Another letter from Polys, from Ioannina prisons...
Public declaration of repentance. Before the venerable Minister of Justice
"Therefore repent; or else I am coming to thee quickly, and I will make war upon them with the sword of My mouth"
Apocalypse of John
"and where the market-place beginneth, there beginneth also the noise of the great actors and the buzzing of the poison-flies"
Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
Your Illustrious Highness
Watching at the Holiest Temple of Television the magestic Hymns and psalmodies of the Spectacle (also known to the untutored mob as "commercials"), at long last as a new apostle of the 21rst century Saul, I was touched by the divine afflatus of the Market's Holy spirit! A mirthful light encamped the threshold of my soul and dissolved the darkness of Evil (it is no coincidence Satan is a red devil. He is just a commie!)
Amen I tell thee, I gazed at the Truth ecstatically and cried out loud: It's a miracle! and it's a Progress! It's two in one!
And the vision of the Spectacle was revealed upon me! Blessed be the one reading and listening to the Logos of the Holly Merchandise: The cows may herd joyously to provide us their milk. The pigs cheerful may become nutritious hamburgers. The chicken blessed and laughing take part in the sacrament of baptism, and their name be Mimikos* . Bankers and loanees embraces in ecstacy one another and walk as brothers towards the kingdom of Heavens and the Holly Casserole. Industrialists, ship-owners, corporation buisnessmen with their bodies meagre of their ascetic lives, compete in who will first save the nature, the animals, the forest, the environment. Sparkling water showers the children of Africa. Now they are thirsty only for knowledge! Thank you, O company!
I thrill of emotion in the face of this emulation spirit. I cry whan facing the winged menstrual pad working arduously for a happy womens period. It moves me to tears when I see my favorite soft drink offering me a harem for my sexual consumption. What a brave lawful (and consequently moral) world. I cry with tearful cries that I got wrong all these tireless men of burden (that's because of burden O minister, don't let my virtuous intentions be misunderstood...) to worry for the good of us and our fellow humans. So, profit and social responsibility come together as our decent and humble** primeminister said, and also all these simple-hearted activists of neo-liberalism as Daskalopoulos and Mylonas***.
Thus I, my precious Minister, from now on negate in detestation the Anarcho-communist-bankrobber-gangsterism and all its ramifications as holding back Progress. So, I deliver my tin-cans to the situs authorities and I pledge allegiance to our blessed Authority, our kind State and the priesthood of the Holly Merchandise and sacred Labor. I repent bitterly and whip myself with my favorite telemarketing product, in order to purify my poor carcass. And feel now ready to serve Capitalism and our lovely little God, as a simple and humble monk.
For this reason, I claim the exceptional honor to adress Your Excellency and pray eagerly, that it would be within your pleasure to transfer me to the holy monastery of Vatopedi****, to serve as a servant of God the rest of my time. And I shall pray night and day for You and the salvation of your soul:
"Honor and patience to all Authority, even the wrong Authority. This is what a quiet sleep requires...I will always believe the better shephard is the one leading his sheep to the greenest fields: This is what suits best a quiet sleep"
I beg Your Excellency and fiercely wish for health and longevity in the glorious Right of the Lord. May Jahve, Agoraeus Hermes, and Panagia Deksia*****, illume you and your voters. Your slave and servant, now and forever till the end of time.
Polykarpos Georgiadis
Ioannina Prisons
September 2008
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Translator's notes:
* Mimikos is a greek poultry and frozen food company
** The primeminister K. Karamanlis often describes his government in these words
*** G. Mylonas is the president of Alumil industries and Northern Greece's Industrialists ex-president. His industry seems to be proud to be funding a NGO promoting a green-capitalist culture, such as Al Gore's work. G. Mylonas was kidnapped with a large ransom during the summer, and the police seized our comrade Polys Georgiadis, Vassilis Paleokostas (a convicted bank-robber, long term prisoner in struggle, prison escapee, fugitive, etc), Vaggelis Hrisohoidis, also a radical from Thessaloniki, and Giorgos Haralambidis, a long term prisoner for bank robberies, accused for taking part in the kidnap.
**** Latest TV reports repeat what most people in Greece know, that Vatopedi as most monasteries is an intermediate for real estate business, claiming public land or small properties to sell it later to real estate or constructions companies...
***** Hermes is the ancient Greek God of Commerce, Agoraeus was a common epithet meaning the protector of the marketplace. Panagia Deksia is a well known church to "Holy Mary the Right" in Thessaloniki.
Hundreds of thousands of communist insurgents after the Greek Civil War were threatened to sing declarations of repentance, so some things mentioned (as the tin-can, wich the right-wing accused the insurgents they killed many of their enemies with such) refer to these incidents.