Past midnight

If I did not have a personal stake in the matter, involving the very future of my children, I would suggest the following solution to the present impasse in Greece's relation to the Eurozone.

At this point in time the country is a lost cause. In all its basic structures and functions the state has just rotted away -as the horrific events of last Sunday showed with irrevocable finality. The average citizen is at the mercy of any and every criminal who might decide to strike against his/her life and livelihood.

This criminality may or may not be politically motivated, but it doesn't make any difference anymore. The average criminal has by now absorbed the lesson that if you plead a left-wing political motive this is tantamount to putting on the fabled ring of Gyges: you are straightaway rendered invisible. Common crime (and I am talking about heavily armed gangs) and political extremism are two contiguous worlds in fruitful mutual exchange and understanding. As Athens was going up in flames numerous "indignant" protesters surrounded the fire engines and prevented them from reaching the burning buildings. Similarly others egged on the masked hoodlums and cheered them when they petrol-bombed stores. They did not represent the majority of the demonstrators. But they were the dominant element in the demonstrations, the ideologically and politically hegemonic group. The Stalinist left stuck to their time-honored hypocrisy: it was the police, the CIA etc. who were behind the arsonists. Then they piled on their mendacious rhetoric about the "foreigners" trying to subjugate Greece, the "4th Reich" taking over etc. They were assisted in this Neanderthal propaganda by such individuals as an internationally known composer, who during the past decade has mutated into the chief spokesman for empty-headed nationalism and antisemitism. Yesterday, the president of the republic himself joined the idiotic chorus of anti-German taunts, whose immediate effect is to seal the country's doom as a member of the European family of nations.

All these are symptoms of a radical collapse of all moral and social bonds. Under a pretext of left radicalism a social regime was built in Greece since the fall of the colonels, whose chief characteristic has been the rapacity of politically connected groups and individuals. The commonweal has been bled dry by these militant "leftists" in an orgy of anti-social egotism. This extreme right-wing reality, i.e. the absolute prevalence of selfish interest at the expense of the common good, was camouflaged by anti-imperialist and frankly Stalinist cant stoked by a healthy dose of gross nationalist declamation. The young generation has been molded by this dominant mentality. systematically inculcated in the schools and trumpeted by the media. All social processes and functions were thus subjected to these ideological purposes. Judges, if we can call them that, refused, for instance, to impound the bank accounts of known and self-admitted bank robbers (accounts containing he proceeds from the robberies) when the latter declared that they were "anarchists" expropriating the oppressive system. Cabinet ministers were often witnesses for the defense in the trial of terrorists (including a late internationally known actress). These are of course things that a normal person coming from planet civilization finds impossible to even contemplate, let alone believe: and yet this is the poisoned air we have been breathing all these years.

The situation is not reversible. There is not a single institution left intact and still able to play its role as the defender of the public interest. This does not mean that the people as a whole has lost its mind and its conscience. There is a silent majority disgusted and appalled by all this. They are not represented by the demonstrations, because the demonstrations are by those defending the scandalous privileges of the corrupt minorities under the ancien regime. The majority is cowed and helpless. If anyone stands up for reason and decency (to say for instance that our collapse is not the fault of the Germans, but of those who have ruled us for a generation and also those who voted for them), he/she is going to be fiercely slandered and persecuted. So, there is no hope. The measures that Parliament approved last Sunday amidst the orgy of brutality will not be implemented, because the entire state apparatus will sabotage them. By doing this they will, of course, be digging their own graves, but in their brutishness they are simply past simple logic even if it counsels what is in their material interest.

And so I come to my (horrible) solution. Greek society has been taken over by a suicidal impulse, which should be allowed to take its course. In the long run (i.e. when we are all dead) this is going to prove salutary, i.e a creative destruction. For, experiencing the real consequences of their collective folly (i.e. economic destitution and isolation from the rest of the world) they will be forced to abandon the delusions that are currently preventing them from thinking and feeling. In concrete terms, Greece must be allowed to default and return to the drachma. It will thus rapidly regress to the condition of Enver Hoxha's Albania. It will proudly become the North Korea of Europe that its dominant intellectuals are lusting for. The population will starve and vegetate in slavery under the leadership of the "revolutionaries" of Sunday last. But only thus will the public mind here will (in the long run, I repeat) be disabused of the lies that it has been systematically burdened with for a generation, its hatred of Europe and of the West, its hatred of freedom and of individuality. Right now they are still laboring under the illusion that had the Stalinists won the civil war back in the forties, the country would have become paradise on earth. I know: only a demented person would believe this; but it was this collective dementia that was inculcated as "the truth" by the ruling elites. So let them try it, so that they might eventually by purged by bitter experience of this insanity.

In the medium term such a suicide by Greece will also be extremely beneficial for the rest of Europe. They will be rid of an obstreperous entity that does not share their ideals, institutions and goals. And thus their chances to overcome the current crisis will be drastically increased. More and more governments and institutions in Europe have already been coming (unfortunately for us)to such a conclusion. But, if a country does not want to be saved from ruin; and if the more they try to save it the more it hates those that are still willing to come to its aid, I cannot see any outcome other than its self-inflicted death.

I do not want this outcome. I, in fact, dread it. It will destroy the future of our children. I pray that we may still escape from this impending hell. Not least because this solution is unjust. It is unjust towards the hard-working and -despite everything- right thinking majority of the Greek people who have been subjected to the humiliation of being ruled by incompetent beasts and fools. It is true that this healthy core was seduced by the demagogy of their ruthless leaders. But all peoples are prone to succumb to demagogues as history shows. They do not deserve to be extinguished for this mistake, endemic especially in democracies. My reason tells me that we are past the point of no return. My heart still urges me to hope.

Dixi et salvavi animam meam.