Those who are concerned and worried about the probability that in 2017 our country will be taken over by the movement of “post truth” politics, which spreads in the western world like the midsummer fire spreads in the grain fields, can settle down. There is no danger of this happening, for a very simple reason: because the “post truth” politics, namely the illusion and absurdity, the madness and chicanery, the blindness and self-destruction, have been endemic for years in our dominant national way of thinking and acting, which our society externalizes through every pore it has and with every breath it takes, at every moment and with every opportunity. It is present in the political “narratives” of all dominant (and even marginal) political parties – although their most “witty” representatives sometimes admit that they are looking for a “new narrative”, only to thrill the people towards new disasters. It is present in our collective consciousness that considers that a people and a society who have been self-governed for four decades, may not have the slightest responsibility for the consequences of their actions and inter-temporal choices but rather that the ones responsible for any adverse turn in their fate are some foreigners who covet, envy and hate us. It is present in the thought of “intellectuals” and “professionals” of speech and pen alike -or in a strong majority of them, anyway- who, violating any logic, any morality and any ethical commitment and intellectual honesty, twist things only to be liked by the public.
In the dawn of 2017, has the threat of destruction hovering the country for seven years, somewhat receded? Unfortunately, the answer is negative. Our society appears to be culturally unsynchronized with the economic necessities and requirements of the second globalization- the (consumption) benefits of which, however, it fervently seeks. This phenomenon has two aspects. On the one hand, there is a leading political class, which is, in general, either incapable or illiterate or corrupt. And on the other hand, there is a dominant pre-modern ideology on the social fabric, which fully obscures the prevailing reality either because it is related to anti-Enlightenment religious-type doctrines or because it totally belongs to the logic of conspiracy theories and scaremongering. So, seven years after the onset of the crisis, the society has not even realized what has really happened and is still happening, and the political leadership throughout the political spectrum, demagogic as it is, keeps on mythologizing in order to deceive and to reassure -as they have done before and they keep on doing after the crisis until today- with the purpose of reaping the ephemeral benefits of power, without caring what will happen next in a country that is in structural failure, geopolitical encirclement and demographic collapse.
Within this context, anyone who really cares about their country and is interested in the historical continuity and survival of the nation has a single duty. Especially, in an extremely difficult and dangerous year as 2017 is believed to be. To speak and promote the truth with simple, logical and sincere arguments and with the correct use of the necessary, substantiation (especially if one is an economist), neglecting and ignoring the intimidations of those who only know how to threaten and the slanders of those who only know how to smear and who will not hesitate to call him Stalinist or fascist, neoliberalist or statist, submissive to the Germans or Syriza-troll. Ignoring all that, the honest and judicious Greek patriot must defend those truths that will be necessary and relevant in 2017. For example, that things regarding the “primary surplus” are not exactly as the incurable demagogy of the government and the opposition presents them to be and that building confidence and attracting investment, namely the interest of the country, require that the payment of the interest of its loans is made through the primary surpluses, preferably through the reduction of spending rather than the increase of taxes and, definitely, not through new borrowing, as it constantly happens until today. Also that in 2017, the public sector will have to cut clearly and openly (and not silently and in disguise) the percentage of public spending directed to pensions, in case it becomes possible for the youth to earn a living. (Especially if, at first, these cuts concern the pensions of the evil-pensioners, the ones that are “first in pursuing ‘their’ rights, first in pursuing ‘their’ fights”). That the promise of the uninterrupted and continuous recourse of the Greek government to the “markets” for all the years after 2018 in order to cover its financial needs, is but a fairy tale -and fortunately so, because otherwise if it were to take place, it may have been a nightmare, a constant death rattling. That the “escape from the Memorandum” means nothing to a bankrupt state, and that an economic policy “outside the Memorandum” may be, by necessity, stricter and more disappointing for all those who hope to prosper not through their work and their efforts but through the “generosity” of the patronage Greek state.
Regarding the political parties and their promises, the honest patriot commits himself, especially now, in 2017, when a full experience cycle is complete, to put forward to all of them the following simple demand: instead of programs with promises and twaddles, which they all know that have no value, to focus on two simple things. First, to explain to the Greek people the criminal and nation-destructive errors they have committed in the previous years to date, with particular emphasis of course on the critical years before the event of bankruptcy in 2010. Second, that happens to be the most important, to state exactly the way they are thinking to rectify and reverse their “mistakes”, that is the near-complete destruction of the Greek nation. (This demand applies to all political parties that existed before 2010, but also to all the new ones that have, however, their origin to the parties existing before 2010).
Let 2017 be a turning point in the course of the Greek nation, during which the Greeks will give up the hallucinations and the ostrich-like attitude, and will lead the country into a new phase of growth, prosperity and decency.
