A waste of energy
A frenzy of self-flagellation by those trying to understand Greece’s weaknesses and the torrent of rage and accusations against those responsible (in fact as well as in our minds) form the two poles of the public discussion that has followed the tragedy at Tempe.
The first seeks the reasons why, however many years may pass and however many reforms are proposed, the country is not sufficiently modernized; the second demands the punishment of political rivals because they are – in the minds of those speaking – solely responsible for all that is bad.
At moments of great tension, like today, the country descends into dangerous introspection. When this happens shortly before national elections, and when our neighborhood, Europe, and the whole world are on the brink of an explosion, our persistent efforts to gouge out each other’s eyes lead to collective blindness.
On our main political stage – in a loop – we always see the opposition fighting in every way it can to strip the government of legitimacy, while governments (with a few bright exceptions) shake off any responsibility for whatever goes wrong, pointing to the mistakes of their predecessors and the obstructions raised by their current, “hypocritical” rivals.
As there is no good will at the highest level, it is difficult for any government to tackle sleeping dogs, because it knows that not only will it have to deal with a united front of rivals, but that its own supporters will be divided.
The New Democracy government showed greater determination to improve the country’s foundations than previous ones did and it achieved much. But now that its rivals are growing stronger, it must focus all its energy on the coming elections. Political proposals bow to political necessity.
We are once again turning inwards towards the world’s navel – ourselves – just as growing global insecurity demands all our attention. But the waste of energy on domestic strife is one of our timeless traits, and we should not forget it.
Now that we are rushing into a great national adventure, very few seem to be aware of the need to turn our passion, our distrust of what we see before us, our obduracy, away from endless revivals of past domestic strife and into a way to deal with present threats.
