A country without a vision
Athens often resembles a city in paralysis, or one held hostage. Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras spoke of «urban guerrilla warfare,» offering rioters the myth they have been seeking. Synaspismos Left Coalition is following the retailer’s approach to politics, fishing for votes without a care. Citizens are oscillating between feelings of melancholy and indignation. Meanwhile the education crisis is escalating. And we are not just talking about some 400 members of a few Athens-based gangs who have been attacking riot police. These groups are continuing an «armed movement» which has always had support in Parliament and the media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. The rest involves a growing group of youngsters attracted by violence. Surges of violence cannot be curbed through police measures alone. In the 1960s, the USA saw a massive surge in criminality, chiefly triggered by black residents of major cities. President Lyndon B. Johnson said the solution was not to arrest all poor blacks but to create a black middle class, to give them prospects. This is what Greek youngsters lack. In a society which dreams of large jeeps and country houses, the youngster who feels he will never have these things gets mad. Post-junta cliches tell him that no one gets anywhere on merit. In despair, these youngsters embrace a mythical status quo and release their pent-up tension on the street. What is missing is the vision of another Greece where citizens feel they have prospects and are not engulfed by Soviet-type delusions of security within the public sector. If our politicians fail to offer young Greeks something to believe in, it will not be long before the current phenomena of violence and discontent spiral out of control.
