Not interfering in the affairs of others
This is an entry from my journal.
Another productive Monday comes to an end. The days are getting warmer. Nights continue to be cold though. I spent most of the morning hours doing manual labour on my land. I prepared some raised garden beds and planted tomatoes. In the coming days I will do the same for zucchinis, onions, garlic, peppers, and lettuce. Having my own vegetables saves me some of the cost for groceries. The other day a kilo of tomatoes sold for ~6 EUR. These are extortionate prices—and the most chilling effects of the financial crunch have not even hit us yet!
In the 2010s I was working and studying. This in itself is an experience that many in the West cannot relate to: they fancy the student life as a time of prolonged parties. Mine was limited to work, home, and school. Those days the economy was mired in recession. There was uncertainty about the very foundations of the euro area. The powers that be were implementing policies that redistributed wealth upward. Those were presented with euphemisms, moralistic palaver, and obscurantist jargon such as “austerity”, “haircut”, “outright monetary transactions”, “longer-term refinancing operations”, “quantitative easing”… Apparatchiks are experts at spinning a monumental cash grab as heavenly grace.
I had to count cents to the euro to buy a loaf of bread. It was not fun. I managed though. Perhaps I was lucky enough to grow up without access to a cornucopia of comforts. Me and people in my community were raised in a world of few opportunities. Oftentimes we did not have a football to play with. Our games would involve some plastic bottle that we would fill up with stones and kick around until exhaustion.
Many of the kids I knew and was friends with found smoking at around age ten, then discovered weed, and eventually the harder substances. They ended up becoming drug addicts in their teenage years. Perhaps the grinding austerity was too much for them. Or they thought there was an easier path forward. They were seeking a way out. I cannot blame them. Some of them died. Others turned mad. This effectively is the road of no return in a country that is woefully underfunded, understaffed, and underequipped in this and many other areas.
I have not done enough soul-searching on this front. Maybe one of the reasons I have not revisited my homeland in twenty years is because I do not want to get a status update. It was not pretty then when there was no financial downturn being reported in the news. I shudder to think how bad the reality on the ground would be in the Greek milieu post 2008. Economic data may show growth, though this is driven by the sellout of the country’s resources to foreigners. The average person there is on an inexorable path to serfdom and immiseration.
What I have learnt in the process is to have dignity and self-respect. I set the highest standard for myself and make no discounts or exceptions to it. Part of that is a defence mechanism, to prevent others from finding reasons to put the blame on me. If, for example, I was lazy people would quickly attribute my financial woes on my laziness. At least now they have to think twice when they notice the sheer amount of work I do.
The first lecture I got as an adult on the topic of discipline and “real men” was when I remarked how it is not right that we are living in such a lopsided political order. The other guy who got all the riches from daddy went on a monologue about how real men do not complain like pussies and how they are gritty. He did not know anything about me. He was just in the business of virtue signalling. This is the precinct of the smartass who talks big without backing it up with deeds. They will judge you even though they know nothing about your life. And when you challenge them, they will take the easy way out by claiming that “these are the standards, but I am working on it”. Sure!
The smartass exists in every field of endeavour and represents every school of thought. On the topic of “real men” and their putative innate virtues, some of the most disciplined people I have ever met are women. You do not need a penis to be self-motivated and keep things in order. It is common for guys who are not insecure about their manhood to admit that their girlfriend/wife helped them become a better person in some ways.
Where the smartass is found in high numbers is in domains that have a strong moral component. Religion is one of them, as are political ideologies. They find the central elements of the creed and then go around telling everyone how they should live. Consider, for example, the activism in favour of Palestine. It is easy to tweet “Free Palestine 🇵🇸” and carry on with your life. Then you may get emboldened to go on the offensive and tell someone like me, who has not been vociferous about the topic, how I need to be mobilised and such. To which I ask: if you are so passionate about your cause, what are you sacrificing for it? Will you go fight on the front lines? Will you join the red cross/crescent? Will you give up your vacation and other perks of your lifestyle to send aid to the refugees? Tweeting and being obnoxious about it is trivial. The part where you live up to your own standard is when things get real.
