{"id":562,"date":"2017-08-25T16:33:11","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T14:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/?p=562"},"modified":"2017-08-25T17:18:36","modified_gmt":"2017-08-25T15:18:36","slug":"greece-a-basket-case-study-in-savage-globalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/main.cse-initiative.eu\/?p=562","title":{"rendered":"Greece: A (Basket) Case Study In Savage Globalization"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOURCE: MINTPRESSNEWS<\/a><\/h3>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s face the problem of our colonial status. Let\u2019s work to find a solution for it. Let\u2019s decolonize our minds and spirits and become real citizens of Puerto Rico<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera\u2019s words were, of course, made in reference to Puerto Rico. However, it can be said that they are also applicable to many other nations, including nominally independent states such as Greece, a country which has been ravaged by almost a decade of stifling economic austerity imposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF); a country which could be described as a modern-day debt colony<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having been raised in the United States as a \u201cthird culture kid,\u201d with one foot in the U.S. and one foot in Greece, allows me to see things in both societies simultaneously as a native and as a relative outsider. This has particularly been true during the past four-plus years, a period in which I have resided almost full-time in Athens as a doctoral student and journalist.<\/p>\n

Modern-day Greece: Fatalism, defeatism and hopelessness<\/h2>\n

The extent of the demoralization of the Greek people is plainly evident through everyday conversations and encounters. Ordinary Greeks, upon learning that I came to the country to perform academic research, react in surprise and confusion, wondering why anyone would be crazy enough to come to Greece to stay for an extended period. Years ago, soon after the onset of the crisis, two different taxi drivers, upon realizing that I was from overseas, questioned why I chose to come to Greece. \u201cWhy are you here? Don\u2019t you see what is happening?\u201d I was asked. \u201cLeave now, as quickly as you can!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Farmers<\/p>\n

Farmers stand behind a makeshift fire in front of tractors, near Kerdilia, Greece. (AP\/Giannis Papanikos)<\/p>\n

Another driver interrogated me about job conditions in the United States, clearly because he had emigration on his mind. When I would mention that I was in Greece to perform academic research, but more importantly, because it was my homeland, people looked at me, quite simply, as if I were crazy.<\/p>\n

On other occasions, upon learning that I am an autodidact in the Greek language, Greeks openly wondered why I chose to learn such an \u201cinsignificant\u201d language as Greek, instead of a language which offered \u201cpotential,\u201d such as German.<\/p>\n

I could not escape this pessimism, even back in the United States in faraway Texas. At a farewell party for two Greek-American students who were graduating from my university, one of the students expressed interest in teaching English in Greece and living there for six months or a year. A student from Greece who was part of the conversation, however, warned her against such folly. \u201cDon\u2019t do it, you won\u2019t like it,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cGreece is only good for summer vacations.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far back as the \u201cgood old days\u201d of the 1990s, when as a child I was privileged enough to travel to Greece with my family during the summer, I often used to hear mutterings about how much better things would be if Germans ruled Greece instead of the Greeks. Today, eight years into the worst economic crisis a developed country has endured in modern history and at a time when Greece is essentially governed by Brussels and Berlin, one still hears such sentiments expressed with alarming frequency.<\/p>\n

Interviews, both academic and journalistic, that I have conducted dating back several years have revealed an overriding sentiment of hopelessness, a belief that the economic crisis that had befallen the country would not be overcome for many, many years. And while the crisis has indeed dragged on, one wonders to what extent such sentiments are self-fulfilling, as a result of the inertia and paralysis which result from the belief that nothing can or will change.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mental colonization<\/h2>\n

In a 2013 interview<\/a> which originally aired on Dialogos Radio<\/a>, John Perkins, author of the bestselling book \u201cConfessions of an Economic Hitman,\u201d described how \u201ceconomic hitmen\u201d from institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, as well as from the private sector, combine their economic takeover of an indebted nation, such as Greece, with a process of mental colonization:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026[T]hat\u2019s part of the game: convince people that they\u2019re wrong, that they\u2019re inferior. The corporatocracy is incredibly good at that\u2026 It\u2019s a policy of them versus us: We are good. We are right. We do everything right. You\u2019re wrong. And in this case, all of this energy has been directed at the Greek people to say \u2018you\u2019re lazy; you didn\u2019t do the right thing; you didn\u2019t follow the right policies.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

An observer will quickly determine that Perkins\u2019 words ring true in the case of Greece. Complaining, which was practically a national pastime in the pre-crisis years, has reached stratospheric proportions. A general sense of collective guilt permeates Greek society, and it is common to hear discussions and statements about how \u201cwe elected these leaders, we were corrupt, we weren\u2019t good citizens, therefore we deserve our current predicament and everything that is being done to us.\u201d If you note a fatalistic undertone in these utterances, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n

