Yiannis Ioannou
Being skeptical in the face of a lack of evidence is legitimate, acceptable, and ethically justified. Doubt, in fact, is the primary driving force that helped humanity transition through those periods that expelled the darkness of the Middle Ages in terms of ideas and progress. However, drawing conclusions shortly after an event, particularly adopting an absolute stance in terms of war, demonstrates that a significant portion of people not only lack interest in the events and the evidence surrounding them but only care about anything that confirms their worldview.
The above not only establishes the beginnings of any ideology but also the fringes of an extremism that sometimes arises from thought and becomes a way of life. Whether you are an academic, a journalist, or a political figure, it is also the way, especially on social media, in which public opinion in Greece and Cyprus follows the war conflicts resulting from complex international issues on a global and regional level.
It is also the way in which, in conflicts such as the Arab-Israeli one or the war in Ukraine, public opinion in Greece and Cyprus rushes each time not only to take a stance (for or against) in relation to the conflicting parties but also, on the occasion of the conflict and its ideological-political framework, to express itself politically and ideologically concerning its current political state of affairs or its existential issues, such as Greek-Turkish relations and the Cyprus problem. And somewhere at this point, the discussion in Europe reveals both the inherent weaknesses of modern Left and liberal forces. A tragic, in terms of decadence, observation about how ideological currents are shaped in the modern era and democratic culture as a way of confrontation in terms of a well-established dialogue.
In Cyprus and Greece, we need to rediscover Occam's razor because it has dulled. We should sharpen it again and try, in light of what is happening in the world around us, to claim that public dialogue will not sacrifice our empathy for the sake of mobilization and hard evidence for the sake of our worldview.
[This article was translated from its Greek original]
