Τhe valuable magnet
In this day and age, it is easy to believe that the majority of Greeks are extremists, obsessives, and occasionally unhinged. Such types certainly make more of a ruckus than everyone else and occasionally seize, quite literally, the agenda of public discourse. They enjoy an advantage on social media, which doubles as their greatest weapon. They sell “sexier” wares than anyone else.
The complete and systemic deconstruction of media outlets has been a contributing factor to this situation, as they no longer exist as bulwarks of information or even common sense. “I read it on the internet” has come to be used a bit like previous generations used “I found it in the Encyclopedia Britannica.”
In reality, Greeks seem to act and think rationally. For example, it was easy to conclude that anti-vaxxers would be an important, powerful minority. They are not.
Those who are hesitant or are refusing to get the vaccination are doing so, in large part, due to the clamor around certain vaccines and the incessant, and dangerous, chatter by certain “celebrity” epidemiologists.
Greeks are passionate, charmed by quaint theories and grand statements, but at the end of the day are eminently practical and have an innate survival instinct. A Greek will first adopt an emotional or radical position on all important issues, satisfy their need to vent, and then go over it again coolly and rationally.
In the meantime, there might be some collateral damage but as this has happened for decades, we now know that the country somehow copes, it survives, and in the end moves forward. We are prone to “intoxication,” but we also know the secrets in shrugging it off.
A crucial question is whether that famed “middle ground” still exists. If there survives the type of informed voter who does not get impassioned with political parties, hates obsessions, and judges everyone severely. They are most certainly not heard in today’s volatile, chaotic political scene. They have been educated however in the new ways of staying informed and have learned where to find what they are after, avoiding pitfalls.
They are particularly interested in social matters and keep an open mind. They play a decisive part in their social surroundings as they are often active citizens.
At the end of the day, they are the valuable magnet that ensures that the ruling parties will not veer too much to the left or right, unless they have decided to commit political suicide.