This collective guilt has been strongly encouraged by Greece\u2019s political class, who ironically are responsible to a significant degree for Greece\u2019s present-day crisis. Former longtime government minister Theodoros Pangalos, infamous for his salty mouth and previously described by best-selling author Greg Palast as a \u201cfat bastard<\/a>,\u201d cynically stated at the onset of the crisis that \u201cwe ate it all together,\u201d insinuating that Greek citizens benefited collectively from the corruption, nepotism, and cronyism that previous governments (including his own) habitually engaged in.<\/p>\n

Following from this collective guilt is a new trend in Greece in which people insist on engaging in what they believe to be the sort of \u201cself-criticism\u201d practiced in other \u201ccivilized\u201d countries. In reality, as will be demonstrated, it is sentiments of self-loathing and inferiority which are expressed instead of frank and constructive criticism of the nation\u2019s ills. In turn, these sentiments foster feelings of apathy, hopelessness and paralysis on a national scale, acting as obstacles to any positive transformation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Greece: The worst in everything?<\/h2>\n

Contributing to the general sense of helplessness and hopelessness is a commonly-held view that Greece and Greek society are inferior to the \u201ccivilized\u201d \u2013 as they are often called \u2013 countries of the West. This inferiority complex deeply pervades the Greek psyche and every aspect of present-day Greek society.<\/p>\n

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\"Greek<\/p>\n

Greek Protesters hold European flags during an anti government rally outside the Greek parliament, central Athens, June 20 , 2017. (AP\/Petros Giannakouris)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Such a mentality has long been present in Greece. Successive waves of immigration out of Greece throughout the 20th century and into the 1970s resulted in a mentality which still lingers, that the \u201cgrass is always greener\u201d overseas. With the onset of the economic crisis in 2008-2009, a new wave of emigration out of Greece commenced and approximately 600,000 individuals left Greece during this period. This new wave of emigration has resulted in the re-emergence of these old mentalities.<\/p>\n

Old attitudes die hard, and in hearing many Greeks describe their country, one detects an overriding attitude, a prevailing sentiment that views Greece as a \u201cbanana republic\u201d and \u201cuncivilized\u201d and that everything is better overseas in the aforementioned \u201ccivilized\u201d countries of Northern Europe and the West. There is indeed a Greek word for this mentality: \u201cxenomania,\u201d literally meaning a fascination with anything foreign. Xenomania is rampant in Greece: ranging from the use of \u201cGreeklish\u201d instead of the Greek language, to the all-encompassing preference for seemingly anything foreign, from food to music to fashion.<\/p>\n

A common refrain that is heard in Greece whenever anything negative occurs in the country, no matter how minor or inconsequential, is that such things occur \u201conly in Greece.\u201d These assertions often reach epically absurd proportions.<\/p>\n

In February, a horrific car accident on one of Greece\u2019s national highways resulted in the death of four people, including a pregnant woman and her three-year-old child who were sitting in an automobile parked at a rest stop. Immediately, a chorus of comments was heard throughout the traditional and social media about how terrible Greece is in all aspects. An ex-race car driver and current driving school owner, known popularly as \u201cIaveris,\u201d stated on national television in response to the tragedy that \u201cGreeks are the worst people in the world,\u201d a remark which was met with overwhelming agreement in Greece\u2019s public discourse.<\/p>\n

This same \u201clogic\u201d is regularly and consistently applied to every real or perceived negative story, event, or facet of life in Greece. Cost overruns on a public works project? Only in Greece! Government corruption? Nowhere is it worse than in Greece! Major bankers and politicians going unpunished for their crimes? Only in Greece! Destructive forest fires? Football fans rioting? Doctors practicing medicine without a license? Workers being obliged to work unpaid overtime hours? Crooked taxi drivers that overcharge passengers? Cruelty towards animals? Small businesses that don\u2019t issue a receipt for a minor purchase? Unfair judicial decisions? Low quality, sensational media outlets? Garbage strikes, or strikes of any variety? You get the point. Apparently, all of these terrible things are the exclusive traits of, exist in, or occur only<\/i> in Greece.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

A motorcyclist looks on as he drives next to a pile of garbage in Piraeus, near Athens, on Monday, June 26, 2017. Municipality workers have been on strike for almost a week , hindering trash collection across the country. (AP\/Petros Giannakouris)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Compounding this confounding line of thinking, most Greeks seemingly do not <\/i>want to hear anything contradicting these widely-held beliefs that Greece is a corrupt, worthless, useless nation, the worst in anything and everything. Evidence or arguments to the contrary are not <\/i>ordinarily received in a positive manner.<\/p>\n

ndeed, it is quite likely that one will be attacked, frequently quite nastily, for pointing out that, for instance, German aviation workers were on strike for more days than their Greek counterparts, or that corruption and crime and violence exists in other developed countries and are not the exclusive realm of Greece. When all else fails and they find themselves devoid of a counterargument, a simple \u201cyes, but we\u2019re worse anyway\u201d serves as an all-purpose catch-all to continue insisting what a horrible species Greeks are. It truly has attained the status of a fetish.<\/p>\n

Related to this mindset is a longstanding need for positive affirmation from \u201coutside.\u201d The opinions of foreigners and visitors to Greece are held in high regard \u2013 certainly much higher than the thoughts of fellow Greeks. Evening television newscasts invariably accompany significant stories about Greek economic or political developments with a rundown of how the foreign press and overseas news agencies are evaluating these stories.<\/p>\n

