H/T The Boiling Frog for this Telegraph article about Greece.
People are switching off: from politics, from the mass media, from social life.
“We would like to see the politicians executed,” says Maria, not smiling as she delivers the joke. “Most people are saying this: politicians deserve capital punishment – at the Greek equivalent of Traitors’ Gate. It would be a nice time for politicians to be heroes, to stand up and defend the people. But they’re not.”
“We can’t watch the television news any more,” says Dmitris, shaking his head. “If you watch it, with the constant uncertainty, it can make your psychology very low. It’s like a nightmare we can’t wake up from. Perhaps it’s fortunate that we’ve had to cancel our cable TV subscription. I don’t trust the media any more: I get all my news from the internet.
For me, the strange thing about reading this was that I already share most of these attitudes. I’ve switched off from politics (as I was saying only a day or so ago), from the mass media (as I was also saying a few days ago). And I’ve switched off from social life – although it would be more accurate to say that I was switched off, against my will, by the smoking ban. And I’d happily see a few politicians swing. And I stopped watch television years ago. And I don’t trust the media any more. And I get all my news from the internet. And I already feel that way without having been bankrupted, or having gone hungry, …yet.
If Greek public sector workers at all levels have been hit by pay and pension cuts, for the middle class – people like the Andreous, both of whom are self-employed – it is tax that is the problem.
Tax rises, a property downturn and the collapse of business income has halved their spending power, and that’s before the next round of austerity measures, due to be voted on in parliament on Tuesday, begin.
It is this sudden collapse of middle class lifestyles that makes the Greek situation so volatile…
As a result Greek politicians have started to worry about something called “anomie” – a pervasive listlessness, low-level social conflict and the erosion of bonds between the country’s citizens and the state.
The internet rumours have it that Greece will default on her debts, but further rumours have it that she’ll default, but will remain within the Euro. How does that work? What’s the point of staying in the Euro? If she does, Greece won’t be able to devalue her currency, and thereby make investing in Greece attractive again. And if they can’t devalue, they’ll just face years of austerity.
But it seems the EU aristocracy is determined that Greece stay in the Euro. Angela Merkel said recently that the fate of the EU was wrapped up in the Euro. So it seems that preserving the Euro, and thus preserving the EU, is far more important than what happens to a little country like Greece. The Eurocrats are not going to let the EU disintegrate.
I don’t know why Europe matters so much to these people. What is so much better about a European superstate than a Europe of separate self-governing nations? It seems to be a modern political dogma. As Nigel Farage said some months ago in the EU parliament:
Your fanaticism is out in the open. You talk about the fact that it was a lie to believe that the nation state could exist in the 21st century globalized world.
Why can’t the nation state exist in a globalised world? What’s so different and special about the 21st century that it negates all previous history? And anyway if it actually is true, then it will surely happen quite naturally of its own accord, and there will be no need to anticipate the fact by making sweeping political changes before they are actually needed.
It’s really all very much like that other “global” thing: global warming. The global warming alarmists say that the planet is warming, and we have to do something about it now to stop it happening in the future. We can’t just take it as it comes, and respond to events if and when they happen. No, they say, we have to plan for the future now, and cut carbon emissions now, in order to prevent sea levels rising in 50 or 100 years time.
These EU globalisers are essentially doing the same thing. They’re predicting the future, and saying that the nation state will become a thing of the past in the globalised world economy, and we Europeans have to plan for it now, by building ourselves a political Noah’s Ark in the form of the EU. It will be as essential for our survival in the coming world, they say, as building windmills and solar collectors is for our survival in a warming world. We’ve had nation states for thousands of years, but that’s all over now. Just like we had a stable climate for thousands of years, and that’s all over too. They’re past history, nation states and stable climates. Just like smoking is a thing of the past. It’s all change now.
But what if their predictions are wrong? What if there isn’t any global warming? And what if globalisation doesn’t actually spell the end for the nation state? And what if smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer? We’d all look rather stupid, wouldn’t we?
Frank Davis 
“But it seems the EU aristocracy is determined that Greece stay in the Euro.”
Of course they are. They’ll use any means at their disposal to ensure that the Euro – and thus the EU – stays intact, because they know that if one country bails out of the Euro, then that will open the floodgates for others to follow suit. And as soon as countries grab back the power to control their own economies and their own finances, then a major handle of power for the EU is lost. They’d rather drive Greece – or indeed any other one of its unfortunate “member states” that finds itself in a similar plight – further and further onto its knees and beyond than let it slip out of their grasp. There have already – and understandably – been riots in the street in Greece, but it seems that only complete and utter revolution, involving bloodshed and dead people, will be enough to convince the EU grandees to let Greece – or indeed any other country – get away.
But the problem for the Eurocrats – and they know it – is that whatever it takes for Greece to escape their clutches, other countries, similarly disillusioned with the European experiment are likely to go straight there to re-establish their own freedom. None of them will want to fart around with all this debt, and austerity measures, and two-piece (ignored) protests when it’s shown that only running battles in the streets between the people and their rulers is what works. It isn’t out of the question that the “Arab Spring” movement could well be mirrored by a “European Spring” movement right here on our own doorstep.
Since you’ve mentioned Mrs. Merkel, Frank …
Please do not confuse with Germany.
I have a feeling that among ordinary people here, no one likes the EU any more – (“any more”? Has anybody ever been asked if he would?).
People are tired of all this, enough, enough – and yearn to return to the Deutsch-Mark. :-)
The vision to have no more wars in Europe was beautiful.
But the octopus which has grown from it is not.
Indeed. I don’t equate Angela Merkel with Germany. Just like I don’t equate David Cameron with Britain.
Since you’ve mentioned Mrs. Merkel, Frank …
Please do not confuse with Germany.
Yes, and people are tired, frustrated and DISILLUSIONED.
It would be nice to think: ‘there will be election time again’…. It’s just that there seems to be no-one standing for common sense.
The vision to have no more wars in Europe was beautiful.
But the octopus which has grown from it is not.
Is it an octopus or a vicious terminal cancer?
It isn’t out of the question that the “Arab Spring” movement could well be mirrored by a “European Spring” movement right here on our own doorstep.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen.
Is it an octopus or a vicious terminal cancer?
I meant a strangling Krake (= sea monster), not a funny Tintenfisch.
Couldn’t find out the difference between the two in English. My dictionary calls them both “octopus”.
I don’t think there is a specific English word for it. Octopus is the nearest. We sometimes borrow the word “kraken”. There was a book I read once called “The Kraken Wakes.”
Interesting!
I’ve got an inherited “Concise Oxford Dictionary”, and in fact it says:
kraken (-ah’-) n. Mythical sea-monster said to appear off coast of Norway. [Norw.]
That also explains the -n at the end of “kraken”, which is the Norwegian article, as far as I know.
Now I know how to call the kraken from now on. The EU ist not an octopus any more.
Merkel. Merkin. No similarity between the base word roots, is there?
Thanks for your kind link Frank, much appreciated
” the erosion of bonds between the country’s citizens and the state”
The following is a comment over at ‘Samizdata’.
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It has been the nature of elected legislators to demonstrate their theoretical “value” by composing actions to address (if not resolve) issues of every sort, and to give those of the most public prominence the most extensive interventions (to use the Italian for “invasive surgery’).
More troublesome: Developing “issues” to require “action” in order to sustain the appearances of legislative importance.
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This also holds true for unelected office holders/officials.
The truism about their being the servants/employees/caretakers, not the masters, has been totally cast aside.
Most politicians are twits and most female politicians look as tho their pee could etch glass.