What Democracy?!

I was debating Greece and her corrupt politicians with a friend today.

"Why should the rest of Europe, especially Germany, bail Greece out?"

Whenever I enter into a discussion on Greece and the dire economic situation that exists, not only in Greece, but in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc., I always answer the question with a question. "Why is it that the people must always pay the price for the corruption of thievery politicians?" Some people have such short-term memories, it amazes me. In an old post, back in 2012, I wrote about how Greece should have never entered the EU. Goldman Sachs helped Greece fudge their books to hide Greek sovereign debt so they could join the Euro. Who is responsible for Greece's debt? The politicians who desperately wanted to become a part of the joke of an experiment called the Eurozone. They conspired with Goldman Sachs to make things seem much better than what they really were. Who is paying, and who has been paying for this ghastly mistake? The people of Greece.

The Euro is a nightmare. Trying to get so many different countries to manage their monies and economies under one roof and under one currency is futile. Germany has always been fiscally conservative in nature while other countries such as Greece are a mess. Add corruption, cronyism, tax evasion, an almost non-existent manufacturing base, etc. to the mix, and Greece was an accident waiting to happen.

The majority of Europe is in a recession, as are many other countries. Next in line is Spain, Ireland, Italy ...

I'm a firm believer in change. Change is good and it is necessary. After 40 years of Nea Dimokratia and Pasok, it is only fair to let someone else have a go at it.

Today began the collapse of the misery of conservative economic policies that simply do not work and it took the founders of Western civilization to begin the world-wide push back.

Democracy ...

The term originates from the Greek "δημοκρατία" (rule of the people), which was found from δημος (people) and κράτος (power or rule) in the 5th century BC to denote political systems then existing in Greek city-states. The term is an antonym to αριστοκρατία (rule of an elite). While theoretically these definitions are in opposition, in practice the distinction has been blurred historically. The political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic citizenship to an elite class of free men and excluded slaves and women from political participation. In virtually all democratic governments throughout ancient and modern history, democratic citizenship consisted of an elite class until full enfranchisement was won for all adult citizens in most modern democracies through the suffrage movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

People think we live in a democracy. What are the merits of democracy?

Democracy is based upon propositions that are not true and what is not true is always more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of people than what is true. Truth scares the living daylights out of whole populations and provides people with a finality that collides with their incurable search for justice. The fraud of democracy is more amusing than the fraud of religion.

I am a liberal at heart, always have been, but I'm progressive. I can't stand any form of conservative governments (Reagan, Thatcher, Bush, Bush Jr., etc.). I don't subscribe to any form of communist ideologies because as we have seen that system doesn't work. I also dislike fucktarded politicians who call themselves socialists (George Papandreou and his father). You are either on the left or on the right. There is no in between. There is no center. Period.

Conservatives are job destroyers, not job creators. They put the needs of banksters above the needs of their people. It's the world according to Friedman, and the two dunces - Reagan and Thatcher - did more damage than all other conservatives combined. We are still recovering from their 'let the financiers and wall street' rule the world experiment, and a huge failure at that. The trickle down theory doesn't work. The main goal of all conservatives is to concentrate global wealth and income - according to the latest Oxfam study - to 80 fucktarded billionaires (whose wealth exceeds that of 1/4 of the planet's inhabitants). Let that sink in for a minute dear readers. 80 fat cats from the top 1% own as much as the bottom 3.5 billion people on the planet. 1% own 48% of the world's wealth - 52% is owned by 99%. 

And people are surprised that a leftist party - Syriza - won the Greek election?!

Above I mentioned that I am progressive ... I am also a realist. I see things as they are. Austerity doesn't work but at the same time a country rife with corruption and an almost non-existent manufacturing base has to change its way of doing business. Greeks have to work hard in a corruption-free economy. Greeks have to pay taxes. Their entire economy for the longest time was the laughingstock of Europe. The red tape impasse has to be eliminated, corruption has to be wiped out, tax collection has to be effective, and their labor markets have to become more flexible and open to new markets. Protectionism has to be eliminated. Tsipras wants to 'clamp down on all-inclusive resorts' ... not a very rational way to make your economy more flexible and inclusive, is it?

