Posted by Giorgos on February 06, 2001 at 10:15:31:
In Reply to: Ooops... wrong quote... posted by Tracey on February 06, 2001 at 07:52:27:
: I quoted my friend Thanasis wrong... Called him to verify... he said, "Greek families are tyrannies you can NOT escape from."
Are they really "tyrannies" and should we "escape" from them? It depends on the way you perceive things. One of the things that all foreign people say to me is how much they admire in Greek people (and Meditteraneans in general) the way that family plays an important role in ones life and how it stands together as a whole.
It is up to each person individually how much "freedom" they will allow themselves from their family, probably something that the husband of "married to a Greek" has done to a great extend. However, I do not agree 100% with her as well, since I find it really nice to give my father's name to my (future)child and feel really proud that I carry the name of my grandfather. It feels like a special bond is established, some might say this sounds stupid, I think it feels great.
Now for BR, I might agree in some parts, but the title that he's using sounds really agressive, the same stands for the first reply of Caliope. Anyway, people might find one of my posts aggresive as well... However, indirectly (or I must say directly), BR characterised Greek culture as old fashioned and non evolving. This is the "culture" that HE has in mind for the Greeks, maybe the culture that even some Greeks have in mind for the Greeks. In other words there are positive and negatives in ANY culture and people will characterise them differently according to their own culture...
I just disagree with expressions like, "because I have blond hair and blue eyes"(so what, my cousin and many Greek friends of mine are like that, maybe is it from the general behaviour that they can tell?), "because i wear white in weddings" (eerrm, isn't bright colours that we're supposed to be wearing at weddings???) as for "free and independent thought in America" (...what happens if you believe in communism???) and "A culture which not only condones, but supports the idea that a 27 year old man should live at home with his parents because he is not married" (still, if YOU want and have the job and money and can do it, you live by yourself, IT'S YOUR CHOICE - what happens with the culture that sends their kids away from 16 or to boarding schools from 6, or people that talk or see their parents once in several years, and put them in an institute the minute they turn 70)...
Anyway, there are many aspects to this that is not possible to cover in a simple message.
Greetings to everyone...