Greece’s recent election was expected to do more than decide who was at the helm in Athens. The outcome was also anticipated to play a major role in plotting the future course upon which the entire ‘Euro ship’ would set sail. Whilst Greece is certainly no stranger to momentous historical occasions, is the current EU crisis really Greece’s story to tell alone?
Study the historical trajectory of the EU project across the landscape of cause and effect and Greece is not so much the epicentre of the current European economic crisis, but rather one of its many fault lines. Nor are average Greek citizens the orchestrators of European economic disintegration, as much as they will be on the frontline of any such fall-out; and never in a heavily interconnected globalised system such as our own, could Greece possibly qualify as the sole catalyst for economic Armageddon. If anything, Greece has served as the portent for such oblivion.
Talk of a Euro-apocalypse, however, seems to have been cautiously put aside for the moment. With a coalition of “national salvation” now formed in Greece and a plan to potentially modify the country’s so-called ‘bailout package’, it seems that Greece, at least in the immediate short-term, is set to remain in the Euro zone. However, if Greece is truly part of the EU family, is it an equal partner, or a child to be paternalised? One can excuse the average, law-abiding Greek citizen for leaning towards the latter. Whether Greeks reconcile the EU’s measures towards their country as an act of ‘very tough love’, or resent these measures as something more cynical – where Greece becomes a strategic pawn to avoid a wider spread contagion effect – in either case, it appears Greeks have had to forfeit their voice. Some, however, may point to Greece’s recent election and suggest that the Greek voice was indeed heard loud and clear. However, this is to misunderstand the message Greeks sent via the ballot box. A vote to stay in the EU is not synonymous with a vote in favour of continued austerity.
And yet unless Greece can successfully renegotiate the terms of its “bail out”, bitter austerity measures are indeed set to continue; dangling over the beleaguered heads of its people like the sword of their mythical ancestor Damocles. Unless of course, the murky world of international finance is willing to accept the flowers of classicism as valid repayments for services rendered. Unfortunately, this seems highly unlikely. Nevertheless, Greeks looking to restore a sense of self-pride can at least take heart in the fact that whilst Greece currently has an economic debt to Europe, Europe will forever have a cultural debt to Greece, a small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless, particularly for a frustrated and humiliated people; who now in their fifth year of consecutive recession and with more than one in five people unemployed, have not had a lot to smile about of late.
Greece undoubtedly has major domestic structural issues! Tax evasion, nepotism, cronyism and overblown bureaucracies, have been a feature of Greek social and political life for far too long, however, they are not exclusively indigenous to Greece or for that matter to Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Spain (P.I.I.G.S). For every evaded P.I.I.G.S tax dollar, there is the small government/no tax platform of modern economic neo-liberalism. For every job the P.I.I.G.S send to family and friends, there are the Occupy Movements and protests across the world, but particularly in the West; that have called for an end to their own ‘Old Boy’ networks and for the creation of their own meritocracies. For every overblown P.I.I.G.S bureaucracy, consider the military spending conducted by some nation-states. Are military industrial complexes not overblown bureaucracies too?
The point being, the EU crisis is not just an economic problem, it is also a much deeper philosophical one as well, at the heart of which is one crucial question – do societies exist to serve the globalised economy, or does the globalised economy exist to serve our societies?
Perhaps here it’s timely to remind ourselves that the very word at the crux of this philosophical puzzle – the ‘economy’ – interestingly has its foundations in the Greek language. Granted words naturally evolve and the obvious retort will inevitably be that the modern English vocabulary does not necessarily have to reflect the literal etymology of its more often than not, Greek or Latin origins; however, under the current EU crisis, unpacking the root of the word ‘Economics’ makes very interesting food for thought. ‘Economics’ derives from the Greek word ‘oikonomia’, i.e. “the managing of a household”, from ‘oikos’, meaning “house”, and ‘nemein’, meaning “manage”. An ‘economist’ (‘oikonomos’) therefore is a “manager, administrator, steward”. With this in mind two critical questions emerge: (1) How ‘oiko-nomical’ has Europe been in “managing its household”? And (2) how will future European generations judge Europe’s “stewardship” of itself? The following five key issues and considerations perhaps offer some clues:
1. Greece is accused of living beyond its means. Pot! Kettle! Black! As Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara astutely revealed, in a recent Empire episode entitled ‘Europe: To Be or Not To Be’, in 2003 it was Germany and France that first exceeded the deficit ceiling outlined in the EU’s own Stability and Growth pact. Incidentally neither country was disciplined. Add to this the actions that led to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and it is apparent that the entire world is living beyond its means. As a modern civilisation we are addicted to the concept of ‘more’ and appear to lack the imagination to think beyond a globalised economic system, which has increasingly come to resemble a casino, more than anything else.
2. Greece is accused of lacking the good sense to take its ‘medicine’. Quick history. Is this not similar to the ‘medicine’ Germans were once forced to swallow in the 1930s. Where did that lead? Perhaps Greece’s Extreme Right Wing Golden Dawn Party (GD) can answer. Considering GD model themselves on a former German political party, that once upon a time also had a miniscule percentage of the vote, resigning them to fringe status. A situation that changed dramatically only once the party in question found effective means by which to exploit public dissatisfaction with economic austerity – any guesses which party?
