14.000 years and counting.

Jerome Bixby, the writer of the story 
and an awesome cigar smoker.

It's 3.41 AM, I have several doses of caffeine running through my bloodstream and I am very excited.

Intellectually that is.

Imagine, a man who does not die.

From the murky prehistoric past to our increasingly complex present, living through everything.

What would this man look like, what would he know?

The film I just watched called "The Man From Earth" which does a pretty good job of answering that and goes into a interesting deconstruction of Christianity on the side.

In a quite somber goodbye party, John Oldman announces to his colleagues

(a biologist, an art history professor who is a devout Christian, an anthropologist, 

a historian, a psychiatrist, an archaeologist and his student.) that he is in fact immortal and has lived through 14.000 years. He naturally has no proof.

Most of the members of the small group (a group of scholars as it would be) 
have interesting perspectives and questions that add to the atmosphere.
Their diverse reactions to John's claim reveal much about types of people and humans as a whole.

Sure, in the technical sense of a movie it has it's flaws mostly because it's budget was less than what you need to buy a small London apartment. 

Which is appropriate since the whole film takes place in one room.
[In my opinion the ending is slightly weak compared to the rest but I won't spoil anything.]

None of these details really matter.

I'll just say this. 

The Room is hanging on his words.
Are they the fantastical truth or just cunning manipulation?

You can take the whole thing at face value.
That he is immortal and he's just trying to tell them the truth.
Or he is actually a charming manipulator just getting a kick out of playing with peoples feelings? 
Before the end he converts most of the room and many moments gain a sinister edge with the second scenario in mind.



Once your drawn in, (and it's very easy with this film) by the story and the discussion you'll feel like a person in that room, occasionally cursing your inability to join in, ask your questions, debate but even so you might learn something if you keep your mind open.

So what I'm basically trying to say is that I recommend this movie. Go see it now!

Out of the many emotions evoked from me, in this hour and a half,
the most notable is envy.

Primarily the envy of immortality, of being apart of time, the human race, etc.

I suppose a hunger for eternal life is understandable if not coveted by most.

But on the other (slightly more attainable) side I'm jealous of the quality of the discussion.

A few people with a few hours to spare, talking about exciting and complex stuff, willing to use their minds and their knowledge to decide, persuade, create.

Heck I could settle for basic stuff!

At this point as long as it's not about the weather or money it would do..

Ah well, I'll stop writing now and go look for someone in the house to chat with.

About some hard issues.

Did I mention that it's 4 AM and that I'm naked?

Fun times...

Charalampos Koundourakis.




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One-time Member Bonus Offer: JOIN NOW OR DIE*!!!

Now and for a limited time only (!)

 you shall receive a free membership card when you join Thinkersoup.

Thinkersoup!

Now as we are progressive in everything including technology we shan't bother with dreary "real" cards made with boring cardboard. Oh no. You shall receive the deluxe digital form.

First, our first member Diana who has earned VIP status through her valor of being

 "First!"

JOIN HERE!!! 

(Remember, otherwise it's death and dismemberment for you and your family.. 

And the pets!!!)

Then, of course we have our second member who also holds the award
"Oldest member of Thinkersoup Award" Award. A round of applause everyone! 

Our third member is so good at maths he has managed to join this blog twice.

 Do not ask me how. He's a genius.

Our fourth member, whose mysterious ways have kept much about her secret(!).

To our tallest member he is a wizard with Basketball and any sport.
Also he is naked. And looking at you.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! It's Karlos!

Our most "illegal" member she hides her face and can never be trusted.

Simply put, a man with some amazing talents.

He really really really wanted to get a card. Now he has one and look how happy he is!

From the world of illustration, he comes to do mischief and maybe some drawings. O.o 

A true Wizard, he will magic up some fun at any time.

Bonus tip: Will get us out of any legal troubles.

Last but CERTAINLY not least of our members, our very own blog doctor. As you can see from the photo he practically oozes charm (Warning: occasional greasy hair).

And let us not forget, the man with the vision, our founding father, the Creator of all, Master of dominion and surveyor of the Plains, the Burning eye and the Growling stomach

Charalampos Koundourakis!

Join now and get YOUR card!

Charalampos Koundourakis.

