Details such as Greece's weak economy and its chaotic government, not to mention Soviet-like attitudes of its bloated public sector, were brushed aside as bound to succumb to "progress" and "growth" induced by European "structures." Amid the effusive atmosphere of those days, the few "pessimists," who predicted that Greece could actually corrupt Europe, while maintaining its own corruption intact, were dismissed as incorrigible naysayers.
In the event, the "pessimists" turned out to have a grip on reality, while "progress" and "growth" were failing to do the Greek trick. Thirty-odd years on, and although today's Greece has some polished trinkets to show, and its people have become accustomed to levels of consumption far beyond the country's true economic capabilities, the basic elements of the Greek malaise remain untouched -- and, if anything, some of them, like government corruption and a "democratic deficit," have long crossed into the extreme red zone.
Europe, on the other hand, has grown a girth, has added multiple layers to an ever-expanding lavishly remunerated bureaucracy, and has admitted a whole bunch of new members that range from total basket cases to simply low gear entities with little hope of pushing forward without permanent help from the "healthier" European core. At the same time, Europe's "common" policies, instead of becoming more robust, have tended to reflect the inner inability of the "block" to be really a block. From its infamous "common security and defense policy," to a "common" foreign policy, to a "front" against illegal immigration, to getting rid of that wrecker's ball, the "common agricultural policy," the European Union has grown more confused and more politically non-cohesive as the inherent contradictions of the "block" become more palpable.
Somewhere in there, Greece wallows in its own sea of troubles.
But amid the confusion the Greek crisis has generated, it is becoming clearer that our stronger "partners" have boo-booed big time by choosing to make the Greek predicament -- entirely the handiwork of the Greek political class and its own petty catastrophic priorities -- a powerful example of how to whip unruly, lying, and cheating members back into line. Their early stern remarks on how Greece "must" fend for itself and find its way out of mounting debts and blood-curdling deficits dealt an unexpected uppercut to European Union "credibility," with the euro, the crown currency of European "integration," being pummeled to the ground by speculators, big and small pushing the inscrutable "international markets." Suddenly, tossing around the Greeks like discarded puppets is not entirely without a price: our "core" EU powers, shaken by the euro jitters, have made a sudden turn and are looking for more concrete ways to display their "solidarity" to bankrupt Greece.
What were these "partners" thinking?
It is an old saying that "the enemy within" will always rear its ugly head at times such as these -- and it is up to enlightened leaders to see that the threat is contained and neutralized. Unfortunately for Europe, whose enemy within is its inherent inability to reach a really "common" position on anything, such leaders do not currently exist. We have thus been reduced again to terms like "consensus" and "acceptable compromise," long used by spokesmen to describe essentially unworkable formulas generated for the sake of displaying a "united front" to the world but with little substance behind them. The Greek bust has simply brought this picture to the surface, drawn in sharp and unforgiving relief.
With the big boys now rolling up their sleeves to "help," it would be interesting to watch the rest of the Greek drama. Eventually, and perhaps sooner than we think, the large international speculators and hedge funds will refocus away from the immediate Greek problems and begin their systematic unraveling of the European monetary system. We, in our corner, will continue being trapped in an overvalued currency and our own desperate poverty of ideas, ways, and production methods, not to mention the staggering stupidity of politicizing even the minute elements of our existence.
The enemy within is now poised for a fateful play against an array of indestructible money-making interests. Lots is on the table. The roulette, not entirely fixed but, nonetheless, "tweaked" enough by the "markets," will begin giving answers soon.
The only sure thing out of all this cloud of uncertainty and tricks of doom is that we, in our corner, will be walloped having done little to protect our own survival.