Wake-up call

We are dangerously close to a huge disaster and yet we still appear oblivious to what is happening, living on an entirely different planet to the rest of Europe.

Our collective denial was reflected in the clearest possible manner in Sunday’s referendum, with the great majority of voters either consciously choosing a break with the eurozone or believing that a “no” vote would secure the country a better deal from its creditors.

I’m afraid that the latter were proved absolutely wrong today, in the worst possible manner. I don’t know how the citizens who thought a better agreement would be achieved with a referendum will react. I don’t know whether they’ll end up siding with those who have given up and see the drachma as a viable option for Greece.

Either way, they are in for a very rude awakening because developments over the next few days promise to be anything but pleasant.

I have been wracking my brain to think of how we could possibly avert, even now, being cut off from Europe, and none of the scenarios I can envisage seem anywhere within within reach.

To begin with, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is now basically as ensnared by the “no” vote as he is by the radical left faction of his party.

Meanwhile, the staunchly pro-European bloc in Greek politics has been left without a chief and it is unlikely to find a persuasive champion anytime soon.

The hawks in Northern Europe are circling after having found the excuse they were looking for to place Greece in complete isolation before ousting it from the euro. They obviously don’t want to give Tsipras a win because this would give other parties in the eurozone the idea that flexing muscle is a way to get ahead.

Time has also run out and there is the risk that from some point on, developments will go into autopilot and no one will be able stop them.

To top it all off, we now have the accusations being leveled against the country’s media. The people slamming the media for propaganda seem to forget that many of the country’s politicians emerged from these very same forums.

Careers have been built, conspiracy theories have been developed and the extremes have been embraced with relish on morning television for some years now.

Of course, this was all done in the name of ratings, and now the stars who were promoted by television stations have found a target to justify the fact that they have absolutely no idea of how to do their jobs.