* Offer is valid until such date that I grow bored or lose patience or find something else to do. In the case you are dissatisfied  with the appearance of your card then contact Thinkersoup@gmail.com so we can tell you to bugger off and make a better one in paint. We refuse any criticism of copy&paste as we assure you the quality of our cards is incomparable and every one is handmade in Switzerland then flown to America so they can be emailed to our headquarters  Note that when joining and receiving this card you are entering a binding contract where stated is that you must obey any commands of the named claimant: Charalampos Koundourakis even over and beyond the constitution of your resident country. We accept no responsibility for any injuries  allergies or mental diseases experienced reading this blog. In regards of the title no retributional death will be perfomed. 

*copyright*

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The Girly Notebook with the Dragon Tattoo Cover

Yes. It's true.

Thinkersoup has an official NOTEBOOK. 

Now ideas can be scribed immediately without losing any details,

The "it's totally a Dragon Tattoo, not a shoe" cover.

Memories can be kept and altered into better ones and even dreams remembered and storyfied.

(Expect one soon plucky readers!)

I'll share with you a small excerpt (page 1 and page 2) which luckily have no embarrassing little details.

PS: 

That is not a shoe. 

It's a Lava Dragon.

Dear Notebook.

I am so glad you're not a diary.

See I have tried numerous times to keep a diary and to my dismay I have found that they come included with numerous dates (!!!). This means a certain responsibility of writing, a certain respect of time limits...

So I either end up ignoring them and feeling vaguely guilty as if I've slapped the Time God or rewriting them, ending up with a very messy looking diary. 

Now, I found you in a bag outside a charity shop at Midnight. 
Some would say it was destiny, dear notebook but then again some would say it is stealing*.

I have to admit that you are a very girly notebook with all that red shoes and ribbons on a jet black cover and the first 20 pages full of "Does he like me" and "Am I too fat" stuff. 
I had to rip them out.
It was for your own good.

And now here we are.
I'm going to use your pages as an aide to memory, a place to put my ideas so they don't go bad and and maybe...maybe as a friend.



So I'm going to get writing. With a pen.
It will look like this but with 10 times as bad handwriting and one day ...
One day I will sell it for a million.


Charalampos Koundourakis

*Nah that didn't happen. Me? Stealing? A huge joke surely.

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Greece: Exploding State

Now to interrupt our usual program..

-We need to talk about Kevin.
-What about Kevin?
-He's killing people.
-Oh.
-I think we should find help and..
-Anyway, that's not important.
-What?
-We...We need to talk about Greece...


On purpose I have avoided most news about Greece ever since my travels.
It's, frankly, depressing to hear the stuff that's going on and I wanted to focus on making a life in Scotland without worrying about the folks back home.
But I made the decision (or mistake, depends how you look at it) to look back.


AND I AM FURIOUS.


A 27 year old man was arrested in Greece this last week.
His crime, you ask?

BLASPHEMY.

Oh yes, my plucky readers. Please, go ahead and savour that word for a moment.
 It's a words word full of sound and spit and we don't use it often enough to get a kick out of it. One could even say it is slowly being eased out of existence and into obsolescence.

Not in Greece.

This man was charged because of his "blasphemous" Facebook page against the Greek Monk Gero(Elder) Paisios a much favoured monk who died a few years ago and is being discussed for Sainthood.

The page was called Gero Pastitsios and understably had the monk holding a bowl of pastitsio. (Greek Pasta if Pasta had more meat than pasta ***My version***)
and various other 'jokes and funnies' about the same man.
Harmless jokes which were mostly not funny, meme style.


Now what the monk did or did not is quuuuite irrelevant. He might actually be a saint, the best man on earth or can be a trickster come to our hearth.
The important part of the story is that making fun of someone should NEVER be prohibited.

It might be in bad taste and if it is it should be ignored but parodying and making fun
keeps everyone from taking themselves too seriously.

That is a good thing.

Now someone was arrested for a Facebook page that broke no laws. Just like that. Because the man in question is a priest.
Even if I went by the bizarre and odd "laws of the church" (this should be an oxymoron) he is not a Saint (yet) just a priest so no blasphemy could be committed. Irrelevant anyway!
Theocracy or Theocrazy more like it this is just wrong.



But this is all small fry. Details and trivialities.

Because only after severe pressure from the
"Neo-Nazi Greek Political Party "Golden Dawn" did the police actually authorize the arrest.
The Pride of our nation.
There are stories and rumors that they are violent, racist and hateful and generally
living up to the Nazi part in the full.
And they have true power in my country. Why???

Because a sh**lo*d of people about my age group are so terrified by the bleak road ahead them that they will cling to anything that might promise safety.
They have no jobs.
They have no future.
They are desperate and people are taking advantage of that.



I am embarrassed for my Country.
I am ashamed for my Generation.
I am guilty of not helping.
And I can speak no more*.



