It's such a truism by now that the Greek political system is in a state of putrescence -I have been writing about this monotonously for the past four years or so. But then two different conclusions follow from this premise: either you sit still and bear the consequences helplessly, or you try to do something about it. Something like packing up and leaving this place (thousands, especially young people, are actually doing so), or joining some political initiative with an outside chance to help stem the rot. I wagered the latter. A new political group was formed with the express aim of fighting the attitudes and practices that bankrupted the country. It scored respectably (6.6%) in the recent elections for the European Parliament. I was not elected of course, but that's neither here nor there. The depressing point, as I see it, is rather that these elections did not signal even a faint awareness in the people at large that there ought to be a radical re-assessment of policies and a renewal of personnel, if the direction of the ship (or rather the pitiful raft that is left of it) is to be reversed. Even in the midst of generalized despair and outrage the public still favored, both in the government and opposition camps, the easy and empty slogans and the failed personalities that only promised to continue the blithe and blind course to further ruin.
The chief cause for this is the stranglehold over public life exercised by the media. The campaign was fought on the television screens -nothing remarkable about that, you might say, it's the same in all democratic countries. Except that the media here do not possess even the modicum of impartiality and independence that might justify their role as chief arbiters in the political debate. They are fully in cahoots with the corrupt politicos -the media actually put them in power in the first place in order subsequently to to claim unbelievable rewards that make a mockery of the rule of law and basic equality. The relative integrity of constitutional provisions that elsewhere provide some redress for abuses of power and privilege are absent here. Laws and institutions are mere tools in the hands of private interests for the purpose of bilking the commonweal.
And the most dispiriting thing of all is that the majority of the people consider this a normal state of affairs and are incapable of visualizing -and therefore wanting- an alternative. Each and every one is pining for "his own" to grab the helm, in order to exploit the public wealth for the benefit of the followers of this or that political party. The sound and fury of television panels debating the issues signified precisely nothing. Ignorant and/or plainly self-interested figures engaged in shrill altercations, in which the rudest and most shameless usually "won". "The worst are full of passionate intensity": God, how many times need we to be reminded of Yeats' great insight! It is no surprise that the individuals that collected the most votes in all parties were those that excelled in this theater of ostentatious nothingness -TV personalities, footballers, actors and sundry demagogues spooning out the cant of the "wronged nation".
This was a "European" election in which Europe was absent. Or it was mentioned only to be bashed as the source of all evils that have befallen this most perfect of all lands. A general desire was abroad for a return to the "blessed" condition before the fall (of 2010), in which Europe would continue to ladle out the billions to be spent for the obscene enrichment of privileged castes, with some crumbs falling off the table for the rest of us. This is a vicious circle that I hate to say cannot be broken in the foreseeable future.
So what was the ancient truth that was thus re-learned? That democracy is not viable without a demos that is informed, cultured and of independent judgement, and hence capable of making a sharp distinction between cheap rhetoric and rational discourse aiming at the common good. But this presupposes an educational system cultivating critical thinking, rather that ideological indoctrination -something which is missing here, because it was deliberately destroyed by those wishing to put the television evangelism of hatred and obfuscation in its place. A people whose mind is shaped in this way is none other that the ἄγριον θρέμμα described by Plato, ready to pounce upon those counseling for the common interest (such as poor Nicias) as enemies of the nation. This is a people perverted by its very enemies to regard anyone truly equipped to guide it to a better condition as "μετεωροσκόπον τε καὶ ἀδολέσχην καὶ ἄχρηστον" (Rep. 488e).
But at least in Plato's Ship of Fools those who through impudence and violence have seized the helm of government still somehow keep the vessel floating albeit in random and aimless course: "τοὺς μὲν άλλους ἢ ἀποκτιννύντας ἢ ἐκβάλλοντας ἐκ τῆς νεώς, τὸν δὲ γενναῖον ναύκληρον μανδραγόρᾳ ἢ μέθῃ ἢ τινι ἄλλῳ ξυμποδίσαντας τῆς νεὼς ἄρχειν χρωμένους τοῖς ἐνοῦσι, καὶ πίνοντάς τε καὶ εὐωχουμένους πλεῖν ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς τοὺς τοιούτους..." The same in Hieronymus Bosch's great painting: the debauched occupants of the vessel are still gorging themselves, and puking into the sea, while their boat is heading to nowhere with a roast chicken strapped to its mast. Of course the rocks are visible in the distance, but the hour of reckoning has not yet arrived.
This hour has come and gone for the modern Greek ship of fools. There is no roast chicken to be seen anywhere anymore, and just a few broken planks remain. And yet most cling to them fantasizing that the feast is about to resume, trusting the same vile priests and dunces that brought them to this ruin.
