On October 28, 2011, the successful students of the municipality of Xylokastro Evrostina in higher education were awarded. Argyris Chionis was the main speaker of the event and all the children were given a book of his. So I went up to Throfari to pick him up, and after the necessary stop at the Intro Art Cafe, we arrived at the Angelos Sikelianos theater. We sat down and waited for him to be called to the stage.

At one point he takes out the papers he had written and while taking one last look at them he asks me: “Is ass licking a bad word?” “No,” I answer immediately and smile slyly. “Oh, okay,” he said and after a while he went up to the podium.

At first - the children especially - I can't say that they paid attention to the speaker. Shortly after, the entire theater fell silent and listened reverently. It was not an ordinary speech. How could it be? Perhaps those who didn't know him expected to hear trivial admonitions from a "wise" elder to the young. But, it was different. Fortunately, he cut me off and I pressed the recording on my mobile, recorded it and so we have almost all of it. Apart from the introduction (where he thanked me for the invitation) and a couple of words that are not heard, the rest is as it is:

"...they asked me to give a speech. When I heard this, I confess that I was somewhat embarrassed. 1st: because I am not renowned for my rhetorical abilities and 2nd: because what could one say, in such difficult times, to young people who are starting higher and higher studies, without having the certainty that the knowledge they will acquire will be utilized by society. What can one say to these young people who are starting their academic careers when they constantly hear from their "wise" elders in introductory lectures that the barrel of the crisis has no bottom and that there is no light at the end of the tunnel?
However, I, who am neither wise nor naturally optimistic, after all, it is known that most poets and writers are more or less depressed, came to the conclusion after mature thought that there is light. But not at the bottom of any tunnel, but within ourselves, at the bottom of ourselves. And it is this light that we must seek, always remembering that every time the Greeks achieved greatness and overcame any adversity, it was because they bent within themselves and sought this inner light.

So, with your eyes always turned towards this light, devote yourself to your studies without thinking about the material benefit from them, because education does not aim at creating wealth, but at shaping character, ethics and spirit. When this is achieved, the others, namely the career and the consequent material gains, will come by themselves as a natural consequence. My own generation, which is clearly much older than yours and older even than that of your parents, lived its childhood years in the era that followed the war and the civil war, amidst poverty and misery and its adolescence and manhood amidst social struggles and the persecutions of the state. And yet, this generation excelled in letters and the arts. It took the lead in overthrowing the junta and raised important personalities who still mark our society. Of course, it also highlighted a multitude of opportunists, utilitarians, paper-baggers, politicians and golden boys. That is, those who lost touch with their inner light, subjugated to their personal ambitions, their personal interests and the interests of foreign dark forces and led us to this mess and this shame that we live in today. However, we ourselves are responsible for this mess, for entrusting our fate to their unworthy hands, as a result of which we are now in danger of losing our inner light.

My dear friends, today we celebrate the great NO that the Greek people said to local and foreign fascism. 71 years have passed since then, and while we had believed that the monster had been killed once and for all, we now see it being reborn in a new form and a new name. The inverted “ideal” name of globalization, behind which lies a dragon of big bankers and speculators whose goal is to subjugate all the peoples of the planet to their immeasurable greed for wealth and power.

My friends, I have the feeling that we are already living in a third undeclared world war, a new occupation. Already in our developed world, armies of the unemployed…are digging through the garbage in search of leftovers and excrement to appease their hunger and cover their nakedness. As for the underdeveloped world, the third world, we have nothing but to look at Africa, which has become a huge cemetery. So is it time to turn back to the forgotten light within us and to oppose this new barbarity with a series of new NOs, some of which will be addressed to us ourselves, that is, to the damaged, eroded by the system part of ourselves?

As an indication only, I am listing here a list of NOs for immediate application, which I am sure you can supplement yourself with many more, because it is impossible not to have realized that "we took our lives wrong and we must change our lives", as Seferis would say:

So NO to the overconsumption of goods and the acquired needs that the merchants of nations have created for us.
NO to credit cards and the usury of banks.
NO to loans that we cannot repay.
NO to old-fashioned partisanship and party leaders.
NO to the bite vote.
NO to the middle and ass-licking. YES to meritocracy.
NO to party fanaticism, because it is no different from football stadium hooliganism.
NO to personality cults and family cults.
NO to the illusion that by voting for our elected leaders every four years we are fulfilling our democratic duty, and from then on we have no other role than to applaud or curse them depending on whether or not they serve our personal interests.
NO to the partisan and sometimes state-controlled unions that operate as guilds, caring only for their members and leaving the rest of society in their old shoes.
NO to the education that creates specialized dummies, insensitive technocrats, authoritarian paperboys, ridiculous yuppies and predatory golden boys. YES to the education that produces the necessary specialization, broadens the spirit in general and gives substantial meaning to life.
NO to patriotism and sterile nationalism.
NO to racism and xenophobia.
NO to the destruction of the environment. We must finally understand that this world was not created for us, and it belongs to us as much as it belongs to the smallest ant. It is not a toy that our father gave us and we can break it to see what is inside.
NO to excursionist or touristic naturalism. YES to our absolute identification with nature.
NO to laziness. YES to work, even to that which has nothing to do with our studies. In times like the one we are going through and where survival is a question, no job is shameful. No job is only for despised immigrants.
NO to television, where on the main news bulletin we learn which glamorous non-existent woman married her corresponding glamorous non-existent man. YES to culture. YES to music. YES to theater. YES to cinema. YES and again YES to books.
NO to unfair competition, to push-back and false bragging, to empty magic, to "do you know who I am, kid?". YES to competition, to noble rivalry, to camaraderie, to solidarity..."

Two months later, Argyris suddenly "died" us. On Christmas 2011, he died of an acute heart attack. But what am I saying? Do sowers ever die?