3 - A Difficult Person with a Good Mind

 Indeed, Father was mentally strong, open-minded, his mind sharp, an avid learner. He could have accomplished more in life than a rather colourless and odourless career as a member of staff in a public utilities’ monopoly, however productive and growing this organisation might have been considered at a time of Greece’s post-ware reconstruction and timid technological development. Having become self-conscious, fully aware of his intelligence, and even been arrogant about it (it was a child’s play to intellectually assert himself in that respect in the environment he was growing up), he developed a stereotypical, almost Manichean perception of people and their minds: in terms of their abstract thinking, and the output and ideas of this thinking, but more in terms of their complexity than the depth or gravity of these ideas and the impact they might have on the movement of the world around.

His criticism and judging of people stemmed from a rather narrow and highly subjective definition of intelligence and intelligence quality, the main criteria being an ability to solve logical puzzles and cumbersome mathematical problems, the logical analysis of natural phenomena, the clarity of speech and fluency in public presentations and the concise formulation of thoughts in groups of people. The world in his mind was divided into two categories: the stupid and idiots on the one hand, whom he treated from the outset aphoristically and with contempt up to categorical and unconditional dismissals, and the intelligent, on the other hand, to whom he regularly bestowed flattering comments and praises (having accepted them as members of the same elite group he belonged to), attentively listened to them, and, rarely and over time, embraced some of the points of views that differed from his. However, most opinions, regardless of apparent and sometimes unequivocal validity were crushed against an inner wall of prejudice and obstinacy.

The reflexive spirit of rebuttal and self-contradictory trains of thought, which in the case of Father assumed pathological dimensions, are often the results of acute intelligence, which hastens to claim its own pedestal and distance itself from opposing or any views for that matter, even from common sense. Similar views, or rather prejudices, I observed in many who had the self-assuredness of their intellectual brilliance, mainly as a congenital gift further shone through learning. This conceit, so to speak, becomes especially enhanced when they do not receive a commensurate recognition by their social and professional groups, or there is not a significant uplift in their social and economic status. In a way, it could be summed up as a rather sterile superiority complex.

He was admitted in 1953 rather effortlessly by School of Physics of the major university of the city, without being prompted by anyone, on his own accord and his own effort and initiative, who knows under what preparation for the exams. His family could not afford the pre-exam tutoring. This success went almost unnoticed by parents and the neighbourhood, and was not accompanied by family celebrations that normally follow such milestones in a young person’s life in modern Greece. Yet, it was a big deal for his time, a remarkable achievement for the son of a lowly usher in the Association of Tobacco Merchants of Thessaloniki, an insignificance in the social strata of urban Thessaloniki in par with the workers in the tobacco processing factories, and the illiterate refugee girl from Bayindir who grew up in the slums of Toumpa. Individual and social accomplishments are relative and must be assessed with regards to the environment and time of one's life, to the dimensions of space and time man perceives during his existence, and to the forces, often powerful and unsurpassed, that this space-time exerts on conscience. As a restless scientific spirit that Father had been, upon graduation he left for Athens, where he was appointed as a teacher in a tutoring school under contract, whilst pursuing a postgraduate degree in Radio Engineering. In short, Father achieved a rather remarkable personal and social leap, relying almost exclusively to his own ability and judgement, from the poor household of his proletarian parents and Uncle Socrates, and joined the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia of the city.

The Greece of his youth was developing with a rapid pace, as most post-war societies in Europe that had to emerge from the ruins of war and stand on their feet, with or without outside help. With own choice and initiative, he made the most of the narrow margins of freedoms and liberties allowed by his environment, and with the broader horizons his education opened-up, he rode with his open mind the waves of economic growth. But limits of the urban society of his hometown and Greece would not be surpassed, despite his initial enthusiasm; the constraints imposed by a marginalised and dependent, albeit ‘emerging’ economy would eventually check his drive and the lively spirit he had displayed early in life, despite his sharp and open mind. If he was conscious of these limits himself, if he aspired to exceed them but he got stuck somewhere along the way, I do not know, nobody knows, but he would he not admit otherwise it if I had asked. And the most likely reason for reaching a plateau early in his career, when compared against the accomplishment of several of his friends and peers?  His intelligence, an unbridled propensity for argument and his unbending intransigence, a problematic character especially in his relationships with other human beings, ultimately acted as a brake and checked his career and, ultimately, life.