Isn't there something unpleasantly ironic about the riots in Greece?
Asked by
josie (
30934
)
June 28th, 2011
It was the Greeks, most notably Aristotle, who invented the method of logic, which in turn allowed human reasoning to become a powerful tool that helped our species to quickly move to the proverbial next level.
The modern Greeks have indulged themselves with other people’s money for so long, that now it is gone and then some. They can’t pay their bills. And their EU partners are reluctant to spot them a loan unless they prove they can learn to live with less.
So you would think that the Greeks of all people would logically figure out that they are going to have to work more, and eat and sleep less.
Instead, they are rioting, like spoiled over indulged children throwing a tantrum.
Isn’t that sort of ironic? Or worse, a sort of a sad end to the people who bult the foundations of Western Civilization?
Aside-What will Americans, the generations- later grandchildren of Classical Civilization, do if or when we face the same music. Will we put on a more brave face, or indulge in the same denial and disgrace?
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“like spoiled over indulged children throwing a tantrum”
They’re angry at their government for very good reasons. Though I understand your analogy, and see the logic in it, I cannot help but hope the best for them.
None of us are immune to feelings of panic when their way of life is threatened & I think that the rioting is in response to the panic. After all, the average Greek citizen knows (just as we do here in the US) that budget cuts are always going to affect those with the least, the most. If we all had more confidence that the deprivations were going to be shared across the class spectrum, then we might be more willing to accept the budget cuts – but we all know that budget cuts never affect the wealthy, they only affect those of us who are on the lower end of the socio-economic scale. Rioting will not save them, but I can understand their impulse to riot.
There IS if your analysis of the nature of the protest and the ones protesting is spot on, something I really do not understand fully yet. I hope a post will be made to give us perspective from the opposite side of your supposition.
Also, I think the Greeks may have built the foundation of Western civilization but it doesn’t make them perfect creatures incapable of illogical behavior.
I think it depends upon how even-handed and fair the public believes the application of austerity progrograms will be.
I’m wondering if they break plates at these riots, coz that would be slightly confusing i’d imagine ~
Here is a hint. Per Capita we are actually owing more than Greece.
They get six weeks of vacation a year and retire at 53. And we get bombs?
If you are going to fuck things up this bad I would rather live in Greece.
…six weeks of vacation a year and retire at 53
Not any more!
@josie Well, if it boils down to Greeks having only 4 weeks of yearly vacation and retirement at 60, I would still do Greek! ( er, not the other kind of Greek )
I’ve never had 5 days of vacation since 2007 and I won’t retire until they deliver a coffin at my door. Lol.
One of the things I respect the Greek civilization most for are the surviving plays.
Most played with the themes of human beings struggling against their animal and mob like natures while trying to maintain a kind and civil society based on reason.
Current events just make me admire those earlier thinkers even more.
@mazingerz88
The reason you have not had vacation and will have to wait for retirement is [probably] because you can not afford to pay for it.
The Greeks could not afford to pay for it either, but they did it anyway, and used somebody else’s money-either borrowed money or money taken by force from one of their fellow Greeks.
If it is borrowed money, they forgot you have to pay it back. If it was somebody else’s wealth, they forgot that eventually those people run out of money, or they leave and go some place else.
Same thing would happen to you or your children if you bought into their program.
It is happening here too. Hence the aside on my question.
I live in Greece.
It’s not the people’s fault. The government is corrupted. It’s not our fault that they embezzled the money. If you don’t live here, you don’t know how things are. We’re not gonna give them our money, I don’t think so.
Anyway, right now it seems that the police is trying to kill everyone who’s out there.
@bob_ yes.
Also, I have to say that there were doctors and pharmacists trying to help injured people, and people who needed their help anyway.And the police threw teargas to them. To the people who were trying to HELP. That’s not fair. If I could, I’d go there but I’m in another city.
@disenchanted_poisongirl It’s a Parliamentary Republic. Somebody is voting for the folks who were having a great time with your money. I suspect it is the unsustainable number of people who do little and get paid plenty. Too many people riding in the wagon, not enough pulling it.
@josie
Unfortunately, we seem to be getting into the same predicament here in the USA. : ((
My girlfriend workes the holiday season months (May – September).
Seven days a week, 6 – 10 hours a day.
She may be happy if she makes €3000.
A girl friend of mine works in Athens in a beads shop.
Six days a week, ten, eleven hours a day for €600 a month.
So, the Greeks being non working people, in my book is a myth.
They have indeed a parliamenttary democracy but that comes down, roughly, to forty years being ruled by two families who both made a pretty big mess of the country.
The country has big potential: ancient cultural venues, thousands and thousands of miles of beaches and stunning nature, shipping and ship building history/experience.
Pity that there is such bureaucracy that it is almost impossible to get something done in a reasonable amount of time.
And yes, ‘the Greeks’ should start learning discipline in paying tax.
@josie yes, somebody voted for them, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us are gonna do what they want us to do. I’m sure there are even people who voted for them and now regret doing so.
@rebbel thanks.
way better than PASOK. I don’t know about all my family, but I know about some of them. they either drew on their ballots so that it wouldn’t count as a vote, or didn’t vote at all :)
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