Today the Modern Greek life is according to common knowledge greatly influenced by not a pluralism like the United States by rather something like a theocracy promoted and upheld by the Greek Orthodox Church; moreover, today people in Greece are truly free to practice their own religion, but today as seen from common knowledge the government and every part of the government is an integral part of the teachings of the Greek Orthodox Church. What this means for the common people of Greece especially is that a specific set of values and ideals cannot be avoided to be subscribed to by the people; moreover, such would be especially true in the case of public voices such as those of public education and government subsidized religion. Since values especially and ideals secondly directly cause lives to be lived in specific ways especially in concern with human morality what can thus be seen from an investigation of organizations that have a somewhat exclusive role in promoting common values and common ideals among a set of people is that such a set of people or audience gain much the same values and ideals as other people in the same group; moreover, for the kingdom of Greece specifically such a model can be seen to apply for investigating the values and ideals of the common people as will be the focus of such a essay.

Without any serious objection, the most powerful, unique, and noted set of ideology that the Greek Orthodox Church teaches that has a impact upon people is the ideology of philanthropy; moreover, philanthropy is such a main set of ideology or system of ideology that even in a country like the United States that does not have a strong Greek influence and with a lesser fervor for Greek Orthodoxy the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America operates a rather large department of philanthropy. What such means especially for common people in Greece who are in even a stronger position for influence and who are subject to the voice and rule of a government subscribing to Greek Orthodoxy as well as to those subscribing to a Greek culture that subscribes to Greek Orthodoxy is that philanthropy, the ideal that a person or group with excess resources should carefully give such resources to causes that impact the common good of all or of a majority, becomes distributed widely among people who are Greek through such institutions as the church firstly and the government secondly. Overall, a point could thus be made that a culture has been built in Greece specifically by the indoctrination of the Greek people by the Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church influenced government; moreover, as can be seen the culture would have a primary component of philanthropy, and values would thus develop among people like in the case of traditional morality.

Obviously for philanthropy to work in Greece a set of values would need to exist in individuals in order to make philanthropy work; moreover, contemplatively one can think about what would be something that a person would value in order to cause that person to give of his or her resources for the good of all or for the good of most. One could propose a list of possible values such as fear, love for others, internal happiness, and utility that looks for a return; moreover, fear may be somewhat discredited because upon visiting parts of Greece with a strong culture of philanthropy natives did not appear to be very fearful unless their fears are not immediate like in the case of the fear of god, love for others could be possible although not probable because people in Greece for the most part appear to be very loving in general but not always exclusively, internal happiness is very possible because for the most part giving brings great pleasure for many people, but utility unfortunately may be one of the most probable answers because most people in general will work for their needs and desires mainly because of natural instincts. Overall, what could be thus considered to be likely reasonable is that culturally the set of values that most people subscribe to in order to make philanthropy work would be as a result listed in the following order in order of priority to the culture; the values are utility, internal happiness, love for others, and fear.

At a potter shop in the Greek island of Samos during the summer of 2005 a family who operated the shop had provided very good examples of philanthropy in practice; moreover, the wife of the potter at the shop served goat cheese, pop, and coffee to everyone who attended the potter shop for at least one particular visit. The same potter shop provided free miniature pots that could be used to make special sounds at the same visit, and the same potter shop provided hugs to visiting strangers and tours of farm animals. Overall, such an example was a good example of philanthropy in practice because the actions of the few who had excess resources had been implemented to effect the many or the total of people present; moreover, the values in such an example could be induced to show how philanthropy was caused to occur.

Within the example of the potter’s family specifically in the case of the wife of the potter what appears to be true is that the value of utility did not appear to be a driving force for the philanthropic acts of the potter’s shop partly because the potter’s shop would not take money for some products that the potter’s shop gave away as free, the value of internal happiness may be a driving value for the wife of the potter at the potter shop to conduct philanthropic activities because she appeared to show joy and extreme happiness during much of a visit, love for others is a very likely value that was a driving force for philanthropic activities but yet many of the people at the potter’s shop upon first visit are hugged and kissed as if to indicate a value for love but not the type of love that is formed after a committed friendship, and fear is most likely not a driving value for philanthropic activities in the example because people of the potter shop appeared to be happy and overjoyed to the extent that fear could not exist at the same time. The possible major values in the case of the potter shop that lead to philanthropy in order of importance would thus appear, especially in the case of the wife of the potter of the potter shop, to be those of internal happiness firstly and love for others secondly. Overall, as can be seen from the example of the potter shop individual values that lead to philanthropy in Greece may vary with individuals; moreover, such could be especially true because those who promote the teaching of philanthropy may provide several different reasons and cases that differ between specific individuals for why a person should do philanthropic activities especially when given the cultural importance for propagating the teaching.

When an organization like the Greek Orthodox Church in Greece would adopt the teaching of philanthropy as a main fundamental teaching for promotion and also when the government for teaching philanthropy would fund the same church, the result would be a culture developed and influenced by the teaching of philanthropy. With the reality of such a proposition, a person could see how the voices of any opposition to such a system of ideology such as philanthropy would slowly become silenced over time because such voices that would teach an opposing system may find increasing difficulty in getting funding and an audience because of the much larger voice that both is funded and has the commitment of the church of the land as well as the government. Overall, a point could thus be made that as a system of ideology influences a region because of some type of cultural based voice, such a system of ideology would become reinforced in people by the ideology being practiced in individuals in such a way as to reinforce and develop others in the same ideology.

In the case for example of a potter shop a potter may have very likely had parents who had been potters, and the parents developed their child and showed specific ways of practicing philanthropy to their child. As the miniature potter grew into adulthood, he or she most likely found governmental ideology practiced that influenced him or her, and such a potter would have most likely also been influenced in some time by the very popular religion of the land that also taught philanthropy. Overall, thus in the example the ideology of philanthropy or the system of ideology of philanthropy would be well developed in such a person who would have a simple task in life like that of a potter; moreover, the example would be a parallel to the example of how if a person only saw black then that person would only think in black.

As can be seen, with the development of philanthropy in the culture of Greece, the system of ideology known as philanthropy that is taught would obviously not be taught without values attached; moreover, a parallel example would be to say that with the system of ideology of capitalism for instance the value of money would be in same way attached to the system of capitalism for the system of ideology to work. Likewise for the system of philanthropy to work specific values would need to be attached and taught by individuals showing how one value is greater or more important than another and how philanthropy would become the system of ideology for satisfying, obtaining, or fulfilling such values. Overall, as can be seen as obvious by now both the values that drive a system of ideology and the system of ideology that acts as a avenue for fulfilling those values are the primary components for comparison for understanding how one traditional or cultural morality may compare to another especially in the case of individuals like those who operate a potter shop and large groups like those of Greece and other nations.