THERE IS NO BOTTOM TO THE BLACK HOLE
The continuing assault by the troika upon Greek society at large remains unabated; you only have to witness the latest round of the game of chicken between the German paymasters and the Papademos government, itself resting on unconstitutional grounds. The Greek middle class -- or, at least, what Greeks believed was the ‘middle class’ -- is moribund. The less fortunate have sunk deeper; their standard of living has been reduced to that of the 1950s in a country with some of the highest prices in 21st century Europe. Their total demise is only a matter of time. All those who have even the slightest opportunity to escape abroad do so without second thought. Others, with better chances of emigrating, are already gone. Soon, Greece will be a cracked shell containing only those desperados who have nowhere to go; those heroic enough to believe they must fight to the end; and the throngs of illegal immigrants trapped inside Greek borders. This is certainly not the human capital that could push the country into revival.
Something that would have been called a “wild fantasy” only five years ago is rapidly becoming an emerging apocalyptic reality: Greece is being reduced by Germany and the lenders into a failed state by means of repeated “bailout” and “rescue” plans designed exclusively to sustain lender interests without the slightest care for averting the destruction of the present and future of the Greek people. Already, the Greece game has turned chaotic.
Greece lacks completely the necessary means to fight for survival. Her political class is riding dead in water. Its members, with extremely few exceptions, are the “leaders” who led Greece straight into her present predicament. Assigning them the mission of salvation is like allowing the Soviet Communist Party to regroup in order to save Russia. Even at this time of hours past midnight, Greek politicians quarrel, struggle, and writhe in an effort to secure political pole position. Their capacity to manage a true bailout is non-existent. This recent post has outlined remarkably the technical impasse that Greece faces -- an impasse that demonstrates the Greek crisis is a problem without solution.
By imposing schizophrenic “bailout” via vicious austerity on Greece, Germany has succeeded in making every last Greek, save the usual fifth columnists, into mortal enemies; it has demonstrated beyond a shade of doubt that it is pushing for a pan-European regime of unscrupulously exploiting debt in order to impose German economic (and, eventually, political) control throughout; and it is increasingly convincing even those originally friendly toward Berlin that the German play bears shades of behavior which, only in the recent historical past, has caused global catastrophe.
We confess that we expect the results of the next election in Greece with great interest. If polls are to be believed, the greater Greek Left has gathered the numbers that could elevate it to power (provided its divided leaders find the way to a coalition.) In such a case, the Greek crisis will definitely cross into ancient Greek tragedy territory courtesy of both Greece’s own criminal, failed and discredited fraudsters and her European “partners” who, in their majority, exist in confusion, division, crypto-chauvinism, and masqueraded revenge politics.