I must admit that I like Peter Economides’ approach to all things Greek; he has passion, commitment, enthusiasm and above all, a profound existential attraction towards contemporary Greeks as human beings.
I also think that the most important part of his campaign to re-brand Greece is not the attempt to re-invent the symbols and the images we use internationally to refer to the Greek adventure; on the contrary the most important aspect is what has to do with the “inner work” that Greek themselves have to undergo in order to regain their self-esteem and become “good Greeks” instead of being “bad Germans”.
His campaign focuses on the attempt to convince Greeks that they can do things ginetai while rejecting all dominant stereotypes about themselves. Indeed, the worst stereotypes are not the ones that others have about us but the stereotypes that we have about ourselves. Economides’ rebranding of Greece wants to start with this inner work – which means that it has to go through the intense and confusing contradictions that we find when we study contemporary Greek mentality.
Greeks stress their glorious ancient ancestors but do their best to deny their values: the ancients obeyed the law and stressed their obligations, while the moderns avoid it and stress their rights; the ancients insisted on political consent whereas the moderns praise disunity and individualism; the ancients praised moderation, but the moderns do everything in excess.
Rebranding should predominantly mean redefinition: we must first agree on what constitutes the brand we want to call “Greece?” Is it the blue Aegean? Its Ancient History? Byzantium? Contemporary history? Is it the Greek landscape? A monument? A work of art? What? Several years ago we were trying to find an apt contemporary symbol to encapsulate modern Greek experience for the needs of our university website; for ancient Greece we had the Parthenon; for the medieval period, a Byzantine church.
But we couldn’t find any symbol to encapsulate the meaning of the Neo Hellenic experience; so we ended up with the photographs of donkeys in Santorini… Mr Economides has an infectious love for the Greek history and the Greek landscape; his rebranding is focused on these two parameters. He correctly stresses that a nation is its people, and their potential.
I think that there is a lot of work to be done with this notion. Those who have visited the country over the last twenty years must have noticed the turn of phrase that has become common more and more, “Emeis oi neoellines…” We the New Greeks…” Contemporary Greeks gradually and painfully realise that they are something new in regard to their own past, that they experience a profound transition towards a new self-perception which needs new concepts, new words new symbols in order to be expressed.
I think that the rebranding should focus on this emerging self-perception: not on the neoclassicist fantasies that dominated the 2004 Olympics opening ceremony; or the Neo Byzantine craze of religious exclusivism; but on what Greeks have achieved today (especially during the last century), locate its strengths, emphasise its virtues, promote its achievements.
We must imagine a positive, optimistic and constructive symbol for contemporary Greek experience since self-criticism always degenerates into ineffectual whinging. What such rebranding asks for is a positive image of self-perception, which will restore the diminished self-esteem of the country, rebuild its confidence and help the nation regain its creative perspective.
Peter Economides’ heart is in the right place – but he needs to work collectively and inclusively, by addressing cultural aspects, indeed social concerns, stressing the successes of the nation and the strengths of its people. This means he has to involve more people and more perspectives in his commendable project. Olive oil, wine, Cycladic art, the Parthenon, Byzantine icons, Santorini, all are parts of the Greek puzzle – not the puzzle itself.
Rebranding Apple or Coca Cola is an endeavour that involves market forces and profitability targeting specific age groups: you cannot claim the same about a country and its people. I heard his lecture the other day in Sydney with interest and enthusiasm; as a diaspora Greek myself I enjoyed his extrovert attitude and his urgent need to communicate his vision to the non Greek.
Like almost all diaspora Greeks however, he tends to base his assumptions on some idealised notions about Greece and the Greeks. He doesn’t see them as actual and contemporary historical agents. He tends to disregard the most obnoxious group amongst them: the politicians who, as it happens now, prefer to lead the country to destruction instead of abandoning power even for several months.
Without discarding his enthusiasm he has to face the actual reality of Greek society and therefore focus on its real potential. The way we become good Greeks is a question that we have to raise collectively. Economides constructs the platform but he needs more people involved in the project itself in order for the platform to become a space of convergence of everything: trends, orientations and idiosyncrasies that contemporary Greeks are representing.
He needs sessions of brainstorming by many individuals who will compile a new symbolic logo for the state of the Greek nation today and what it can do. His idea is absolutely correct and pertinent; now he has to work within the appropriate channels through the creative involvement of many people in order to achieve his goal. Greek culture was and still is a place of convergence, confluence and synthesis.
How this reality will be symbolically expressed is something that this rebranding must strive to imagine and articulate. Vrasidas Karalis is Associate Professor of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney.