Reflecting on the disaster that has enveloped this country, one could actually produce "How Greece Came to Crash" in multi-chapter textbook form that will examine how governments must not conduct business and order one's national affairs.
The book would relate, for example, how demagogues and political frauds shoehorned "democracy" into becoming a vehicle for the aggrandizement of "pluralist" political parties bent on exploiting every trick, twist, and turn to transform individual desperate mediocrities into fat wealthy men and women "of means" and elevate them to "leadership" positions; how they exploited the worst aspects of Greek society's tendencies to create whole classes of people directly dependent on an all-embracing apparatus of corruption and consumption that put the emphasis on lethargy, non-performance, feeble education, and non-existent meritocracy; and how they came to construct a complex edifice of cardboard props that emulated "modern government" while the true innards of the state remained desperately underfunded, ossified, dysfunctional, and wholly unreliable, leaving the people of this country brutally exposed to the vagaries of both Nature and the "international community."
"How Greece Came to Crash" would also detail how Greek politicians came to accept the power of special interests, represented by a handful of big business and media bosses, as the effective rulers of this country; how our "parliamentarians" became quickly enmeshed in these "intertwined interests" that have consumed the Greek political system and imposed their priorities for wealth accumulation on the priorities of the rest of Greek society; and how these "intertwined interests" have effectively dictated terms on our "governments" leading to disastrous economic policies, the sucking away of hundreds of billions in taxpayers' money, and the implementation of "public investment" plans, replete with no-value-added, practically unnecessary, projects, and frightfully expensive Pharaonic fiascoes, like the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
The depth and breath of the real story of how Greece came to be bankrupt, with little hope of reversing her fortunes for several generations, are such as to leave even seasoned students of political corruption, organized crime as "national collective agreements," and wholesale mendacity stunned and speechless. Their astonishment and disbelief only expand at the realization that Greek "leaders" deliberately and consciously avoided the grim facts in favor of a steady diet of lies aimed to produce pleasure and a false sense of security among the plebeians; at evidence demonstrating how successive "governments" intentionally falsified the national accounts in order to obscure the true state of the country; and at the complete absence of a sense of duty and responsibility, both individual and collective, at the obvious, impending results of such calamitous and threadbare "policies."
"How Greece Came To Crash" is just waiting for its brave author. In the meantime, the scene of the crime will continue to sink. Our current "saviors," themselves integral parts and mechanics of the system that has defeated this country, will continue to parrot, quarrel, windmill charge, and "commit" themselves at every given (camera) opportunity.
Our accounts will continue to deteriorate. Our borrowing needs will continue to bloat.
Our "stability and growth" plans will continue to ignore the obvious, avoid the truly tough decisions, and remain locked in the mentality of lies that has consumed all the oxygen of our wrecked political system.
Aristotle said: "Anybody can become angry -- that is easy; but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."
Indeed.
And way beyond the current capacities of Greeks.