Self-portrait
Greeks are the European Union’s most whiny, scowling and misery-mongering people, reports said earlier this week. We suffer the most stress (72 percent of the population), and are the most unhappy with our lives. We feel that we are worse off than everyone else at the office, we think that we are overworked and poorly paid. We seem to have no appetite for the easygoing life we once knew. At the same time, we appear to have many psychological problems. We are self-destructive. We follow an unhealthy diet, we smoke like chimneys, and we will not abandon our seat (whether it’s the sofa or the car seat), unless it’s time to go to bed. Why do we paint our self-portrait in such grim colors? Is our life really so bad, or is it that we have a tendency to exaggerate? We stereotypically insist that we can hardly make ends meet. But even if that is the case, why are we so pessimistic? It seems that a cause for dissatisfaction has suddenly surfaced. Until recently, Greeks were sturdy and innovative, making the best of everything. And everyone was pleased, the haves and the have-nots alike. At first we were quiet, quick and subservient. And then we became vain, arrogant, greedy and empty. And that could well be the source of our misery.