A favorite of the news media are the seemingly never-ending \u201cevaluations\u201d of the extent to which Greece is meeting the fiscal targets set for it by its \u201csaviors\u201d in the troika of Greece\u2019s lenders: the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF. Like a teacher lecturing a wayward student, the Greek media breathlessly report on the evaluation of foreign bankers and credit rating agencies, pedantically informing the public whether Greece is a \u201cmodel student\u201d of sound finance or not.<\/p>\n

Ironically, when hatchet jobs have been performed against Greece by the international media \u2013 such as during the onset of the crisis, where numerous foreign (particularly German, British and American) media outlets published highly derogatory and racist accounts of the Greek crisis, portraying Greeks as lazy, culturally deficient and reckless, there was nary a word of organized protest out of Greece. The same was true in the 1990s, when Greece was, for example, absurdly blamed by Western media for the TWA Flight 800 disaster and described as a hotbed of terrorism<\/a>, or deemed too incompetent and incapable of organizing the 2004 Summer Olympic Games prior to the event.<\/p>\n

The evaluation of foreigners is valued, so long as they are foreigners from \u201ccivilized\u201d countries which, in the eyes of many Greeks, are paragons of virtue and rule of law and can do no wrong. By comparison, Greece is viewed by Greeks themselves as a country that can barely do anything right.<\/p>\n

Even positive news is often dismissed. Stories of Greek students who earned an award or distinction are met by comments about how they should \u201cgo abroad\u201d to \u201csave themselves.\u201d A significant sporting achievement, such as Greece\u2019s recent gold medal in the European under-20 basketball championships, inevitably leads to comments such as how \u201cbasketball is the only thing that functions properly in Greece.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with purported self-criticism, so-called self-deprecation is popular in Greece. Dating back well before the economic crisis, the material of stand-up comedians and television satire programs airing on outlets owned by corrupt oligarchs with specific political and social agendas invariably focused on corrupt, thieving or incompetent Greeks, the crooked government and the \u201cdysfunction\u201d of \u201cGreek reality.\u201d As with many stereotypes, there is a degree of truth \u2013 but when repeated ad nauseum, even in satirical form, such portrayals attain the de facto <\/i>status of being the whole, entire truth.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the media, just like the politicians, love <\/i>to foster hopelessness and despair in the populace, whilst pushing a globalized diet of programming down people\u2019s throats. Television newscasts frequently feature stories about Greeks who \u201cmade it\u201d abroad, with their success generally attributed to the fact that they left Greece and found their fortunes in a \u201ccivilized\u201d country. The \u201csuccess stories\u201d of those who opened a caf\u00e9 in Helsinki or landed a job with NASA in Houston are touted; accounts of the less successful are ignored.<\/p>\n

Life in these countries is idealized, and is often accompanied by stories of the Greek \u201cbrain drain,\u201d or of innovative Greeks who found their entrepreneurial ideas stifled by \u201cGreek bureaucracy\u201d\u2014without, however, ever performing any deeper investigation into exactly why <\/i>the bureaucracy and public sector operate in such a manner. Foreign movies and TV series further paint an idealized portrait of the \u201ccivilized West.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years ago, pre-crisis, I recall being asked, in one conversation, if my family\u2019s home in the United States was similar to that of \u201cthe Winslow family\u201d (referencing the TV series \u201cFamily Matters\u201d). This mentality is further reinforced by the experiences of many Greeks, whose only time spent abroad may have been a shopping trip to London, a vacation to the tourist attractions of Paris or Rome, or a few years spent in the artificial bubble of the \u201civory tower\u201d of academia, studying at a foreign university campus.<\/p>\n

Exceptions do exist, and where they do, ridicule oftentimes follows. In a 2011 interview<\/a>, Greek-American actress and television presenter Maria Menounos, who resides in the United States, stated her desire of eventually making Greece her permanent home. Reporting on this interview, privately-owned national broadcaster Alpha TV\u2014at the time owned by the German RTL Group\u2014heavily ridiculed Menounos for her interest in moving to a country whose residents all wish to leave. Through the tone of its report, Alpha TV portrayed Menounos (and by extension, anyone else who might harbor similar thoughts) as delusional, while reflecting the status quo school of thought that people are better off leaving the country, rather than staying \u2013 or, for that matter, moving to<\/i> Greece from abroad.<\/p>\n

In another example from 2012, Greek actress Katerina Moutsatsos, who also resides in the United States, produced a YouTube video titled \u201cI Am Hellene<\/a>,\u201d a production which was meant to raise the spirits of the Greek people and to express some pride that was (and still is) sorely lacking. The video quickly went viral, soliciting a tremendous response from the media and the public \u2013 largely consisting of derision, insults, and vitriol. Some accused Moutsatsos of being a \u201cfascist,\u201d others mocked anyone who would even consider saying anything positive about Greece.<\/p>\n