Yes it is true that Iceland stood up to its financiers, but Iceland is a small country and has its own currency. Its default was manageable and its currency de-valuable. If Greece defaults on its debt responsibilities there will be cataclysmic ripple effects across the whole of the EU/globe. This is not a choice that the other members of the EU will passively tolerate.
One way of looking at the people v institutions question is to consider history. Take Mao Zedong for example. The welfare and prosperity of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was placed above the welfare of individuals. Under Mao’s transformational leadership, between 18 million and 45 million people died, mainly as a result of the famine his policies induced. Lessons were learnt and improvements made. Look where China is today.
Yes I agree values have been muddled. Over the recent decades of unprecedented peace and prosperity European people have come to expect that life for them will get better and better. They have assumed that just by being born in the right place they will be entitled to not only the benefits that come with existing in a democracy, but also that those benefits will keep on expanding. People increasingly believed that their list of human rights should include anything that they can lobby for. The muddle has occurred because individuals have concentrated on rights and entitlements would keep on expanding while conveniently forgetting about their collective responsibilities, especially the responsibility to live within their means. The necessary social balance between giving and getting has been tilted in favour of the getting. This popular but irresponsible course of action was paid for accumulating debt, at every level of society.
During the original Golden Age the Greeks built amazing stone structures such as the acropolis and left these for their descendants. During the current European Golden Age the Greeks built amazing debt structures and left these for their descendants.
I can understand that people are furious at successive Greek and European Governments that have enabled the people to live a standard of living which they could not afford and now that gigantic delusional edifice is crumbling. I can also understand that these same governments were also under intense pressure not to tell the people what they didn’t want to here. The people did not want to be told that there was massive fraud in the pension system in the social welfare system, that there was massive tax evasion, and corruption, and that their industries were uncompetitive etc. The Greek people were part of the EU and they expected that they were entitled to a ‘European’ standard of living. Greek democracy failed its people because the people preferred to be lied to or at least have the truth hidden from them. That period of ‘hide and never seek’, like the children’s game is now over. Greece must now, move forward and one way or another, face its future.
