Post-Country Greece

The Greek crisis of the summer made plain that the future is not intended to include the public having a say in the management of their affairs. The Greeks went to the polls, first to back an anti-austerity party and then to reject the austerity plan proposed to them by Europe. The result was a systematic collapsing of their economy by Europe until Tsipras capitulated.

Whether or not it makes sense for the Greeks to default or go along with the latest bailout is debatable. I’m firmly in the camp that says we invented bankruptcy for a reason, but it’s not really what’s important to me. What matters is who decides. When the people, through their traditional institutions, decide what’s best for them, we have sovereignty. When decisions are made by an outside force, regardless of makeup, you have subjugation.

Greece is now just a territory of Europe where the people insist on using a funny alphabet, but are otherwise subjects of the Euro ruling elite.

That’s fine and maybe it is for the best. Greeks have never got the hang of the country thing. They had a decent run of city-states a long time ago, but that was when Greeks had red hair and blue eyes. The more swarthy version of the Greeks seem to have trouble organizing much of anything.

The end of countries, however, is not without other consequences. One is that we now need new labels, as seen in this Telegraph story on the looming Greek elections.

Greek voters are set to punish the government of prime minister Alexis Tsipras after polls show his hard-Left Syriza party is on course for a shock defeat in a general election later this month.
Mr Tsipras, who called a snap vote on August 20, has seen his party’s comfortable 15 point lead evaporate in just six weeks, putting the centre-right New Democracy in pole position to lead Greece’s fifth government in just four years.The ascendant conservatives – who support the bail-out and will keep the country in the euro at all costs – edged ahead of Syriza for the first time since May 2014 in two polls this week.
A survey carried out by Metron analysis put ND in the lead with 24pc of the vote, compared to 23.4pc for the incumbent Leftists. A previous poll for Mega TV put them on course for 25.3pc of the vote ahead of Syriza’s 25pc.With opposition forces gathering steam, Mr Tsipras is facing a fierce popular backlash having capitulated to onerous bail-out conditions to keep the country in the euro for the next three years.

However, pre-election polls suggest no single party will win enough support to form a majority government after the September 20 ballot.

Analysts now expect the pro bail-out conservatives, who oversaw the last international rescue and dominated Greek politics before Syriza’s landmark election in January, to form a more stable coalition, dramatically reducing the risks of a future eurozone exit.

Smaller pro-euro forces such as Socialists PASOK and the centrist To Potami party are also more inclined to join a unity coalition headed by ND’s interim leader Evangelos Meimarakis, rather than the tainted Mr Tsipras.

The single biggest issue in Greek politics is membership in the Euro, followed by the invasion by Arabs, who are promising to destroy what’s left of Greece on their way to Germany. Yet, the socialist and the conservative are in lock step on both issues. The “hard left” is the outsider, because they signed off on the same bailout as the Right and Left support.

How does this make any sense?

It does not and maybe that’s the point. If elections are now rituals for the hoi polloi to blow off steam, what difference does it make that the commies are in league with anarcho-capitalists? Democracy is not just another sporting event in Greece. You buy a team jersey, got somewhere to drink outside and cheer for the guys wearing your jersey. When it’s over, you sing some songs, get drunk and fall asleep.

9 thoughts on “Post-Country Greece

  1. Pingback: Larwyn’s Linx: Obama’s Legacy: Middle East in Chaos, a Nuclear Iran, and Europe Flooded With Muslims | H2o Positivo

  2. “… If elections are now rituals for the hoi polloi to blow off steam, what difference does it make that the commies are in league with anarcho-capitalists? Democracy is not just another sporting event in Greece. You buy a team jersey, got somewhere to drink outside and cheer for the guys wearing your jersey. When it’s over, you sing some songs, get drunk and fall asleep.”

    Minus the unscheduled appearance of Donald Trump in the current production,
    elections are different in the US exactly how?
    (Of course, even with a guest appearance by The Donald,
    it may make no difference.)

    • There’s little difference. Voters turned out in huge numbers to put Droopy and Weepy in charge the the legislature. They immediately set about giving Obama all that he was unable to get from his own party for six years.

      The difference here is we control our own money. When the coalitions shift – and they are about to shift significantly – reform is possible, if not probable.

      • Where have you gone Harry Reid?
        By the way, the left has a much better name for McConnell than droopy – “turtle”.

  3. I like the phrase ” pro bail-out conservatives”. I’m just going to fiddle while the world burns. I think we’re cooked, all of us.

  4. Whether the “money people” are good or bad misses the point. The painfully obvious point is Greece overspends, lavishly supporting lazy, self entitled folks in the manner to which they are accustomed. Greece borrows and borrows and borrows again to pay back part of what they borrowed. So, the people that made the loans are the bad guys? Loaning money to the Greeks is a fools errand. The West should have let the Russians have Greece in the late 40’s.

  5. The world is currently ‘under aquisition’ by the moneyed interests (i.e. bankers and insurance funders), and as long as we continue to pay rent and do as we’re told, they’ll let us live here.

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