Beware of symbols

Europe celebrates two important anniversaries this year: the signature of the Magna Carta in 1215, when King John of England granted certain rights to rebellious barons, and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, when the European allies crushed Napoleon.

In Greece, 2015 is the year of SYRIZA’s rise to power, an event that it has been interpreted by some as a dynamic return to ideas pertaining to the struggle for the rule of the people, aimed at making the ossified eurozone system more humanistic and more democratic.

The only thing these three otherwise incongruous landmarks have in common is that they idealize the past and make symbols out of situations that have little bearing on the reality.

The signature of the Magna Carta, for example, did not give the barons any real powers. In fact, it lasted just 12 weeks before Pope Innocent III deemed it illegal and unjust, declaring it “null, and void of all validity for ever.” It was only in the 17th century that the absolute sovereignty of kings began to be brought into question, and they were gradually obliged to abide by the various laws that had been passed.

As for the Battle of Waterloo, the allies may have emerged victorious but the spirit of Napoleon dominated Europe over that of Wellington. Prussia was the only power to really benefit from Napoleon’s defeat and it has since – quite desperately and often with devastating results – sought a leading role in European developments.

Returning to Greece, it has been the same old story for longer than the five years of the crisis. Some actually believed that the left had come to terms with the fact there would be no such thing as rule of the people after its defeat in the 1946-49 Greek Civil War. It seems they were wrong.

A lot of issues have been settled on a practical level since the restoration of democracy but throughout the period after the fall of the military dictatorship, what has prevailed has been the spirit of civil disobedience and the confirmation of popular sovereignty. “The spirit of the Polytechnic” (in reference to the student uprising against the junta) is still an incredibly powerful belief. Maybe it is just about wanting to go back to the past. The interesting thing is that the battle for the confirmation of popular rule does not just relate to the class beliefs of the left, but also to certain sections of the right, particularly the nationalist Independent Greeks and the extreme-right Golden Dawn.

One can only wonder whether what we’re experiencing today is simply an expression of the ludicrous. Maybe it was unavoidable. What is certain is that our course is being determined by force of influence of certain symbols.