To be clear: I do not mind if someone is posting something online. I do not check their thoughts and am not interested in their conduct. But if they are posting it and are trying to push me around because of it, then I will push back.
I got plenty of comments for the entries I published recently that cover Easter, among others:
- There goes another Easter (2026-04-11)
- Lunch without alcohol (2026-04-12)
My commentary is not about the substance of religion. I have nothing against it. If someone felt offended, that was not my intention. I never argue from a position of “my faith is more real than yours”. I do not appeal to any authority. And, above all, I do not claim to be a moral person. If I happen to be doing the right thing, that will be the product of my actions, not my words.
All I do, when others try to incorporate me in their programme, is apply the standard that they profess to live by on to their own deeds. In effect, I present them with a mirror. If you tell me how we ought to be doing this and that, while demanding that I conform to your exhortations, then I expect you to be leading by example.
I do not consume porngraphy, for instance. Its widespread usage is a common secret. I do not walk around telling everyone how they should live their life and what to do on their computing device. I have a strict diet and, again, I do not pressure others to eat this or that. I do not gamble, yet said nothing to those who organised gambling sessions in the square overlooking their church. There is no need to belabour this point: I leave others alone and demand the same treatment.
Every person is on their own path. If they ever need help, I am happy to support them if I can. What I will not do, however, is punch down and kiss up in pursuit of social points and to boost my ego.
The treatment I receive is not the same though, so I will not pretend to not notice. Easter is the period of peak virtue signalling among believers. I am merely describing what I am exposed to, not the articles of faith as such.
The other day I was walking back home, moving in a direction away from the nearest church close to the hour of the liturgy. A fellow in a luxury car who was driving towards the church stopped and asked in shock: “are you not attending the liturgy!?”. I did not even know who this person was. I replied negatively, adding that I had essential work to do. Without even considering the “why” I work every day without ever going on a vacation, this person went on to explain how important those pious days are, why we should praise the Lord, how I can be a better person myself, blah, blah, blah. As if I grew up on Mars and know nothing about what people believe in.
If God is all-knowing, then He knows my predicament. And if He is omnipotent, He does not need this zealot to force me into conformity. I remain calm. Such a character does not represent any cause. Theirs is an inconsiderate exposition that is meant to make them look good relative to another person. I do not compete with anyone and do not care what they do with their life. I said “okay, bye”. The problem, however, is that this is not an isolated event. The pressure is to be “good” on the outside for a few days and then you can go on and secretly indulge in everything you consider inappropriate. Why? Focus on yourself, embed in your everyday conduct what you believe is divine, and leave me alone.
To me, religion is not limited to a corpus of propositions. That is a reductive exercise that takes away from the interpersonal dynamics at play. Religion is a web of lived social experiences. I do not see the point of the argument that such and such historical source contradicts what people are actually doing. I care about the effective religiosity, not the one in the books. The prescribed one is not pertinent to what I am observing. I am commenting on phenomena as they unfold, not on some ideal world or, indeed, the substantive points of the precepts.
From time to time I get prompts about studying this or that material. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, but also secular thinkers. I am curious to learn more. Though buying books is a luxury in itself while I have more pressing issues to deal with, but that is beside the point. The gist is that I am not the target audience at this point in my life. I never asked for salvation. I did not express existential angst that needs to be addressed. I do not claim to be religious or particularly spiritual: I do not pray, I do not do yoga, I do not practice mindfulness meditation… I have not even said that I am a good person. I probably am not good in sense you imagine because I have many times before broken a bully and will do it again if I must.
As I write these final words, I hear the owl nearby. It makes that familiar vocalisation. This is the large variety. It is a bit smaller than the eagle: a mighty bird of prey in its own right. I find it nice to pay attention to my immediate environment. Earlier I spotted another almond tree offshoot as well as the first signs of what appears to be jasmine. Life forms all around me are in continuous motion. Tomorrow I have another day full of activities. I will commit to them to the best of my ability, with no tricks and no gimmicks.