Head-on collisions and parades

A full 202 years since the start of the Greek Revolution, the Tempe tragedy reminds us of how much further we have to go to fulfill the dream of an independent and prosperous country. 

As the days pass after that dark February 28, it becomes ever clearer that our trauma is not so much that such an inconceivable accident could occur, but that the framework of our public life is forever oriented towards division and conflict. It is as if we choose to blame each other for our failures and defeats rather than to seek solutions. And even as this is presented as a pursuit of the common good, its primary aim is to cleanse one side of responsibility while covering the other in mud. This results in an inability to evaluate people and circumstances. In a cloud of mutual suspicion, our successes are limited and our defeats unmitigated.

Half a century after the end of the dictatorship, and citizens of the European Union for 42 years, can we say that we have made the most of the chances that we were given, that our society has developed in the direction that most of us wanted? We see billions of euros lost without securing the productivity and welfare that they could provide, even as public debt grows; young people with education and the will to work – our most valuable asset – seek a better life elsewhere; our land’s natural beauty is losing the battle against cement. 

As in all societies, most of us desire a better future for our children, but this is undermined by a culture of maximum demands and minimal effort on the part of governments which are satisfied by the perks of power and try to avoid “provoking” the people. Opposition parties contribute to this, striving to provoke the strongest possible reaction to any reform, so that they can harvest the storm of public discontent when any changes are made, as well as the rage when inertia leads to bankruptcy or any other failure. 

The pattern has been repeated for decades, despite the rare exception of some government or opposition party. Our politics comprise head-on collisions which achieve an inertia that is always pregnant with danger. Life, though, demands that we be alert, that we communicate with each other, that we take decisive action. 

In the parades and speeches of these days, we must always remember Tempe and the terrible price of indolence.