The lying game

15 May 2010

Taki lives the High Life

As I write, the political situation in Britain has many of her citizens bewildered. Despite the staggering deficits and economic shocks, the good people of Britain voted with their hearts, rather than their heads. Not being a medium, I will not try to predict what will happen. My advice to loyal Spectator readers is to go to Fitzdares and place some bets. (I sold my shares in Fitzdares with profit last year.) What I do know for certain is that Britain will soon be in the same boat as my birthplace if the three stooges don’t put the nation’s future ahead of their personal ambitions. Fat chance.

So here’s a brief history lesson on how Greece not only got the whole of Europe into a mess, but is also now threatening the US and even Asia. People ask me about Greece, and how a people with such a glorious past could act as stupidly and irresponsibly as they did. Greek intellectuals and historians have generally blamed the 400-year Turkish occupation for the nation’s ills. And it is a fact that, where humiliation persists through several generations, the oppressed begin — in defence of their own dignity — to imitate their oppressors. The cruelty, vindictiveness and harshness shown by warring political factions testify to this theory.

But this is not sufficient explanation. The volatility of the Greek character, probably the only remaining link with the glorious past of antiquity, is another. The highly individualistic Greek is too self-seeking to submit easily to the dictates of others. His unruliness has helped him survive throughout the centuries of oppression, as well as to rise above adversity, economic or otherwise. But it has also made him unaware of the advantages of a communal spirit and true democratic attitudes. He will go to any length to attain his goals, not hesitating to lie and cheat in order to achieve them. This has — brutal though it may sound — created a climate where cheating is a way of life, and where the highest and the lowest of citizens do not hesitate to use dishonesty, especially where politics are concerned.

A direct result of this way of life has been the spoils system. Although not a Greek invention, nowhere has it been practised more assiduously than in Greece. Successive governments have shamelessly brought in their favourites, returning favours and expecting new ones in the future, and changing laws to suit their purposes; thus encouraging resentment, divisiveness and a ‘wait-until-my-turn-comes’ way of thinking. No Greek government has ever come to power that truly tried to reconcile the people.

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