A significant portion of the Greek politicians and journalists dominating public discourse today cut their teeth in the student unions that once ruled the amphitheaters of the country’s universities. As such, they tend to confuse unionism with the exercise of politics, especially when it comes to sensitive subjects and international relations.

They tend to believe that hyperbole, chest-thumping and all the other traditional tools in their arsenal will pass muster with their international interlocutors, and they roil the public with dangerous fantasies.

They also have a unique knack for completely misreading most situations and misinterpreting what is being said in the world around them, especially by our partners and creditors in regard to their positions on Greece. But the International Monetary Fund, Berlin and the European Central Bank are not rival political factions in the university cafeteria, and it would be best for these politicians and journalists to wake up to that fact before they lead us to the drachma, and destruction.