This paper demonstrates that the evolution and usage of writing systems in the societies of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean, from the logographic scripts of the Late Chalcolithic Age to the Greek alphabet of the Iron Age, was not a matter of normal literate maturity of those societies but an intentional political choice of their elite classes. Relevant evidence are presented from six local societies and cultures, namely, Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia (indirectly related to Eastern Mediterranean due to its immense cultural influence on the Levantine coasts and Eastern Anatolia), Minoan Crete, Levante, Classical Greece and Cyprus.