Forget Plato and don the sequinned T-shirt

ATHENS (Reuters) - Bearded old men spouting philosophy? No way. Socrates and Plato would never make the headlines in Greece today.


Whatever happened to the cradle of civilisation, birthplace of democracy, classical aesthetics and Aristotle's Golden Mean of "everything in moderation".


In an increasingly Westernised society where 15 minutes of fame is the new Holy Grail, Greek football players, pop stars and models are the new movers and shakers, and when they've got it, boy do they flaunt it.


"The thinker is out of fashion," said lifestyle writer Nikos Kakavoulis. "Plato and Socrates wouldn't make the headlines today. We live in a celebrity-obsessed culture."


In the gossip columns of Greece's dozen tabloids, nouveau riche industrialists love to flaunt their wealth with lavish parties and paid-for photo spreads.


Forget the white-clad priestesses who called down the sacred light of Apollo for the Olympic flame in the ancient sanctuary of Olympia in March.


Thanks to pop hearthrob Sakis Rouvas and Greece's Euro 2004 soccer heroes, beige minimalism is out. The blue-and-white sequinned shape of the Greek flag on cut-off T-shirts is now the ultimate in Greek chic for men and women alike.


"It was not tasteful. Suddenly you saw ladies of 65 wearing the same T-shirt as a pop star. That was very funny," Kakavoulis told Reuters in an interview.


Like so many European countries, Greece revels in the instant fame bestowed on winners of reality television shows.


"We love to change our celebrities from week to week. It is really easy to make one celebrity and then replace them," Kakavoulis said.


CULTURE IN TRANFORMATION


For parliamentarian and writer Dimitris Konstandaras, Greek society is a culture in transformation.


"I do not know if it was good or bad. We have become a 15 minutes of fame society," Konstandaras said.


"It has been very successful. Football players now give lectures about AIDS or famines in Africa. These players now have to have a society presence, they have to be seen somewhere and photographed with beautiful women."


Britain has its own celebrity magazine heroes in England soccer captain David Beckham and his pop star wife, former Spice Girl Victoria.


Not to be outdone, Greece has soccer player Demis Nikolaidis and his pop star wife, Despina Vandi.


"They are the Greek Beckhams in every aspect. He is a football player and he tries to be in fashion. And the smart part of the couple is the woman," Kakavoulis said.


With traditional values getting abandoned in the race to modernise, the 3,000-year-old culture that gave Western Europe mathematics and drama is a slave to changing fads and fashion trends.


"We are a Western society but I'm afraid we have absorbed the worst parts," Konstandaras said. "We quickly changed our clothing, our music, everything, instead of being educated into a new way of life."


Capitalist values have also brought creeping globalisation to a country run by a handful of super wealthy and influential families like the Kokkalis and Vardinoyannis dynasties. Each owns villas, yachts and soccer teams.


With the Olympics only days away, Greece may have rediscovered national pride with a vengeance but Konstandaras is sceptical.


"We had to modernise. But maybe we needed more time," he said.