Life is not a game and the country is not like a football club in crisis which they can let go bankrupt, be relegated to the third division and then to take over the club offering peanuts (i.e. “smart” solutions) just to enjoy the Herostratic fame of the savior onto its embers
It would be both possible and desirable to further reduce the debt -we have written about it. But even if not reduced, a key factor in creating a climate of confidence towards the Greek economy that will position it on a stable long-term growth trajectory improving the lives of the Greeks, is the ability, but also the willingness, to serve it (that is, to pay its interest).
Yet, this simple truth does not seem to be accepted by our collective consciousness. As a society, we refuse to find a way to pay the (relatively small) interest of the (huge, but also “adjusted”) debt, so that we do not constantly find ourselves on the brink of the precipice and in uncertainty. However, across the length and breadth of the world and throughout the ages, from the age of the Sumerians and the pre-classical Athens to the modern rural India, the fate of those who cannot or do not want to serve the loan they have taken is one: enslavement. Enslavement, which in a thousand ways, but imperceptibly, encircles us today, from everywhere. Starting from the fact that as uncertainty continues, noone returns their money to the banks and as a result Greece is the only country in the northern hemisphere without a credit system, and reaching to the fact that the continued economic swirling surely leads to our inability to defend the country’s (territorial) integrity.
The core of the current crisis is the tragic collective inability of our society, firstly, to understand and then, to solve the problem it faces. Having learned to live with delusions and hallucinations, always waiting for the solution “from abroad”, from “foreigners”, it refuses to adapt to reality
One wonders, which is the reason we prefer the marching enslavement to the “infuriating” words of our “lenders”? The reason is, unfortunately, that for decades we have forgotten how to be innovative and creative, but also to identify and manage our problems. That is why we consider it unthinkable and abhorrent to be asked to undertake the responsibility for our salvation ourselves. The core of the current crisis is just that: the tragic collective inability of our society, firstly, to understand and then, to solve the problem it faces. Having learned to live with delusions and hallucinations, always waiting for the solution “from abroad”, from “foreigners” -whom, however, our society dislikes- it refuses to adapt to reality. Instead, our society adopts an infantile type behavior, developing irrational conspiracy theories and seeking culprits and those responsible anywhere else but at its own mistakes. And, of course, it successively selects as political representatives those who, even when we stand with one foot in the grave, do not hesitate to cultivate illusions and hallucinations by promising painless solutions. For, politicians are never “deluded”. They are just demagogues.
The main opposition party, instead of explaining in simple terms the irrefutable dilemma ‘increase taxes or reduce expenses” and instead of expressing a clear opinion on the matter, it discovers again, five years after the proclamations at Zappeion, some painless “smart” solutions
A case of demagogic “illusion” is not only the recently confessed one in the Parliament by the Prime Minister‘s lips. It is, also, the attitude of the opposition regarding the disastrous government tax raid measures against the economy, because the opposition, in turn, rather than tell the truth, it also resorts to the easy demagoguery. Suddenly, the main opposition party, instead of explaining in simple terms the irrefutable dilemma ‘increase taxes or reduce expenses” and instead of expressing a clear opinion on the matter, it discovers again, five years after the proclamations at Zappeion, some painless “smart” solutions.
The point is that, especially for the specific political party, the “smart” solutions should constitute the third chapter, at least, of its book with the answers to the problems that compose our national tragedy. It is necessary that two other, much more critical, chapters precede that one. First in line should come the chapter of sincere remorse, in which the opposition will boldly accept its inalienable responsibilities for the definitive and complete derailment of the country in the period 2004-2009 and will apologize. (In this way, it will also be released from the peculiar “protection” offered for that period by the government). Second should follow the chapter that will explain clearly to the people that the “smart” and painless solutions may be very good, yet not sufficient. More important and indispensable are, unfortunately, the “cruel”, painful but also inevitable solutions, which require adjustment of salaries and pensions to the real capacity of the economy, liberalization of the markets, reform of the public sector, tackling of unemployment as the ultimate social injustice -all those changes that would radically transform the way in which the Greek society still lives, thinks and acts. All those things, in other words, that should take place now according to a plan, so that they do not happen tomorrow -inevitably- because of a collapse.
The road to enslavement is much shorter than what is believed by those who cultivated and continue to cultivate old and new “illusions”
It is a mistake for the main opposition party, and for every opposition party, to think that the country is like a football club in crisis which they can let go bankrupt, be relegated to the third division and then to take over the club offering peanuts (i.e. “smart” solutions) just to enjoy the Herostratic fame of the savior onto its embers. Unfortunately, life is not a game and the country is not a football club. If the socio-economic fabric of the country collapses, then there will be no possibility of return, not even to the “memorandum” reality. Under the circumstances currently surrounding the country, if the right action is not taken, the country will not just be led to a temporary relegation to a lower division, but to destruction. The road to enslavement is much shorter than what is believed by those who cultivated and continue to cultivate old and new “illusions”.
