The political left in Greece has been the dominant ideology and a matter closest to the heart of the middle class bourgeoisie. That is why from the fall of the Junta in 1974 and return to constitutional democracy, it rose to be the prevailing “pretentious” ideology of comfortable “lounge lizards.”
Those who most benefited and were showered favors by the system, the ones who found the shortest way to climb to the top of the social pyramid, all declared themselves to be in one way or another “leftists.” In essence, to be a leftie in Greece means that you pretend to be something you aren’t at all for acceptability and to open doors.
“I am unashamed to say I am right wing. I believe that it is worthwhile to defend one’s country, to strive for one’s family, and to have an ethical code and a sense of honor based on directness and truthfulness. I also believe that every person has the right to apply their abilities, to try hard and to succeed.”
This kind of political stance has been entirely “out of bounds” in Greece for the last three decades because the dominant powers in the country have been the “well heeled” lefties. Universities, schools, services, media, arts, culture, entertainment, businesses … everything was surrendered to leftists, former leftists, unrepentant lefties and repentant ones, to center-leftists, to liberal leftists … and the list goes on.
Anyone who didn’t declare loyalty to the pretentious foremost left mantra did not have much luck and didn’t end up doing very much. In the event that they had the courage to declare they were right wing -were cast out into the cold dark night.
This is partly why conservative former Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis propagated theories about the “political middle ground,” and the “societal center.” These were nothing more than a disguise for the complex social guilt that was cultivated and imposed on anyone declaring that they were “right wing” and proud of it.
An authentic representative of this leftist “dictatorship” is the author and parliamentarian of the radical left SYRIZA party, Petros Tatsopoulos. I can’t judge him as an author because I don’t read modern Greek literature. I abhor people who write hymns to misery and dead ends with the only aim of cashing in big time while mischievously declaring their “disobedience.” At the same time that they venerate their “non conformism” they can be found daily sipping expensive freddo coffees in the swank center of Athens in Kolonaki and the plush northern suburb of Kefalari on Sundays.
Tatsopoulos belongs to the leftist “intellectual” elite and has been discovered by the media group SKAI who have introduced him to the wider audience through their program “Important Greeks.” They must be pleased with him because for others it’s not enough to make environmental forays to pick up trash from beaches as the SKAI television station prides itself but it’s also not a good idea to fill television sets with “rubbish” of Tatsopoulos, part of SKAI’s cheap TV fare.
This inimitable person, Tatsopoulos, a member of the Hellenic Parliament and supposed representative of the poor, the weak and the potentially suicidal, chose Thursday, the same day of the EU Leaders Summit to inform us through his Twitter account that he has “screwed half of Athens” …. the far right Golden Dawn party insists on calling him “gay!”
I hope SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras is proud of him because he has shown in the clearest manner that although the country is going to hell in a hand basket the “lounge lizard” left could care less! And this is the left’s own tragedy and also the great tragedy of the country because this leadership class of the “lounge lizard” left doesn’t have propriety, nor the guts to make claims, nor even the sensibility to put up a fight. All it can do is engage in snipping gossip.
In this country we have not understood that ideology can become an alibi for stupidity. Greece needs both the right and the left but it certainly doesn’t need more pretense. And that is why we have to finish with the likes of the system’s Tatsopoulos’ that can be found across the board of the Greek political sphere.
PS. I hear that leftist author and MP Mimis Androulakis has set his course to become the Mayor of Piraeus in June 2014. The “lounge lizard” left can always smell future opportunities for good party games.
