A country, whose internal system is like the kleptocratic "socialism" we have been enjoying here for decades, has no standing as a nation. It has no honor, and hence can command no respect on the international scene. It is rather more than a failed state, something akin to a fake state, i.e. a state in words and on paper where you can bet your life that behind pompous words about legality and the common good there hide the most sordid actions of private greed at the expense of the commonweal.

A real state is a set of functioning and respected institutions underpinned by a widely diffused moral code, i.e. an internalized social consciousness bent upon checking the functioning of the institutions from the outside, as it were, and preventing them from straying from their concept.

This does not mean that corruption and manipulation of institutions by private interest are absent -far from it. But it does mean that the means for fighting these distortions are internal to the system and are activated more or less effectively when the violations of legal and constitutional propriety assume critical dimensions at any rate. This is, of course, an ongoing struggle with no final and permanent endpoint. But in free and civilized nations this type of rough balance in favor of the public good over private greed is maintained over time and citizens and office holders are constantly vigilant that it should be so.

In this country we have lived through a situation where nothing of the above applies. Prevailing over the collective interest, living at the expense of society, using force and power to bend the law and the institution to serve the selfish designs of minority cliques is the rule. And, what is much more distressing, is that this type of behavior enjoys widespread popular approbation. Certainly the losers in this dogfight complain loudly, yet in their heart of hearts they wish they were in the place of the winners. So in fact they are not on the side of justice, but rather of injustice since their secret wish is that they should occupy the throne of the exploiters and tyrants, rather than ending exploitation. Their stance is one of pure "resentment" in Nietzsche's sense, i.e. they hate the powerful oppressor only because they do not dispose of his power to oppress.

On a funny aside, what we have experienced in this country for the past generation is the actuality of philosophy's worst concepts and insights.

Be that as it may, Greece's behavior inside Europe faithfully mirrored its internal diseased condition. There were ad nauseam declarations of fanatical even commitment to the ideals and institutions of united Europe (united even unto the very completion of a federal union!) coupled however with equally fanatical resistance against the practical enforcement of the obligations flowing from belonging to the EU, either on the economic or the institutional, let alone the cultural level.

A couple of weeks ago a court found in favor of a notorious anti-Semite and Nazi, ruling that his racist rantings were "historical research" and did not constitute incitement to racial hatred. The Greek Jewish witnesses for the prosecution in the case were abused and browbeaten in the courtroom. Antisemitism is a staple of popular television with nobody batting an eyelid. A few months ago the burning of a historical Synagogue in Crete did not stir any notable social reaction -and was rather welcomed with silent popular approbation. These are only a few emblematic examples illustrating the radical divergence of this society from the civilized European norm, whose economic consequences we have been dramatically experiencing recently.

It was in this context that the sickest possible version of nationalism developed since the early nineties, instigated by the present leader of the main opposition party. The "patriotic" party, in ideological control of all political formations from the extreme terrorist left to the extreme right, stoked all kinds of phobias in the masses and imposed upon the government a ridiculous level of military expenditure, in the context of which the most vile thievery of the public purse took place. This insane policy, which again enjoyed wide public support, contributed drastically to the ruining of public finances.

Thus the actions of these "patriots", fiercely promoted by the so called "press" whose chiefs were also in the pay of defense contractors and other businessmen profiting from this rotten merry-go-round, have led Greece to its present predicament of ceding effective sovereignty to Brussels and the IMF. They are also the ones who are presently most vocal against the involvement of the IMF in the rescue of the Greek economy, again on mendacious grounds of national pride and "anti-imperialist" commitment. What is in fact bugging them is that under an IMF-Brussels regime their days of criminal license and impunity are over.

Of course, all the rest of us who had no involvement in their odious deeds will also pay the bill for the destruction of this society that they caused. In any case, since the system here cannot cleanse itself by its own means and free volition, external tutelage is the only alternative. And in the long run, even the very long run, it may bring about a better life for our children -since our own has been effectively and terminally ruined under the reign of this "progressive", "social" and "national" mafia.