Cultural Slavery or Freedom? Values at a Crossroads in the 21st Century

Abstract

Values have played a major role in the creation and formation of the European cultural space. It was Europe, a continent found at the forefront of ideological, cultural, social and religious revolutions that was involved centrally in continual searching and re-evaluation. Cultural values are not regarded only as a result of a moment of artistic activity with such values having played a key role in the evolution of human society. However, they are still being misused in a period of technical revolution, in a similar manner to the past, when values were misused by ideologies opposing human rights and human dignity. The aim of this analysis is to show the position of freedom as one of the democratic values in contemporary society, one described as a civilization with high level of risk and danger, along with a very visible crisis of trust and responsibility, termed as a crisis of values and cultural slavery.