‘This is one of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read. It is the sort of book that makes the works of Oliver James, Deepak Chopra or Tom Hodgkinson fade into insignificance. Why more people haven’t heard of this guy is beyond me. Seriously. You’ve got as far as the Amazon page.
I highly recommend you get it’. O’Neale
‘This is basically a breath-taking whistle-stop intellectual and cultural history of the Western world, where to adapt Pythagoras, not ‘Man’ but Ancient Greece is the measure of all things. Certainly whetted my appetite for Greekness’.
Rodger Kibble
‘These books, which are full of soundbites that snap at the heels of your conscience, are a well-argued, powerful, profound indictment of contemporary culture, that end paradoxically with hope’.
‘This trilogy is impressive. Yannis’ background is somewhat intense and arguably “rigorous”. All of this comes to bear in this trilogy of books, which outperform De Botton by streets and are as well written and closely argued as anything of Comte-Sponville. Go for them as a set and make Philosophy relevant to your and other people’s lives’.
Oliver W. Davies
’Erudite and provocative, these books are ultimately hopeful and help open up a new dialogue that potentially expands our human capacity’.
David Lorimer
‘In Bed With Madness is a powerfully charged little volume. Andricopoulos, who thinks of our world as being “…as fragmented as a broken mirror, as perverse as fighting for a place in the hell- express, as bland as a portion of Kentucky Fried Chicken,” has a Ph.D. in Diplomatic History and worked as a journalist in London. This is tangible, compelling, driven and heartfelt writing at its best’.
Kathryn Adams
The book is a thought-provoking work written with good style. What Andricopoulos made me realize was that a world which is run by greed will doom us all. It is a world in which people are alienated from their work, where everything is for sale and where everything is valued in terms of profit. In this world there is no concern for the well-being of others, there is no concern for environment. It is a selfish world. But, self-deceptive or not, I like to cherish the idea that all is not necessarily lost. Except that, as Andricopoulos writes: “the challenge is not practical...it is primarily spiritual and cultural. It is a challenge for our psyche. To meet it, we need to rediscover who and what we are -- indeed, what is the essence of being human.”
Antti Kuusela
The books are at once witty and thought-provoking. Yannis was born in Athens during a time of ‘wars, deprivation and political repression’. He began a career in journalism writing for the Athens daily Avghi, before moving to London where the Greek junta took away his passport because his actions were deemed ‘detrimental to the interests of Greece’. In England he completed a PhD in diplomatic history and headed the Greek National Union of Students (EFEE) in Exile. In 1974, when the military regime in Greece collapsed, he was able to resume his career in journalism as a London based foreign correspondent first for Avghi and then for Eleftherotypia. That same year he published his first book, an edited version of Churchill’s personal papers on 1944 Greece, which was released in Athens. He followed this up with three more titles and also edited the i-to-i magazine from 1989-94. On top of all this he co-founded Skyros, the community based holiday centre on the Greek island of the same name, which he still runs to this day.
Σ’ αυτη του την τριλογια, ο διδακτορας της Ιστοριας, δημοσιογραφος και συνιδρυτης του ολιστικου κεντρου «Σκυρος», Γιαννης Ανδρικοπουλος, αντλωντας απο την εμπειρια του τοσο απο την αναμειξη του με την πολιτικη οσο και απο τον γαληνιο μικροκοσμο της Σκυρου, κανει μια εμπεριστατωμενη επισκοπηση του σημερινου πολιτισμου στο πλαισιο της παγκοσμιοποιησης και προτεινει μια αναθεωρηση του με στοχο το περασμα απο τον σημερινο πολιτισμο του κερδους στον πολιτισμο της χαρας, που βασιζεται στη θεωρηση του κοσμου απο τους αρχαιους Ελληνες.
Νικος Ντοκας
If you’re constantly thinking the world we live in has gone completely arse up… take heart, you are not alone. Yannis Andricopoulos, author of In Bed With Madness: Trying to Make Sense in a World that Doesn’t, validates this sentiment and encapsulates all that is heinous and nonsensical with modern society in one powerfully charged little volume. Tackling the big issues such as religious fundamentalism, global warming, warfare, rampant consumerism, and the role science and technology are playing in the collapse of our planet and the human spirit, Andricopoulos also comments on the inane; breast enlargements, McDonalds, advertising, virtual sex, ski holidays in Dubai and takes us on a philosophical snorkel through the polluted waters of contemporary culture.
And it is murky. Andricopoulos, who thinks of our world as being “…as fragmented as a broken mirror, as perverse as fighting for a place in the hell- express, as bland as a portion of Kentucky Fried Chicken,” has a Ph.D. in Diplomatic History, worked as a journalist in London and is the co-founder of Skyros, “…the holistic, community-based holiday centre on the island of Skyros.” His inspiration for writing this book, the first in a series of three, has been, he says, “…both his involvement with the truculent world of politics and the graceful, personal world of Skyros” which is evident in his writing style. Through a maelstrom of hard-hitting truths about humanity’s dysfunction, the profiteering of politics and our lust for progress, Andricopoulos manages to pepper his text with humour and provide his readers with a glimmer of hope by the final chapter, even though “change…” he says, “…requires nothing less than the shifting of the tectonic plates of our culture…”
This is tangible, compelling, driven and heartfelt writing at its best and the message is clear …humans have lost all connection to their environment, each other and themselves and through their constant, frenzied and soulless quest for more of everything, have lost a grip on reality. We live in a mad, mad, mad world, the author laments, where “…‘normal’…is living with extreme poverty, violence or environmental degradation… ’abnormal’… is… the refusal to kill fellow human beings.” Man, through technological advancement and the spoils of capitalism, has been saddled with too much power, which the author notes, “…he is bound to misuse and abuse with catastrophic consequences. Combining the power of a giant with the wisdom of a simpleton can only turn life into a lived-in nightmare.”
A profusion of quotes by artists, poets, philosophers, novelists, historians and various theorists to support the author’s claims are included to stimulate debate and entertain, from Plato to Quentin Tarantino. Andricopoulos shares the insights of Nietzsche, Kafka, George Orwell, Joseph Conrad and Flaubert, to name just a few, and it is difficult to find a topic that hasn’t been touched upon - sex, human cloning, nuclear waste, George W Bush, fast-food chains, war and morality. It is also difficult not to feel pulverised after being confronted with such powerful realities, for as we are told, “…humankind cannot bear very much reality.”
Kathryn Adams
