On board S/Y Bushido
According to C.M. Bowra, gold had a divine association with the Ancient Greeks, being more than just a symbolic value, as when Pindar wished to stress the splendour of something he called it golden, whether it was a victor’s crown of wild olives or the opening of a song. Gold stood for wealth in its most magical and least prosaic form, for the radiance it invested in the art of living and for the graces it made possible. I wonder what Pindar would say about gold if he were around nowadays!
Bowra also writes that according to Xenophanes, a social critic of the time, Lydian gold had a harmful effect on Greeks living in Asia Minor, turning the Hellenes into ‘preys of useless luxuries’, and therefore preys to conquest and tyranny. Again, if Xenophanes were around, I wonder what he’d say about rich Arabs covered in it, not to mention rich Eurotrash, but then those who will one day make us their prey — the Chinese — are also covered in gold, just as the Lydians were.
Serious Greeks were wary of wealth in general and gold in particular because it might sap the sense of public duty and obligations. Tell that to the Saudi ruling family and listen to them guffaw for the first time in their grotesque lives. (My, they are a ghastly-looking bunch: fat, ugly, miserable and cruel.) Modern Saudi, Kuwaiti and Gulf state Sybarites will eventually bite the dust because of their cruelty and greed but, alas, not in my lifetime. They are too self-indulgent (and much too fat) to sit up straight and read history, otherwise they’d know that Sybaris was a city on the eastern side of the toe of Italy, whose inhabitants had become a byword for luxury.
One leading Sybarite visited Sparta and, upon seeing how the great Spartans lived, declared he’d rather die a cowardly death than live such a life — a redundancy of expression, as Sybarites by nature would die in a cowardly manner. In any case, Sybaris was put to the sword by Croton, and the only thing that was left of the inhabitants was the word denoting luxury and lying on one’s arse doing nothing all day. In future, I sincerely hope the word Sybaritic will be replaced by Saudi-like to denote greed and self-indulgence.
I apologise for the brief history lesson, dear readers, but sitting on a sailing boat all day makes one think about Sybaris, not to mention gold. (A boat leaks the stuff as if there’s no tomorrow.) I advised my judo coach three years ago to use his life’s savings to buy gold; in fact, I insisted on it, something he did and I did not, which makes him ‘sitting pretty’ right now and me a fool, but I don’t mind too much. Had I followed my own advice I’d be feeling awfully soft today, just like the Greeks that succumbed to Sybaritic living back then.
Not to mention the modern Greeks who lived off EU wealth until Goldman Sachs could no longer cook the books for the so-called conservative government of the major financial criminal Costa Karamanlis. Goldman made more than 300 million greenbacks for services to mislead, yet not a peep has been heard. Whatever happened to accountability? Whatever happened to jailing white-collar crooks like the Goldman gang? Whatever happened to throwing out bureaucrooks in Brussels who encouraged such financial shenanigans by flinging billions to irresponsible Greek politicians who bought votes and created state sinecures for political friends with your tax moolah?
It is the same old story everywhere one looks. Crooks — the bankers — at the top, crooks — the central casting type — at the bottom, and the whipsawed middle classes in the middle. When I was at the University of Pentonville for advanced sociological studies, my cellmate Tony the Loon had six years to go after having botched a bank job by having ingested too much smack. (Low-life criminals get very nervous and, like their metropolitan elite counterparts who sniff coke, they take heroin.) Tony did 12 for sticking up a bank. Lloyd, as in Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, will not do a day but will be a billionaire when he retires. Now I ask you: what kind of deal is that? Both crooks got caught, but only Tony did 12. Ditto for the financial elite who got us in this mess. No one’s gone to jail except the innocent Lord Black.
And another thing. What about Bush, Cheney and Blair? Shouldn’t they all be locked up? They caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and, through their recklessness and eagerness to become historical figures, continue to kill and maim every day, yet all three are enjoying their retirement on our dime while we’re going bust. Sooner rather than later this has to be put right. Lying politicians have to face the music, starting with Bush and Blair. Cheney is like Goering, without the latter’s intelligence and charm and love of good art. He should be allowed to take poison, a particular venomous one that kills slowly. And the Gobbelses, Perle, Podhoretz, Kristol and the rest of the neocons, ditto.
But enough of this bitterness. Gold is going through the roof, and you can guess who went into it while advising us to buy stocks four years ago. The smiling wallet-lifters that call themselves politicians and bankers have all gone on holiday, the weather in Greece is sunny and bright, Bushido has never been more pleasant to be on, and I am facing the worst crisis of my life — yet another birthday. Urghh!
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