The “Road of Dreams” of the immortals. A brilliant composer, pioneering artist, eternal visionary, and engaged, conscientious citizen, he left an indelible mark and continues to be dynamically present even today, three decades after his departure, through his captivating melodies, timeless songs, and groundbreaking thinking.

For Manos Hatzidakis not only bequeathed us great works like the masterpiece “Gioconda’s Smile,” but also a series of “prophecies” that are gradually being confirmed over time. Foremost among them is the one that predicted the rise of neo-Nazism, deeply exploring the causes of the phenomenon, its overt and hidden faces, its immeasurable consequences, and the ways in which one can fight against it and emerge victorious. His shocking piece on neo-Nazism and nationalism was written in February 1993, a few months before his death, and was published in the program of an anti-Nazi concert given by the Orchestra of Colors, which he himself had founded.

This was to be the last concert of his earthly life. This text is perhaps the best way to remember him today, at a time when the “Monster,” as he uniquely described the far-right rhetoric, is once again flourishing in Europe, threatening human life itself. For, as he meaningfully said, “neo-Nazism is not theory, thought, and anarchy. It is a performance. You and me. And Death stars in it.” The entire text of Manos Hatzidakis “Neo-Nazism, fascism, racism, and every antisocial and anti-human phenomenon of behavior does not come from ideology, does not contain ideology, does not compose ideology. It is the magnified expression-manifestation of the beast that we contain within us, without any obstacle to its development, when social or political circumstances contribute, help, and strengthen its barbaric and anti-human presence.

The only antidote to combat the beast within us is Education. True education, not irresponsible training and information without judgment and without restless, questioning conclusion-making. This education neither lulls nor creates complacency in the student, but multiplies questions and insecurity. However, such education is not favored by political parties and all governments, because it produces free and rebellious citizens, not useful for the wretched game of parties and politics. And it is a political ‘tradition’ to believe that beasts, with proper tactics and handling, can be guided and tamed. There are times when the beast, multiplying under the circumstances and in the form of ‘popular demands and claims’, forms phenomena of infectious disease that affect large masses of people and impose deadly epidemics. A recent case is World War II. Only this war created for us for a while a rather big delusion, an illusion. We all believed that in this war Democracy fought fascism and defeated it. Think: ‘Democracy’, we with Metaxas as governor and Stalin as an ally, fought Nazism, as an ideology unrelated to us. And we… defeated it. What utopia and what audacity. Ignoring that by relieving ourselves of the responsibility of the bestial part of ourselves and placing it in another ethnicity completely subservient to it, we were not defeating any fascism but simply another dangerous ethnicity that wanted to subdue us. A war like so many others from dangerous fools to other fools, occasionally harmless. And of course, all the talk of ‘Freedom’, ‘Democracy’, and ‘cradles of intellectual and non-intellectual’, for the uneducated newspaper columns and the naive readers.

Freedom will never prevail, since it is supported and carried by people who intend to transfer their own responsibilities to others. (Something like the morality of old Christians. Good and evil outside of us. In Christ and the devil. And a God who forgives our weaknesses, if and when we remember him in the irresponsibility of our lives. Always seeking to ensure our continued presence after death. Unable to grasp the concept of our absence. That the world can exist without us and without Kanthiotis of Florina). I don’t want to elaborate. I am afraid that I do not have the tools for a theoretical development nor the appropriate language for the requirements of the whole subject. However, the subject burns me. And many years ago I tried to clarify it within myself. Today I know that I foresaw with my sensitivity the developments and the reappearance of the monster. And I did not intend to get used to its ever-increasing presence.

I always mean to be afraid. Neo-Nazism is not the others. The hateful murderers, who nevertheless find understanding from the prosecuting authorities because of a strange but not inexplicable family resemblance. They are accustomed to the authorities and governments as a political extension of themselves or as a permissible opposition, without any particular significance to cause alarm. (I recently read that in Patras, opposite the police station, a neo-Nazi party opened its offices. No worries for the fascists, nor for the police officers. Nor, of course, for the local residents). Nationalism is also neo-Nazism. The shaved heads of soldiers, even against their will, favor the exit of thought and judgment, so that they submit and become suitable for accepting orders and directions towards some death. Their own or others’. My experience teaches me that true thought, and reflection, must stop somewhere. It is not convenient. That is why I stop.

My amateurism in focusing on and developing the subject is in danger of becoming vulnerable to enemies. However, I must declare my passion for a truly unhindered human freedom. Fascism in our days appears in two forms. Either provocative, under the pretext of reacting to political or social events that do not favor their case, or passive, in which fear for what is happening around us prevails. Tolerance and passivity, therefore. And thus the provocation is established.

With the tolerance of the many. A slow and silent death is preferable to the reaction of the living and sensitive organism that we contain. The ghost of the beast appears particularly strong in young people. There, marketing also has an impact. The influence of the media on a way of life that favors trade. And just as the trade in drugs favors their spread among young people, so music, ideas, dance, and everything related to their way of life have created an industry and enormous and unimaginable financial interests. Finding no resistance from a solid education, all these create a suitable ground for egocentrism, self-pity, emptiness, and of course, every bestial instinct within them, to flourish. Look at their dance with the uniform military movements, far from any desire for contact and communication. Their song with slogan-like repeating words, the absence of books and thought from their behavior, and the aim for a comfortable career of profit and easy success. We experience more and more every day the part of ourselves that either fears or does not think, seeking as many benefits as possible.

Until the right ‘leader’ is found to lead this despicable content of ours. And then it will be too late to react. Neo-Nazism is you and me – as in the famous Pirandello play. We are you, us, and our children. We accept to be inhuman in front of AIDS carriers, out of ignorance, but also so ‘human’ and condescending in front of the humanoid reptiles of fascism, again out of ignorance, but also out of fear and habit. And Evil lurks without protection, without shame. Neo-Nazism is not theory, thought, and anarchy. It is a performance. You and me. And Death stars in it.”