{"id":954,"date":"2012-02-22T21:07:39","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T21:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=954"},"modified":"2013-03-01T21:10:28","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T21:10:28","slug":"greek-tragedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/greek-tragedies\/","title":{"rendered":"Greek Tragedies"},"content":{"rendered":"

br Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n

NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n

There are a lot of new twists to the old story of massive demonstrations in Greece. This is the first time in my life (I first went to Greece in 1973) that I can remember Greek rioting and demonstrations that were not anti-American. Oh, there have been a few contorted efforts to blame the Wall Street \u201cJews\u201d for the 2008 meltdown that in turn supposedly called in Greek credit, but it is a half-hearted attempt, and for the most part the Greeks seem bewildered that they cannot properly fault the US for much of anything in their present disaster \u2014 so unlike the old days of the 1967 coup, the colonels, the Cold War, the American support for Israel, the oil boycotts of 1973, the 1974 Cyprus disaster, the bombing of a kindred Orthodox Milosevic, etc. But it has been a generation since the Greeks have had much to do with the US. The Greek lobby is long retired from the Congress. The Obama administration is enthralled with Turkey. Former prime minister and US citizen Andreas\u00a0Papandreou<\/a>\u00a0long ago cut any remaining close ties with the US in a flurry of anti-American and pro-Soviet rhetoric designed to appeal to popular anti-Americanism. The Greek diaspora in the US is mostly third-generation, intermarried, and assimilated, and the net result is that we are now spectators, not players, in the present tragedy.<\/p>\n

The end of utopianism is certainly causing far more furor than had the utopian dream never materialized, so the anger against Germany in the popular press (\u201cGautleiters,\u201d \u201cThe Fourth Reich,\u201d \u201cDachau!,\u201d etc.) is far greater now than had the Germans and their friends never loaned the Greeks nearly $400 billion in the first place. What is strange to watch is the nature of the Greek furor: that the\u00a0Germans<\/a>\u00a0are probably eventually willing to forgive hundreds of billions almost seems to enrage Greeks all the more \u2014 for their debtors\u2019 unwillingness to go all the way by forgiving the entire huge sum. The thinking is almost, \u201cWell, if they have that much money to forgive, why not forgive it all?\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Greeks, this is the\u00a0Ottoman occupation<\/a>, the 1922 collapse of the Megale Idea, the Italian and German occupations, and the colonels all over again \u2014 as all are evoked to remind Greeks once again that \u201cthey\u201d (fill in the blanks) have taken advantage of such a small, vulnerable country.<\/p>\n

Much of the Greek anger is hurt. Of course, there is little reflection over or remorse about the cooked books, the endemic tax-cheating, the bloated public sector, or the retirement-system conning, but rather a genuine disbelief: Greeks sort of thought they were Europeans now, all for one, one for all, in the fashion of US states, and so are reacting as if a poor Mississippi were to be cut adrift by wealthy Connecticut, and kicked out of the Union.<\/p>\n

There also grows the realization, both in northern Europe and in Greece, that both sides are now absolutely fed up with each other (as in hate each other) and default would be preferable all around to the present non-ending psychodrama. The Euros can eat their losses and survive, but they are not willing to agree to constant bailouts. And they now believe that the Greeks would serially want them, in endless negotiations, mock hysterics, and broken promises. For a stern German banker, it is probably better to write off the entire loss now and be done with it (and them). And as for the Greeks (all but their Euro-trained elites with lucrative careers staked on the EU), they know they can never pay back even the reduced amounts, and would rather start again with a clean slate of worthless drachmas than a Euro that ensures an age of humiliation, constant lecturing, debt, uncompetitiveness, and paying interest to those far wealthier than themselves.<\/p>\n

So far, economists are thinking mostly in terms of the fiscal fallout, largely in the sense of the EU being able to handle the default as long as Portugal, Spain, and Italy do not follow suit. But few have considered the resulting effects on NATO\u2019s southern flank, the role of a defenseless, isolated, and alone Greece, without money to buy,\u00a0inter alia<\/em>, basic arms (and without its old military friendship with the US), in a world of stirring Islamism across the Mediterranean, an ascendant Islamist Turkey, a fickle Russia, and a once-again volatile Cyprus. And we\u2019ve grown up on the expectation of seeing Europeans become wealthier each decade, as the Eastern Europeans were incorporated into the Western system and huge transfers brought the Mediterranean up roughly to the standards of the northwest. Now? It is civilization in reverse, and Greece might be de-Europeanized and revert to its mostly impoverished status of the 1950s and 1960s \u2014 the first time we\u2019ve seen a European state going backward since World War II and its aftermath.<\/p>\n

So Greece is facing an existential crisis well beyond its fiscal catastrophes. There may well be not just no EU membership, but real antagonism toward it by the EU\u2019s most powerful members. It wanted a severance from the US and got its wish long ago. It is a Christian country (as much as any European one can be these days) with militant Islamism nearby. Its only assurance is NATO, which for decades was a whipping-boy for Greek politicians and the press. The UN cares about Greece like the League of Nations did Abyssinia.<\/p>\n

What next?<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92012 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

br Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner There are a lot of new twists to the old story of massive demonstrations in Greece. This is the first time in my life (I first went to Greece in 1973) that I can remember Greek rioting and demonstrations that were not anti-American.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[294],"tags":[233,192,345,1015,1050,107,365,331,1047,283],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-fo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":894,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-sick-man-of-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":0},"title":"The Sick Man of Europe","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas Why are the Greeks such whiners? Look to their tragic history and geography.\u00a0 Not long ago, European Union bankers gave the Greeks a \u20ac110 billion bailout \u2014 along with stern recommendations to stop cooking their books, to go after tax cheaters, to trim fat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1613,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/greek-tragedies-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":1},"title":"Greek Tragedies","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Violent reaction to bad news in Greece is unique but not surprising given its past. by Victor Davis Hanson Wall Street Journal Online Draping the Acropolis with a hammer-and-sickle banner might seem a stupid public relations stunt \u2014 especially as a bankrupt Greece seeks to reassure foreign capitalist investors to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2010"","block_context":{"text":"May 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/may-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8502,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/greek-default\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":2},"title":"Greek Default","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For almost six years Greece has been on the cusp of financial disaster. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online For almost six years Greece has been on the cusp of financial disaster. Its Northern European and international creditors have extended loans, suspended interest payments, and forgiven some debt. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Death by Euro\" street art in Athens. 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But they still do not want to take the necessary medicine to stop borrowing billions of euros from northern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":975,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/which-way-greece\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":4},"title":"Which Way Greece?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's The Corner One question that rarely arises about Greece is \u201cwhere did all those hundreds of billions of Euros really go?\u201d I think most visitors could easily answer that they were not all squandered on pensions and inflated government staffs and salaries. The Greece of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Greece"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4604,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-other-olympics\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":5},"title":"The Other Olympics","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Why so little anti-Americanism? by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers Well apart from the obvious lessons of the recent Olympic games that the amazing Greeks really did pull it off at the eleventh hour without major terrorist incidents, there was another story that remained largely ignored. 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