Some minutes ago, I have found a very interesting and well written article (Hate Groups Love Ancient Greece and Rome. Scholars Are Pushing Back) about the cultural appropriation* and distortion of Hellenic and Roman cultures by modern political or ideological movements who are in search of an identity and a narrativ to backup their positions. Many scholars have enough of this and are now responding to these false and pseudo-scientific claims, which I think is a very good idea, for we can not surrender the «classics» to the adherents of totalitarianism.
Needless to say, ethnic Hellenes have nothing to do with the ideologies of modernity (nationalism, internationalism, liberalism, conservatism etc.) or political applied monotheism (as many of us call the ideologies of the Occident), particularly as we are not interested in the ideological battles of our times or artificial divisions (nationalism-globalism, leninism-capitalism etc.), but some people don’t seem to get that. We condemn any appropriation and distortion of our culture by political or other movements and hate groups who continue the monotheistic colonization of our symbols and imagination. We thank all the scholars, especially those from «Pharos,» who «expose the errors, omissions, and distortions that underpin these groups’ interpretations of ancient material» and thus protect Hellenismos (Source: http://pages.vassar.edu/pharos/).
While we may not always endorse the interpretations of Hellenismos by modern scholars and sometimes criticise their methodology, we acknowledge the efforts that have been made and are still being made by many of them to put things straight and to raise public awareness of the fact that different kind of people and groups attempt to hijack Hellenic culture. Therefore we owe them a debt of gratitude. We Hellenes have a very clear and public position on this matter at least since 1996, when the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes (YSEE) Mr. Vlassis G. Rassias published his book Ethnos – Ethnism – Nation state – Nationalism. From the book:
«As a genuine invention of monotheistic absolutism, nationalism expressed and expresses itself as a consistent demand for complete cultural, religious and linguistic homogeneity and unity. […]. It is not the enemies of collective freedom and autonomy (who have been the enemies of the ethnicities) that have been declared as ‹enemies,› but any kind of otherness that is currently considered to be a cultural, religious, ethnic or ‹racial› pollution due to a sick collective mentality. In contrast to natural (ancient) ‹ethnism,› which can express its diversity / alterity in a positive way (and at the same time deeply respects the diversity / alterity of all the others who express themselves in the same way), […] nationalism considers its […] ‹race› to be more important and superior than any other, and therefore it can only define its diversity / alterity in a negative way.»
We will defend our tradition and fight any group that attempts to exploit Hellenismos by any means necessary. If they behave hostile towards Hellenismos, we will treat them as the enemies they are.
* Cultural appropriation is «the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.» (Cambridge Dictionary, keyword: cultural appropriation, last time checked: August 16, «2019»)
Pictures from the Facebook page Hellenismos containg the rules and clear messages to trolls and propagandists:
Hellenismos heute 