat from the chaff . What is scientifically acceptable , what is simply useless , and what is potentially dangerous . Science has made these distinctions. But scientific societies, no …
As doctors later confirm: Plasmapheresis is a valid and recognized medical method , with specific therapeutic indications . However, it is not a general anti-aging or rejuvenation treatment . And when a complex medical procedure is transformed into a commercial wellness service , without a clear indication and without the necessary safety conditions , the issue is no longer the vanity of the client. It is the responsibility of those who offer it and the institutions that must control its implementation .
And for all this, the professional associations of scientists should have warned the general public . However, that was not done .
And the same media , which today discredits the “therapists” of the unfortunate Mazonakis, often advertised these practices and the “professionals” that they now curse .
Much worse: Those honest doctors , before Mazonakis’ death, who dared to say something against this entire “industry” , faced a barrage of exclusion . They were silenced! Or they were denounced as “anachronistic” , who refuse to see the “progress of Science”…
The medical associations did not protect them and the media silenced them .
And this is not just “negligence” . It’s starting to become complicity …
* Let’s go to the state , now. Which, in order to protect the public interest , must keep the “night” within the limits of legality and impose control on new practices , especially when scientific technique becomes a ruthless trade of vanity . Here the state is completely paralyzed .
And not just now – to be fair. The paralysis of legality and audit mechanisms has been slowly progressing for decades. It’s just that now it has escaped. With the final step being the abolition of the independent body of auditors that took place in 2019 , under the pretext of their “integration” into the “National Transparency Authority” …
There are indications that it was not simply “integrated” …
It’s been degassed!
* And so we finally got to the point where smoking was banned , but the… “smear” was constantly spreading! Especially in the hangouts frequented by young people .
Breathalyzer tests on the streets and fines for violators have increased (and rightly so), but the use and trafficking of “substances” are becoming more widespread .
Public figures are constantly advertising new techniques… “quantum medicine”! Which ensure reduced wrinkles and increased libido for a certain period of time…
The media portrays visibly “addicted” people as “role models of success” .
When neo-rich “extremity” becomes a “standard” and virtue is relegated to the “margins” , when people who understand it are forced into silence and the spotlight is turned on people who display their weaknesses as “virtues” , then decadence gallops .
Because Decline is not just the reversal of standards. It is also the acceptance of this reversal by society .
Society’s addiction to accepting deviation as “normality” ,
illegality as a “virtue of recognition” ,
honesty as… “nonsense” ,
and silence in the face of lies as an “ethical” and “rational attitude” .
And society wakes up at some point and either doesn’t understand how it got this way, or it sets “the places on fire” and then we blame it on… Populism !
Before every populist explosion , there are years of elite apathy ,
weakening of legality, media hypocrisy and widespread corruption ,
in which more and more people participate and fewer and fewer resist .
* At this moment, society is consuming the “Mazonakiada” as a tribute to a symbol of popularism , with the tragic suspicion that (beyond the responsibilities he himself had), he was “killed” by the very ones who are mourning him now and fighting among themselves over who is ultimately more to blame.
No one is more to blame, guys …
Look in the mirror!
We abolished boundaries, we reversed standards , we elevated vice or antisocial behavior to a “virtue” .
Look in the mirror! And take a good look …
Maybe this way we will understand someday how the decline in which we are carefreely swimming can be stopped …
THANASSIS K.
