Nietzcshe in his first book “The Birth of Tragedy” written over 100 years ago explains very precisely the philosophical root of the negative reporting over the last 2 years in the media regarding the modern Greek state and those irritating Greeks. Beyond the economic crisis there is an underlying irritation which is expressed in very personal attacks against modern Greeks and the state of their economy and culture. There is a deeper reason for these “over the top” attacks on Greek culture and Greeks in general. They call as lazy, corrupt, thieves, and every other name in the swear word lexicon.
I have reprinted the specific excerpt from Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy’ at the end of this post.
Greek immigrants join the chorus
Even Greek immigrants living abroad and locals have joined this chorus of bigotry and personal attacks on Greece in general and local Greeks in particular. Suddenly Greeks who emigrated to other more affluent economies look back to Greece with disgust and even parrot the bigotry and outright hateful statements made by economists and world leaders. Those who wish to make the Greeks the scapegoats for their own economic policy failures and not take any responsibility for bringing the modern Greek state to its knees.
It’s the Greeks Fault
These modern beneficiaries of rational thought and Hellenic civilization try to limit the debate to “it’s the Greeks’ fault” instead of using the gift of rational thought to examine the root of the EU economic crisis. The slogan “it’s the Greeks fault” is repeated over and over again by local incompetent politicians, deluded Greek immigrants and foreign interests who seek to absolve themselves from any responsibility by using the magicians art of deflection to magically erase their own failures. In this atmosphere of undignified and irrational attacks we see the rise of the right wing extremists who promote violence against those too weak to fight back; the immigrants. They also promote the anti Semitic conspiratorial view of “Jews control the banks” and therefore are responsible for our predicament. We have corrupt Greek , German, Italian, French, English, Israeli, Spanish, American, etc. bankers. Corruption does not have a nationality or race. We participated in the economic failure but we did not cause it. The root cause is in how the EU common currency is administered for the benefit of the corrupt corporate banking system and not for the benefit of the individual EU countries.
http://www.american.com/archive/2012/march/time-for-greece-to-leave-the-euro
The banks
The banks are allowed to misbehave and then are bailed out by their EU citizens without any blame being assigned to them. They continue to be financed at lower than 1% interest and then turn around and lend it to countries at much higher rate of 5-8%. EU member states should also be able to receive financing at the same rate or lower than the banks since EU member states gave up their right to print their own currency. The EU banking system has created and supported banks with monstrous levels of irresponsibility and lack of accountability who are rewarded instead of being prosecuted. Bankers have even been appointed heads of state in EU countries like Italy and Greece. That is like making the fox the head of the hen house. This is the root cause of the economic debacle of the EU. Unless this root cause is dealt with, the EU has no right to lay blame on the EU citizens, countries, or their bureaucracies or bloated public service sector as the cause. In addition other EU states have no right to point their fingers at those “irritating Greeks.” The root cause is in how the European Central Bank prefers to lend to banks at lower interest rate than to EU member states.
Nietszche explains the root cause of “it’s the Greeks fault”
Nearly every age and stage of culture has at some time or other sought with profound irritation to free itself from the Greeks, because in their presence everything one has achieved oneself, though apparently quite original and sincerely admired suddenly seemed to lose life and color and shriveled into a poor copy, even a caricature. And so time after time cordial anger erupts against this presumptuous little people that made bold for all time to designate everything not native as “barbaric.” Who are they, one asks, who, though they display only an ephemeral historical splendour, ridiculously restricted institutions, a dubious excellence in their mores, and are marked by ugly vices, yet lay claim to that dignity and pre-eminence among peoples which characterize genius among the masses? And so one feels ashamed and afraid in the presence of the Greeks, unless one prizes truth above all things and dares acknowledge even this truth; that Greeks, as charioteers, hold in their hands the reins of our own and every culture.
My book “Recipes for the Revival of the Hellenic Spirit” purpose is to clear the cobwebs surrounding the true nature and practical value of the Hellenic spirit. Connecting with the Hellenic spirit will untame your creativity and unleash your capabilities to their full potential.
Rising above superstition and fear, “Recipes for the Revival of the Hellenic Spirit” is a guide to personal happiness, physical health, and intellectual freedom. A road map for reclaiming our fullest potential as a species.
One city one world one human at a time”
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