A Greek writer despairs over the condition of the motherland:
The pre-eminent action of civic participation is to demand employment in the public sector, or to defend retirement at 50, to illegally build houses in the forest, or to fully exploit one’s state-sanctioned monopoly.For the local intellectual class, this is the triumph of politics. For decades now, progressive ideas are the only ideas in Greece. They have been so thoroughly instilled in everyone, from the first grader up to the Prime Minister, that they permeate everything. Any movement in a different direction is anti-social, reactionary, liberal, or an Anglo-Saxon barbarity. Under the tutelage of progressive ideas there are privileges without duties, advantages without merit, crime without punishment and hard work with no reward. Can a society flourish under these conditions? What is the character and the purpose of the nation? Important questions, but in Greece they were decided years ago. The only questions remaining are who gets what, when and how. Not long ago I watched a TV report about an explosion in an illegal propane station in a residential area in Athens. The illegal market for fuel is thriving thanks to exorbitant taxes. The journalist reporting the incident mentioned the illegality without a shred of emphasis. It became worse when the owner of the station talked to the camera. I could not discern any expression of shame. She had just broken the law in a dramatic way and in the process put the lives of her neighbours in danger. None of this seemed to matter to her or anyone else. It was the noise and the spectacle of explosion that counted the most; a story reported for its cinematic value, where causes and consequences are unimportant.
This is the relativism of everyday life. The most important thing is what you can get away with. It is the tragedy of the commons writ large; a public sphere where the private and the public meet under the most disadvantageous terms. Someone would expect that decades of policies intended to foster social cohesion would produce a society of benevolent people. Instead we have narrow-minded, cynical, egotists gyrating in alternate states of self-satisfaction and self-hatred.
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Cleo: I agree with you. The Greek writer is slagging off his own country - that doesn't give anyone else the right to slag it off.
There's a fine line to tread here - I don't mind US commenters talking about England. When it's the Muslim problem, it's a global issue that I'll wager will affect the USA soon. That stuff recently about the drinking-and-fighting culture among urban young people, I thought was fair comment, but I have to admit to a twinge of "well, hasn't the USA got its fair share of social problems, too" (religion doesn't seem to be a panacea). Mind you, I was recently told by one of the commenters that I had no right to comment on the USA - talk about double standards?!
Besides, Greece is actually somewhere that's doing some things right. It's a fairly poor country, with a pc-GDP a fraction that of the USA, yet it's giving everyone a decent basic standard of living. The emigration of Greeks to the USA is standard brain-drain stuff that applies to any poorish country - loads of Greeks go and living in Germany, too. I've only been there on a few holidays, but it's a country that seems to have a lot going for it - the social pathology of much of urban Europe and USA is not as obvious, and, with a heavily tourism-oriented economy, they seem to avoid the vileness of the Spanish resorts (and Spain's much richer than Greece, too). The agriculture seems prosperous. You see four-generational families all out together of an evening.
So, one has to be a citizen of a country to draw attention to criticism of that country? Please.
"Under the tutelage of progressive ideas there are privileges without duties, advantages without merit, crime without punishment and hard work with no reward."
This is the center of the post, and one of the few points I can agree with the author. Maybe it's the Buddhism in me, but I don't see how priviledges (what we would porbably call "rights" in the US) can come without duty. You don't get something for nothing. Same with crime and punishment - whether the punishment is from society (a legal punishment) or from within (the guilt of knowing one has done wrong, etc.) or from karmic interactions there is always a punishment for a crime. Similarly, to attain enlightenment is often hard work, but it is beyond any simple reward.
Ifthats what the author sees in Greece, then by all means it's not good for Greece. I tend to think that reality is too complex to be proven only with anecdotal evidence (though it can help in some ways).
Sorry, you say Greece is poor country?If you say this you are not right...
Greece is one of most developed countries in the world and greek economy its better and spanish economy (i am spanish).Of course Spain is rich country and Greece is only country in easten europe is very rich and developed.
Portugal is rich country but Greece is very richer...
I have live in Greece 5years and i know good;):)
Hello!!! i just read the above.
I'm Georgia from Greece.
I've been living in Greece since i was born and it is my country.
I will speak only with numbers , please correct me if i'm wrong.
I got my first job before i get my university degree and i was paid
650* euro per month (for the first 2 months) and 700* euro per month after the 3rd month. I lived by myself and my rent was 300 euro for a very small apartment (bedroom,toilet,kitchen).When i went to the supermarket breadi had 1 euro (this is just an example).
I had to count every euro i got in order to keep up.
I went to work at 9:00 in the morning and leave 7:00-8:00 noon
I was never paid for the extra hours.
My second job was exactly the same (same money , same hours)
This is the typical life of a young person in Greece. All my friends and people i knew from the university have the story to tell you.
My grandma worked all her life, her pension is 400 euro per month
My father is a car mechanic and after 22 years of work in a company got 1500* euro per month. My mother worked also in the private sections changing jobs for many years and with difficulty found a job because she had two kids.
In one of my jobs there was a woman who was working there for 10 years
and she got pregnant. She had 6 months after the baby was born to stay with the baby. When she returned to work after 6 months she was fired.
And the worst is that she couldn't speak because her husband was working there also.
About health when you work in the private sector you have IKA, which allows you to go to public doctors and hospitals
The number of capable doctors willing to make a right diagnosis or perform a surgery needed without taking any 'extra money' was very small.
In order to get paid what you deserve when you work you must 'know' someone (uncle, father, cousin etc) so he gets you to work or go to the public sector.
* = money with no ika insurance
I read carefully the text above and all the comments and i will agree that the situation in Greece is severe but i will stand at the last words :Someone would expect that decades of policies intended to foster social cohesion would produce a society of benevolent people. Instead we have narrow-minded, cynical, egotists gyrating in alternate states of self-satisfaction and self-hatred.
I don't want to sound hostile but these egoists protest for their rights, go out in the streets, hire lawyers and press charges against authorities that are unfair to them.And i'm proud to say that my mother is one of them.But i didn't hear any suggestion from the author.
All i heard was the classic whining that everything is wrong but what to do? We have others to blame.I didn't hear any solution , any proposition of what must be done or even an effort from the writer to change things.No! Just whining. Well to me you are just another egoist.
I judge my country, i'm not saying everything is ok and i would like others to judge it as well but help solving the problem also. Not just write something , sitting in my chair saying everything is wrong.
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