Greece: How did the country that gave birth to the civilisation-changing foundations of modern Western Democracy go so wrong and how do we fix it?
Introduced by H.R.H. Pavlos Prince of Greece
For our second Agora discussion, the topic is where Greece stands today, and more specifically, why have we been all over the daily papers for the last two years, and for all the wrong reasons?
Like a good New York shrink we have asked our contributing avatar writers to give their diagnosis. Generally, moral decline has led to economic decline, but there are more nuanced answers too.
This week’s contributors had varying views on the matter. “A Greek’s unruliness” wrote one “has helped him survive years of oppression.” Not surprisingly, the modern-day Greek, has had to play catch-up and has allowed “corruption to be legitimized by the pursuit of bourgeoise status”. One slightly irreverent view proposed that the cure was for Greeks to continue being lovers of life and all things beautiful, but encourage the resourcefulness of the pioneering Hellene to prevail and bring on honest governments to captain Hellas in to the future.
I strongly encourage you to add your comments and to challenge our esteemed guest writers, for whose participation we are all grateful. And, please, use arguments rather that personal punches; arguments are always more effective that way.
H.R.H. Prince Pavlos
Our contributors
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Social Brat
Thomas D. Gommes,
What went wrong is that Greece lost enough wars to lose an Empire and with that loss went wealth and power. When you’re a small and poor country focused on survival, it’s hard to find the bandwidth to spend much time having great ideas, profound thought…
Read Thomas D.'s perspective -
Meritocrat
Dennis Paul,
Hellenic civilization never ended; it was simply subsumed into the Roman Empire where it became even more foundational to Western culture as it spread across what became known as Europe (and beyond). Hellenic civilization was further adopted by the Byzantin…
Read Dennis's perspective -
Econocrat
Pavlos Prince of Greece,
Greeks and the Hellenic culture can today be found in all corners of the world. For the most part, Greeks across the diaspora are respected for their hard work and strong family values. They are often successful in business and active in community life….
Read Pavlos's perspective -
Autocrat
Taki Theodoracopulos,
What happened to the genius that invented science, philosophy, the Arts, mathematics, astronomy and democracy? John Milton called Greece the mother of the arts and eloquence. That she was, but in modern times most of her children seem to have left home. Pai…
Read Taki's perspective -
Aristocrat
Nick Skrekas,
Modern Western society is built on ancient Greek and Byzantine foundations, but Hellas cannot rest on its historic laurels as it faces existential challenges and has to reinvent itself to pull back from the brink. Greeks were repressed and stunted for 400 y…
Read Nick's perspective
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