A Nation in Crisis

29/05/2011 Article and photographs by Fr Gerasimos Koutsouras

During our recent trip to Greece, we were fortunate to visit a beautiful land which was rich in history, monuments, and culture. But at the same time we witnessed a society in crisis. The word crisis comes from, the Greek word krisis, which means, the moment of judgement, the moment at which things could go any way. Survival or collapse.

Many commentators have made their analysis. The situation is very complicated and although I have some insights, I do not think I can get my head fully around some of the details of the economics and politics of it all. Hopefully, some of the photographs I took may give us somewhat of an idea. I was very reluctant to share some of these with my parishioners, but I believe mature and wise people will learn from this reality and apply these lessons constructively in their lives.

The first thing that struck me was what I perceived as expressions of self-destruction. Anarchist graffiti abounds. They especially like to deface churches. There seems to be an identification of the Church with the Government.

Such militant and anarchist atheism has its roots in destructive ideologies of the past. We came across one such expression at one of the Meteora monasteries. I was quite shocked with what I saw…

I asked why these centuries-old icons were scarred by bullet holes. Atheist Communist guerrillas in the 1940s had entered the monastery and among other things they did, used the faces of icons as target practice with their guns.

Last year, 2010, was the first time I visited Greece as a priest and I must admit that I occasionally found it quite intimidating to walk in the streets of the urban centres. I was often at the receiving end of very hostile looks. One man spat on the ground as I passed by. Scammers and gypsies, would rush towards me at first sight. Others consider seeing a priest in the morning bad luck! (I happen to see one in the mirror every morning, and… so far, so good!). In the mass media, priests and the clergy in general are receiving a hiding. Satirists make a laughing stock out of them, and journalists use them relentlessly as scapegoats.

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Leaving this jungle behind, I made the pilgrimage to another wilderness, Mt Athos. This was my fifth visit to the monastic peninsula also known as the Holy Mountain. It was another world. Here, people turn their back on the troubles and futilities of the world and live in small communities of thirty to a hundred monks. They dedicate their entire lives to God. Prayer, work and study.

I spent three days at Vatopaidi Monastery. It was a wonderful experience. Set in a small valley descending on a cove and surrounded by virgin forest, the monastery is inhabited by 114 monks from many countries. I was quite surprised to overhear some monks in the corridors communicating in Australian English! As it turns out, fourteen of the monks were born in Australia. So much is their renunciation of materialism and modern secular culture, virtually all of them do not own a wallet or carry money. All they ‘own’ or possess  are their robes, shoes, and a small number of personal items. Like a young family, where father and mother and children do not own things separately, all is common and shared. The monastery buildings, the fields, the orchards, the fishing boats. The monastic brotherhood  combines the love and selflessness of a family and the full functionality of a village. They are almost entirely self-sufficient. They grow their own produce, make their own soap (from olive oil) and shampoo (from calendula flowers). Interestingly, the majority of the monks have university degrees, and so they have their resident doctor, dentist, engineers, builders, accountants, lawyers, and most important of all, farmers.

They not only have themselves to feed, but also over twenty thousand pilgrims per year! This year, I was one such visitor. A bed and two meals per day… and at no cost whatsoever! The monks hold hospitality in very high regard. Think about it. Where in the world in this day and age is hospitality not an industry? All the visitors go there for some peace, tranquillity and spiritual guidance. If they wish, they can make a donation as a thank-you. It is not in the nature of the monks to even ask. I sadly left the monastery, proud that there are still models of Christian living in fragile existence a world away from capitalism, socialism, secularism, materialism and every other “–ism”.

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Which brings us back to the rest of Greece, which functions quite differently. A secular, representative democracy, which like most modern states is a partial democracy. Now, we know that every system of governance has its flaws. Both the Ancient and Byzantine Greeks loved debating the the pros and cons of monarchy, oligarchy and democracy.

Democracy and even majority rule on its own is not an absolute guarantee of good governance. Can democracy make mistakes? Obviously. Can the majority vote for something that may prove wrong? Sure. Democracy without common sense and wisdom may be less dangerous than… monarchy without common sense and wisdom, but it is still dangerous. Let’s look at Greece.

There are many factors that have contributed to the problems Greece is facing, both internal and external. Primary blame is put on successive, democratically elected governments in the last thirty years who were addicted to borrowing money to do their work but at the same time not fostering productivity, creativity, or entrepreneurship. Also missing was merit-based employment and incentives. How did the once hard-working Greek nation, gradually mutate into frappe drinking, tobacco fuming, have-a-good-timers? Yes, we know that predatory financial forces targeted Greece in early 2009 (e.g. credit-swap defaults). Also, like most countries which decided to gradually follow Western models, Greece morphed from a society to a market and its inhabitants morphed from being people to consumers. The Greeks forsook their unique culture and a large degree of their self-determination.

What do the Greeks actually make? Manufacturing and industry represents only 17% of GDP. The Greeks dress Italian and buy German appliances and cars. What about food? With agriculture representing only 4% of GDP, the Greeks find themselves eating Bulgarian and Turkish fruits and vegetables as they are not self-sufficient. If someone dares to speak of ‘the rule of law’, they are labelled a fascist, and so the country is becoming an anarchist jungle and a criminal’s paradise. But, for the first time in a long time, there are now voices in Greece which lay blame on themselves. This is healthy. Normally, the Greeks blame everyone but themselves. To a large degree, the personal choices of each individual have surmounted at a national level. And herein lies a large part of the problem, individualism and self-centredness, the opposite of love and community.

Consider what would happen if the majority of the citizens of a nation decided not to participate in civic responsibility; to evade taxes; to not care about the common good; to know that regardless of their performance at their public service job, they are virtually un-sackable; to elect leaders based on anything but merit of policy. In which country in the entire world do school-children actually barricade the school whenever they feel like it? Believe it or not, katalipseis (student strikes) are an annual if not monthly occurrence at most schools. In which country does university asylum mean that criminals can escape from police by running into campuses with the confidence that police are not permitted to chase them into the premises to arrest them?

Why should fields be untilled, fruit unpicked, ancient olive and vine terraces left abandoned?

How could the solution be to ‘spend your way out of recession’, in a country where there is no capital in the first place and productivity is languishing?

I walked into a paper shop in Thessaloniki to buy envelopes. As I approached the teller I noticed a quote from an ancient philosopher: “Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality, and anarchy as progress.” (Isokrates, 4^th century BC).

There is immense wisdom from our past, both Classical and Christian. We Greeks turned our back on our rich, age-less Tradition and drunkenly dived into modern individualism and materialism. Our ancestors lived with tried and tested values and principles, and though they were poorer, they were happier. Looking to our past does not necessarily have to be backwardness and stale conservatism. Learning from the past can be a healthy, and living and organic continuity that gives direction for our future.

Fr Gerasimos Koutsouras is parish priest of St George Church, Rose Bay in Sydney, Australia