Charalampos Koundourakis.




*For now.
Under this post is a excerpt from our esteemed Guest Author, Mr Ryan PhD who will inform us more about the situation and specifically about the political group. 
He has already been threatened so will remain misnamed. 

PS2: I understand that this subject is not for everyone, so if it's not to your liking there will be some whimsical tales of travels soon of how I started, the time when I lost my voice in the land of the cannibal barbarians and meeting a crazy Lithuanian.

But now I am furious.
Thank you.


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Golden dawn. Nazis and theocracy on the loose in Greece

Recently, Greece has been at the centre of great economic turmoil. As a direct result people's trust on the political system has significantly decreased.
That is to be expected in the circumstances. What has been a matter of surprise though is the emergence of an obscure political party, Golden Dawn. The party's actually has a lot of history (check wikipedia for instance) and indeed its activities range from attacks to immigrants, imperialist and nazi propaganda (yes, even Greeks can dream) and a strange mix of religious and mysticist propaganda, which, of course is to be expected in the circumstances.

That is: these kinds of parties usually rely on the inability of people to judge correctly, because who, in their right mind, would support some violent homicidal organization who claim superiority of the "greek DNA" (yes, you heard right! I still wait for researchers to find those damn Greek nucleotides). This can be achieved in many ways but the most efficient by far is the exploit of the human brain software known as religion. In fact, religion is very good when it comes to making people not question ridiculous declarations. This exploit has actually been very easy to utilize because religion is taught at schools with an alarming amount of propaganda embedded.

In fact, it's presented as if the Essence of Greece is Christianity.
Historically this equation doesn't hold but this is not a history lesson though it should be if one hopes to understand the issue in depth. So it goes without say that those who support religion are also considered patriots.

Now, Golden Dawn itself has been comprised of mostly criminals, though for some reason these criminals have gained momentum. Why is that? Well, for the most part, it's because of the economic climate itself.
As they claim: "A job for an immigrant is a job less for a Greek" so they give solace to people who think of immigrants as inferior, an effect exemplified by religion whose claim of the ultimate throne of ethics means that non-believers are automatically considered unethical, sinister and evil.

Of course this has been unfair to immigrants for an extra reason. Most immigrants have worked underpaid for Greeks and many illegal immigrants more so. The irony is that the Greek employers feel empathy toward their workers, even though it is them who have often shamelessly exploited their insecurity (This is a general phenomenon in  our capitalism, and is closely tied to people's tendency to prefer cheap goods which can lead to oppression of workers).

Of course Golden Dawn play dirty. They never lose an opportunity to support christian religious views (even though many of their members believe in the 12 god pantheon of ancient Greece) and recently they managed to get a 27 year old Pastafarian in custody for quoting the ridiculous texts of a monk who is considered a saint by many victims of religious propaganda.
The Pastafarian also staged a fake miracle that was shamelessly reproduced by many conspiracy theory blogs who were subsequently exposed.

YouTube is full of videos on this subject, where Christians,  Atheists and also fascists argue and it is quite clear that there is a very specific line of arguments for the pro-religion side. It looks like they are indeed organized, and likely, well funded, though from whom is an open question.

Interestingly enough, they seem to detract attention from the horrible economic measures that continue to make life in Greece insufferable.

Following the elections of 2012, Golden Dawn is now a part of the Greek parliament, in spite of laws that prohibit people with a criminal record to become candidates for election.
This is of course tied to the fact that they also have some support from the police and military and that justice in Greece does not work too well (as can be seen in the economic context as well).

Finally with the hemorrhage of educated people out of Greece, the percentage of the gullible fanatics remaining has increased. However people still find Golden Dawn downright offensive to human rights, and even an avaaz campaign has been organized against it.

Personally I have had little experience with members of the Golden Dawn, but after the recent religious frenzy I just had to respond on some of the YouTube videos. The thing is, after all logical arguments are exhausted (and it really doesn't take too long with these people), they openly resort to threats, which is not fun, even on the internet.
I just hope there's a shred of justice in Greece still and these hooligans can go where they need to be: In jail.

However, since Greece looks like becoming a theocracy as well, and given that Golden Dawn may enjoy the support of religious fanatics, it is entirely possible that we may see a Nazist Greece in the near future. I really hope I won't have to see that...


Mr. Ryan PhD

P.S. Maybe a fantasy story with a satyrical view of Golden Dawn would do them justice. Apart from the seriousness of the situation they can be a source of laughter if you read what they actually say (up until they part where they hit your head of course...)