Εμείς οι «δεσμώτες» στο σπήλαιο βλέπουμε τις σκιές που σχηματίζονται μπροστά μας από τα αντικείμενα που περνούν μεταξύ της φωτιάς και του παραβάν. Με την ομιλία ενδυναμώνεται η αντίληψη μας για τα συμβαίνονται στο σπήλαιο, αλλά οπωσδήποτε δεν έχουμε σαφή αντίληψη του τι συμβαίνει μέσα σ’ αυτό.

Κι’ αυτά τα έλεγε ο Πλάτων-όχι για τους ανθρώπους της σημερινής εποχής που υφίστανται την πιο άγρια παραπληροφόρηση-αλλά για φυσιολογικούς ανθρώπους που ελάμβαναν τις εντυπώσεις τους από τον γύρω κόσμο των αισθήσεων . Αν κάποια στιγμή λύσεις τα δεσμά των φυλακισμένων στο σπήλαιο , θα δυσκολευθούν-λόγω αγκυλώσεων στον αυχένα-να κοιτάξουν δεξιά ή αριστερά. Όταν δε θα στρέψουν το κεφάλι προς τα πίσω και δουν την φωτιά είναι βέβαιο ότι θα τυφλωθούν προσωρινώς ή μονίμως. Ετσι λοιπόν δεν θα μπορέσουν να αναγνωρίσουν τα αντικείμενα, τις σκιές των οποίων έβλεπαν στον τοίχο του σπηλαίου , καθώς και τις φωνές που έφθαναν στα αυτιά τους. [Κάτι παρόμοιο συμβαίνει με αυτούς που πέφτουν θύματα απαγωγής, που τους έχουν δεμένα τα μάτια και δεν έχουν πλήρη αντίληψη των αισθήσεων].

Σκεφθείτε έναν άνθρωπο που τον έχουν βάλει σ’ ένα θρησκευτικό ή ιδεολογικό «σπήλαιο» από τα παιδικά του χρόνια και δεν του επιτρέπουν να κοιτάξει αριστερά ή δεξιά ή να απελευθερωθεί. και να ανέβει στην επιφάνεια . Όταν κάποτε απελευθερωθεί και αντιμετωπίσει την πραγματικότητα του είναι δύσκολο να την πιστέψει και επανέρχεται δρομέως στο σπήλαιο-εν προκειμένω στο μύθο που του έχουν πλάσει για το θεό και τον κόσμο-διότι εκεί αισθάνεται ασφαλής..

Χρειάζεται μεγάλη δύναμη για να μπορέσει κανείς ν’ απελευθερωθεί από τα δεσμά του «σπηλαίου», των προκαταλήψεων, δεισιδαιμονιών, παραμορφώσεων, αμάθειας που βιώνουμε μέσα μας από τα παιδικά μας χρόνια. Όταν μάλιστα ορισμένοι σκοταδιστικοί κύκλοι, που ελέγχουν τα σύγχρονα ΜΜΕ-Ψυχαγωγίας, χειραγωγούν τη σκέψη μας με τα ναρκωτικά, την τηλεόραση, το “Big Brother” κ. α , τότε αντιλαμβάνεσθε πόσο δύσκολο είναι να απελευθερωθούν οι «δεσμώτες» των σπηλαίων. Μόνον ισχυρές προσωπικότητες απελευθερώνονται από τα δεσμά (λ. χ Ορφεύς, Σωκράτης, Πυθαγόρας , Απολλώνιος Τυανεύς κ. α) που βγαίνουν έξω από το σπήλαιο για να διδάξουν στον κόσμο την Αλήθεια . Η Ελένη κάνει προσπάθειες , αλλά δεν βγαίνει απο το σπήλαιο. Η διαμονή στο σπήλαιο είναι ο κόσμος των αισθήσεων. Ο επάνω κόσμος είναι ο κόσμος της Γνώσης και της Ευδαιμονίας. Αυτή μπορεί να επιτευχθεί μόνον με την Παιδεία. Την Ελληνική Παιδεία.

Κ. Χ. Κωνσταντινίδης

Υποστράτηγος ε. α

AMPHIKTYON, mou thimises to vivliaki "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". To diavasa edw kai polla xronia, me to paidi mou, ena misawro to perissotero. O Richard Bach den einai Plato. Alla, diavase:

Excerpt from Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A Story. By Richard Bach--It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea. A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water, and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning.

But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisting curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one . . . single . . . more . . . inch . . . of . . . curve. . . . Then his feathers ruffled, he stalled and fell.

Seagulls, as you know, never falter never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor.

But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve--slowing, slowing, and stalling once more--was no ordinary bird.

Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight--how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.

This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one's self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.

He didn't know why, for instance, but when he flew at altitudes less than half his wingspan above the water, he could stay in the air longer, with less effort. His glides ended not with the usual feet-down splash into the sea, but with a long flat wake as he touched the surface with his feet tightly streamlined against his body. When he began sliding in to feet-up landings on the beach, then pacing the length of his slide in the sand, his parents were very much dismayed indeed.

"Why, Jon, why?" his mother asked. "Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can't you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don't you eat? Son, you're bone and feathers!"

I don't mind being bone and feathers, mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can't, that's all. I just want to know."

