Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

To be free Greece must stand on its Hellenic feet

By Evaggelos Vallianatos - posted Friday, 7 August 2015


If the Greeks had any doubt about their European colleagues, the "bailout" experience corrects past illusions of what the Europeans and Americans think of them.

The Greeks also connect that foreign reality with its domestic underpinnings. They realize their dependence on others for their freedom has been a mistake. To this day, Greece has put her security in the hands of the latest foreign protector named NATO, a military alliance of Western Europe and North America headed by the United States. The fatal flow of NATO is that it includes a non-Western civilization country that tortured Greece for too long. That country is Moslem Turkey. But imperial America, thousands of miles away from Europe, looks at the Turks as canon fodder in a potential war against Russia; so Greek history is written off.

But Greeks are living their history. They are rethinking more than their humiliating debt to the bankers. They realize Aristotle was correct on more than the cathartic effects of a tragedy. He was also right that one should almost never go to debt. Self-reliance or autarkeia, he said, was the highest virtue of a state wishing to be free.

Advertisement

Greek patriots need to put their energies behind a free state based on these principles: (1) Greece has a millennial history that made enormous contributions to Western civilization, including the invention of science; (2) Considering that the EU has been hostile to Greek recovery and independence, Greeks have no option but becoming independent from their own work and power; (3) Greece must restructure itself, fill its villages with young farmers to produce food; (4) Greek scientists and engineers must work together to build the infrastructure for a solar and green country. This ecological industrialization would also become the mechanism for job creation and economic independence. Solar electricity can become the new currency with northern Europe; and (4) strong defense and closing of the borders to illegal migrants. Refugees in Greece must be repatriated as soon as possible or sent to other European countries.

Some Greeks are already returning to their villages: a first step in rebuilding Greece. A strong and healthy countryside is a dosage of good food, democracy, and security for the entire country.

Master-slave relations between Western Europe and Greece are certain to lead to a break and to Greece returning to her currency. With ISIS and other monsters coming out of Islamic Middle East and Turkey, some Greeks still see Europe as a potential fence against that spreading disaster. That is problematic. Europeans know that most Moslem refugees end up in Greece through the hostile offices of Turkey.

EU is broken.

Greece needs to stand on its own Hellenic feet to be free.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

16 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Evaggelos Vallianatos is the author of several books, including Poison Spring (Bloomsbury Press, 2014).

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Evaggelos Vallianatos

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 16 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy