The Skyros Series
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Three complementary essays by Yannis Androcopoulos, co-founder of Skyros Holidays
In Bed With Madness: Trying to make sense in a world that doesn’t
Globalism endowed us with McDonald’s, ‘the world’s local bank’, English football teams without English players and an irrepressible desire for more as enough is never good enough – the blanket is always too short. Our personal world as much as our social and political realities seem to have blithely surrendered to the madness of a civilization which views anything from corporate greed and global warming to military adventures and religious fundamentalism as normal as a door banging in the wind. The destructive capabilities of our age have run too far ahead of our wisdom. However, the process is not irreversible if our thinking can postpone its retirement. In Bed with Madness is ‘a well-argued, powerful and profound indictment of contemporary culture’, stylishly written – a reviewer said he would have bought it just for its humour!200 pp., £8.95 / $17.90, 978-1845401290 (pbk.), March 2008 order your copy
The Greek Inheritance: Ancient Greek wisdom for the digital era
The culture of ancient Greece, a culture of joy, was replaced by the Judaeo-Christian culture of faith and then by the capitalist culture of profit. Yet it is the only culture worth fighting for if we want a world run by humans rather than theocracies, nanotechnologies or private equity funds. Yannis Andricopoulos views the Greek culture as the front line of the battle against individualism, materialism, authoritarianism and religious extremism. In a world turned into the corporations’ playground, this is also the battle for human values, civic virtues and an ethical society. The Greek Inheritance traces the conflict between Greek values and those of the repressive, religious or capitalist order throughout the millennia. The book is challenging and well-written with a light, humorous touch.260 pp., £8.95 / $17.90, 978-1845401306 (pbk.), March 2008 order your copy
The Future of the Past: From the culture of profit to the culture of joy by Yannis Androcopoulos
Universalism in its old forms has, just like door-to-door milkmen, gone for good. But the search for some universally accepted ethical standards cannot be abandoned – values are not colourless as the wind and odourless as thoughts. Looking into our world from the classical Greek point of view, Yannis Andricopoulos wonders whether we cannot place Justice again at the heart of our morality, look forward to the happiness of the individual rather than the upgrading of his or her consumer fantasies, and endeavour to create, not more wealth, but a just and honourable world. The Future of the Past is written in ‘a lively, challenging style guaranteeing to stimulate debate on the most pressing issues of our time’.200 pp., £8.95 / $17.90, 978-1845401313 (pbk.), March 2008 order your copy
Yannis Androcopoulos Ph.D, co-founder of Skyros Holidays, is a former political journalist and editor of i-to-i magazine.