"See here, Jonathan," said his father, not unkindly. "Winter isn't far away. Boats will be few, and the surface fish will be swimming deep. If you must study, then study food, and how to get it. This flying business is all very well, but you can't eat a glide, you know. Don't you forget that the reason you fly is to eat."

Jonathan nodded obediently. For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching and fighting with the flock around the piers and fishing boats, diving on scraps of fish and bread. But he couldn't make it work.
It's all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him. I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There's so much to learn!

It wasn't long before Jonathan Gull was off by himself again, far out at sea, hungry, happy, learning.

The subject was speed, and in a week's practice he learned more about speed than the fastest gull alive.

Climb to a thousand feet. Full power straight ahead first, then push over, flapping, to a vertical dive ... Ten times he tried, and all ten times, as he passed through seventy miles per hour, he burst into a churning mass of feathers, out of control, crashing down into the water...

...As he sank low in the water, a strange hollow voice sounded within him. There's no way around it. I am a seagull. I am limited by my nature. If I were meant to learn so much about flying, I'd have charts for brains. If I were meant to fly at speed, I'd have a falcon's short wings, and live on mice instead of fish...

Vevaia o Jonathan Seagull prospathise, kai prospathise, mexri pou petaxe toso grigora, pou vrike oxi to mualo, alla ton Theo; oxi tin "pragmatikotita" alla to "oneiro."

Apo ekatommiria xronia, to mualo mas to kserei: oi anthrwpoi den petane. H gnwsi mas egeine to skini pou mas denei pio dinata, panw stin gh.

K'esy more Argostoliotisa, ti totheles afto to glaraki. Den ksereis posa mou thimises. Nase k'esy kala.

I apoliti eleutheria! Mia eleutheria pou ksekina me ena aplo oneiro! To oneiro tis apeleutherosis apo tou nou da desma pou thelita i athelita alloi alla ke polles fores monoi mas vazoume empros mas (pouse more Kwstantine me tous Kyklopes kai to Lestrigones). Megali dinami xriazeta na boreis na onireuese ke akomi megaliteri na pragmatopiis ta oneira sou. Kai otan pia apeleutheromenos o nous apo ta desma tis stenis skepsis kataktisi tin apoliti pneumatiki eleutheria, tote mono bori na katalavei tin dinami pou periexei ena aplo oneiro. To oneiro tou na eise eleutheros!

To glaraki mas itan dinato. Eixe tin dinami ke tin thelisi na akolouthisi auto pou tou elege i kardia tou ke to oniro tou. Ithele na mathi toso poli gia ton eauto tou zontas pragmatika ke oxi simvatika, tolmontas na antimetopisi to agnosto, to "apagoreumeno", to mi simvatiko. Sigentrose tin dinami tou stin pragmatopoiisi tou onirou tou, eleuthero na peta pragmatika. Kati pou oi alloi glaroi oute na to skeftoun den tolmousan. Emathe na bori na xeirizete tin kathe akrofterouga tou me deksitexnia tin katallili stigmi oste na borei na peta ipsilotera, grigorotera, me megali maestria ke opos auto ithele. I kateuthinsi ke i foveri dinami tou aera den to piraze pia, ma oute ke o asximos keros.

Argostoliotisa, den ksero an to "glaraki" pragmati vrike to Theo tou. Enan Theo pou isos itan mesa tou olon auto to kairo. Isos na ton vrike. Sigoura omos vrike ton eauto tou. Sta sigoura katektise tis oriothetisis (kai ta ebodia), epiktites i fantastikes, tou mialou tou, tis skepsis tou, tis psixis tou. Oi Kiklopes ke i Lestrigones den itan pia ebothia ston taksidi tou. Itan eleuthero pia. Eleuthero, isos kai pio eleuthero, apo ton eleuthero anthropo tou Sartre, tha elega.

Kai otan eleuthero to pneuma pia, tote borei na dei to agnosto na min einai katholou agnosto alla na einai labrotero kai apo xilious tosous ilious. Kai akomi, otan "oi alloi glaroi" kathontai kato apo ta sinefa, sto krio, stin vroxi perimenontas mia kalliteri imera, tote to "glaraki" mas kserei pos na petaksi poli psila, ekei pou alloi glaroi den tolmoun, ke na dei kai na xarei ton labro ton ilio kai ton aperanto, ateleiwto galazio ourano.

Auta!

sintagmatarxis PRITS, en energeia!

Htan kai einai toso eukolo na paraplanithoume gia to ti einai h "alithia" mas, pou kai mia fterougia pio grigori na kanoume kapou kapou, pali pio psila tha anevoume, as einai kai ligous mono pontous. Ponto me ponto tha vrethoume mia mera an kai peinasmenoi, sto epipedo pou vrethike to glaraki mas o Jonathan, me ton Theo tou. Nai, ton Theo pou upeirxe panta krumenos pio vathia kai apo to vathitero pigathi, mesa tou; kai nai, Theos ison Eautos. Theos xoris Eautos den uparxei kai xoris ton Eauton mas den zoume.

Kai otan se alla topic eipa as kanoume tin douleia mas kai as katsoume sta auga mas, to eipa aligorikws na katalavoume oti einai pio kala na min kseroume tipota kai na gnwrizoume ton eauton mas, para na gnwrizoume polla kai na min kseroume pioi eimaste.