3. Greece is accused of not ‘playing by the rules’. Is anyone else playing fairly? The EU charter espouses democratic principles, yet for many average Greeks (and for that matter Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians and Irish) the perception exists that in practise, EU members are instead dictated to by a small clique. Quick history. Germany too was once given a diktat and had a bitter experience with rule by decree. Where did that lead? Do the failures of Versailles and the Enabling Act perhaps ring any bells?
4. Greece is accused of moving slowly. Whilst structural reforms in Greece are long overdue, such reforms simply do not occur overnight. Quick history. It took over a decade and close to 2 trillion euros worth of financial backing for structural reforms to refashion the former East Germany in the same efficient mould of its former Western counterpart.
5. Finally, the misconception exists that the EU crisis will disappear once Greeks just start paying taxes. This type of thinking is a gross oversimplification. The EU crisis is a far more complex situation. Again, as Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara in the same Empire episode aptly reflected, in regards to the overall EU project, could it be that ‘the cart was put before the horse’? If so, this was never Greece’s decision.
In fact, one can argue that the EU enterprise at its core structural level is inherently flawed. A defect conceived at the EU’s inception, when economic union was implemented, without political union. The question naturally begs, how is it possible to sustain economic integration and yet still maintain independent political sovereignty?
Europe is in need of some serious soul-searching. First amongst these contemplatives should be Germany. Germany would do well to remember that its own prosperity is only possible if it is wedded to a prosperous Europe. Therefore, it is not just Greece, but Europe as a whole and perhaps Germany more than any other state that in the coming months stands at a social, political, economic and cultural cross-road. Worst case, one path could lead to the potential cataclysm of European disintegration, whilst the other path could possibly lead to an even deeper European integration, supplementing monetary union with political federalism. The conundrum of course is how can political unity be cultivated, in a climate where the mood across much of Europe nowadays is anything but united? Enter France’s new President, Francois Hollonde.
Hollonde seems to have gauged the European mood better than most. At least in his initial rhetoric, Hollonde appears to have understood that ‘economic big sticks’, have as yet failed to materialise any success. Could it be then that an exit strategy out of the current uncertainty lies with Hollonde? If nothing else, as French leader and thereby a senior partner in the EU enterprise, Hollonde is much better placed, more so than any P.I.I.G.S delegate to try and convince ‘the other half of the firm’, i.e. Germany, that the time has come in Europe for (1) more ‘economic carrots’, (2) greater democratisation of the EU and (3) an overall new mindset, less technocratic and more democratic. Failure to move on one, some or all of these proposals will simply lead to more ‘ground-hog day’ scenarios.
Arguably, the longer the EU crisis continues to be treated with an austerity ‘cure’, the longer the EU crisis is set to persist; and with Greece going from a state with the lowest suicide rate in Europe, to a sharp 40% increase, it is a crisis that should not be allowed to persist. At the risk of bordering on the simplistic, let’s remember this 40% figure is more than a dire Health Ministry statistic, we must never forget it also represents the once living, breathing citizens of a society; men, women, young, old, family, friends; humans attached to names, names attached to dreams, dreams that sadly will forever now go unrealised and unfulfilled. There is a lot of talk about the financial cost to markets due to the EU crisis. Perhaps it’s time politicians, policy makers and pundits alike also started talking about the serious human cost of austerity measures with the same vigour. Surely, the lost youth of Europe’s current ‘700 Euro generation’, and the ghosts of Greece’s suicide victims are at least owed that much.
For politicians who would consider themselves leaders, the EU crisis is a timely reminder that public office is a life of service and responsibility not privilege and self-preservation. Citizens of Europe, in fact citizens of the world, should be able to take for granted that the mandate they give to their representatives is reciprocated with certain guarantees. The most fundamental of which, is the peace of mind to know that their future prospects are not mere ‘bargain chips’ to be gambled with behind closed-door conferences and the reassurance that their hopes and aspirations are safeguarded from being reduced to the collateral damage of summit meetings and crisis-talks.
We therefore come full-circle, the EU crisis was never Greece’s story to tell alone. The EU has always been an ambitious project. Ironically the continent that first formalised the concepts of the modern nation-state and territorial sovereignty is also the continent that has come closest to discarding these principles in favour of a post-modern alternative – regional union. However, teetering under Europe’s surface has always been the ‘national sovereignty question’. Europe has a very bloody history its borders have forever been imagined and re-imagined. At the heart of Europe, North/South, East/West, rich/poor lays a tribalism yet to be extinguished. Therefore, in order to address Europe’s economic woes, the EU must also address the political relationship its members have to one another. Not an easy task, but an urgent one. Essentially, Europe is a patchwork – Greece is simply one of many stitches that have started to unravel.
If the EU is serious about solving Europe’s ills then the writing quite literally is on the wall, in this case scrawled in graffiti across an Athenian station. Here passersby are confronted with an almost Socratic-like question – ‘Is this all you ever dreamed?’ Well Europe…is it?
Nicholas Melaisis is a secondary school educator in Melbourne, Australia and is completing his Masters of International Relations. You can contact him on nmelaisis@gmail.com
