Ανατροπή αξιών στην εποχή μας

Οι άνθρωποι δημιουργήθηκαν για να αγαπηθούν.

Τα πράγματα δημιουργήθηκαν για να χρησιμοποιηθούν.

Ο λόγος, που ο κόσμος είναι μέσα στο χάος,

είναι γιατί τα πράγματα αγαπιούνται και οι άνθρωποι χρησιμοποιούνται....

Gross National Product…

“Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile”

[Remarks of Robert F. Kennedy at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968]

[Source:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Robert-F-Kennedy-at-the-University-of-Kansas-March-18-1968.aspx]

Greek translation, here:

http://eaglestefanos.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post_27.html

«If…» (by Rudyard Kipling)

IF you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Sources:

http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm [“The Kipling Society”]

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/If%E2%80%94 [“Wikisource”]

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If%E2%80%94 [“Wikipedia”]

http://www.kipling.org.uk/bookmart_fra.htm [“Kipling Society / Notes on the poem”]

Greek translation here:

http://eaglestefanos.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-post.html