Since the crisis began, I’ve heard many Greeks and
Greek-Americans talk about the notion of ‘saving’ Greece. At every turn,
whether it is on Greek Television or in conversations amongst friends, we are bombarded
with this idealistic campaign for “national unity” during these difficult times
in order to help prevent economic collapse. In the Diaspora, they talk of investing in the
motherland, raising aid for those in need, and boosting tourism. However, just what is it, exactly, that we
are supposed to be saving?
Let us more closely examine this noble
idea of “saving” the country of Greece.
An easy to understand definition of a country would be a distinct
political entity with independent legal jurisdiction within its sovereign
borders. If we are “saving Greece”, are we, therefore, working to save its
sovereignty as an independent nation-state? Sovereignty and legal jurisdiction,
which the last time, I checked, no longer existed. If it is not this, then I
must ask, are we part of a crusade to save its political system? A system, I
may add, which has failed the average Greek, and only benefited a small corrupt
oligarchy that has ruled over Greece for generations. Perhaps, it is the
theocratic society we are supposed to be saving. The same society, which has
abandoned and alienated ethnic Greeks from the Greek ethnos for not willing
participating in spiritual enslavement at the hands of a multi-national
corporation known as The Greek Orthodox Church. Or just maybe, it is the Greek
mentality at the heart of our campaign, a mentality which has been polluted by
foreign ideologies and has stripped Greeks of their Hellenic ideas and
traditions.
So
I ask again, “just what are we saving?” Greece is bankrupted, in more ways than
one. Its politicians are sellouts, corrupt rhetoric peddlers and opportunists
that have plundered the country of its wealth. Its sovereignty and legal
jurisdiction are lost, since the signing of the unconstitutional International
loan agreement by the government of George Papandreou. And its political,
social and theocratic elite continue to skate by untouched by austerity, while
the Greek people continue to suffer and pay for the crimes of those untouched.
Inside
Greece, they use us as pawns. Blinded by some outdated and irrelevant
ideological struggle between left and right, we are kept distracted from what
is happening right under our nose. In the Diaspora, they pray on our innocence
and love of our ancestral homeland. Unaware that our efforts are not saving the
ideals we believe they are.
We all
like to take comfort in patriotic phrases like “Greece never dies”, but the
shell that is Greece has died. It is Hellenism that never dies. The sooner we
come to realize that Greece has already fallen, the better. For, at that time
we can finally participate in the conversation with the right perspective. That
is, we mustn’t be discussing how to save Greece, but rather how to liberate it.
The sooner we accept this, the sooner we can move forward with reshaping Greece
and its economy. Greece is under occupation. Politically, economically, even
socially, and it will take a revolution on all fronts to truly “save” Greece.