As far as Germany is concerned, 54 billion Euros is a lot of money that has been lent to Greece with the promise that the money would be paid back. That comes to 1,300 Euros for every hard-working, tax-paying German. Germans have seen their living standards decline faster in the past 20 years than any other European country despite the fact that their productivity has risen. Greece can't blackmail the rest of Europe to finance its deficit. Greece makes up 1% of Europe's GDP. Any threat by Alexis Tsipras will be taken with a grain of salt. Greece can't afford threats because the Eurozone can do without Greece. You can't continue to spend more than you earn without running into trouble. The irony is that civil workers in Greece are paid more than their equivalents in Germany and they get to retire earlier. 

So how can the world's oldest democracy solve it's economic woes?

Foreign investors are not willing to buy Greek bonds as a result of the last governments' fraudulent bookkeeping. Can you blame the investors? EU countries can loan Greece money, but if Greece fails to meet its obligations with regard to the bailout conditions that were agreed upon, that will not happen. The only other option left is for Greece to print its own money which would mean leaving the Euro.

It was great to see Greeks dancing into the night yesterday. It brought a smile to my face. If your party wins you are happy. This happiness, of course, is illusory. It will not last. The winning candidate soars as high as a kite, but ultimately comes down with a thump (as do all politicians). To politicians beating the other party brings them joy (happiness is something to be got by taking it away from the other asshole).

And the promises! A promise after all is just that - a fucking promise. I have yet to come across a politician who didn't promise his/her base the world. The chances of a politician fulfilling even a third of his/her promises is miniscule.

Getting back to the fraud of democracy (and religion), people turn, as we have seen in Greece these past few days, to the ancient promises, which are false but provide some form of comfort to those who have suffered immensely through years of successive corrupt governments. Out of all of those ancient promises there is none more comforting than the one to the effect that the meek shall inherit the earth. It is at the heart of all religions, and it is at the heart of most political systems.

I wish Alexis Tsipras well in his attempt to bring real change to the people of Greece. They have suffered enough for far too long. As far as the meek inheriting the earth, that was written a long time ago to keep the elite class in line. It was written to serve as a warning.

Getting back to happiness ... the quest for happiness, as always, brings only unhappiness in the end. Real democracies are for the spectators, the electorate, the meek, who vote the politicians into office.

I try to imagine anything more absurd than the belief in democracy. Such false pretense. The fraud of democracy is more amusing than any other, more amusing than even the fraud of religion. It is like a disease, it is self-devouring. I am impressed by the feeling of distrust that follows all elections. The Greeks dancing in the streets last night did so with reservation and with fear in their eyes. You could see it. A lot of them had that 'can we trust Tsipras to do what he promised he would do' look on their tired faces.

I know the feeling of reservation. I have felt that way myself. Here in the US we have a government not of men, but of laws ... but these same men sit on benches to decide finally what the law is or what it should be. The highest function of politicians is to serve the state, but most are disingenuous and dishonorable.

I must admit that I am entertained. I enjoy democracy and all its ... what's the word I'm looking for? The joy of seeing politicians rise is superseded by the joy in seeing them come down. Why? Because they are all wasteful, extravagant and dishonest.

Lastly, I can't stomach the fact that Golden Dawn, a neo-nazi fascist party, came in third place. What kind of fucking democracy would allow a neo-nazi - Golden Dawn's fucktarded leader - to address the nation from within his cell block. The asshole is in jail. The pain in my parents' eyes was too much for me to bear. We sat watching the results and the commentary, along with each party's leader's address to the nation, and when Mr. Hitler-wanna-be started spewing his hate from jail, I had to get up and go outside. I couldn't watch my parents witnessing the degradation of their birthplace, their country, the birthplace of democracy itself being hijacked and morphed into a dysfunctional laughingstock for the whole world to see.

What democracy?!