Today, in the immediate aftermath of a bitterly contested election – ostensibly a Euroelection. But which was in fact fought over national issues of a very serious kind — it might be wise, while the tattered banners expressing political passions are floating bedraggled but still unconsummated from practically every lamp post and utility column in the country, to pause and look back a bit, and perhaps a bit more than a bit.
But where to begin? To the restoration of democracy? But why did it have to be restored? To the junta then. But why did that have to take place? To the Lambrakis assassination when a form of extreme polarization emerged that has been a fact of political life ever since? Back to the civil war? Over half of the electorate today wasn’t even born at the time of the battle of Grammos, but to say that it is not a living issue today is to take an ostrich view of contemporary life. The Asia Minor catastrophe, then? If one doesn’t stop somewhere in order to begin, one may have to go back to the destruction of the palace at Knossos.
It isn’t just that Greece has a long and continuous history; everyone knows that. Nor is it that Greece lives its political life so intensely; clear evidence of this was seen last month. It is that at every given moment, Greece seems to be living its whole past altogether in the very process, in the very instances, of adding to it.
Probably the most repeated cliche about Greece is that it was the cradle of democracy (although it was a Greek who said in a moment of justified exasperation in April 1967 that it was the coffin of democracy). Nor is it said so, often that it was the cradle of tyranny, anarchy, despotism, oligarchy, aristocracy — all excellent words of Greek origin. Politics itself is a word as Greek as Greek can be.
There is, however, a common word in political life which is not of Greek origin. In fact there is no equivalent in Greek for it, and that is ‘republic’. The official government stationer may say so in translation, but the original word is ‘dimokratia’. ‘Res publiea*: one thinks of the Roman republic first and then of Venice, neither of which was democratic in the least, but they were commonwealths. They stood for the ‘common weal’; they were dedicated to the public good; it was their basic concept.
The Greek people are among the most egalitarian, in the world; their passionate love of liberty (merely the way a Greek says the word ‘eleftheria’) uplifts the spirit; their ethnic sense is powerful, sound and bracing. But among the millions of words aired publicly last month (and there is a passionate love of rhetoric, too), very little seems to have been said about “the public good.”
There have been splendid expressions of it in the past: in Thucydides, Demosthenes, Isocrates and in modern times, bnt one wonders if these fine words reflected public sentiment or if they were delivered as exhortations, if ‘Know Thyself’ was inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, one suspects that people were not going about knowing themselves and that is why those words were put up there.
And today — since so many partisan events are celebrated in late October and in November: Ohi’ day, the Polytechnic uprising, events, of resistance and the civil war – this is when tempers flare up strongest. And every year at this time, President Karamanlis makes a statement, very brief and very simple, the gist of which is: “cool off; keep still a moment; consider what is best for youar country.” And everyone is very polite about it and dutifully puts it in the papers and on TV. But who does think about it? Who bases his acts upon it? Mr. Karamanlis delivered a very fine and interesting address before the European parliament a year ago. During the Euroelections last month, who mentioned it?
It’s been said that those who ignore their history are condemned to repeat it. This cannot be said of Greece, for every Greek consciously carries his whole history on his back and Greek history is as unrepeatable as it is irreversible.
Perhaps Greek history can be thought of as. a vast poern-in-progress winch Homer only wrote the beginning of, And, as in most poems,, there are many instances of poetic justice and poetic license. A glaring case of the latter was revealed fast month when John Fesroazoglou,. who could be called the chief architect to the Greek — EC relationship won in a Euroelection — 0.4 % of the popular vote and announced his temporary retirement from politics two days latex. But then even Hommer nodded.
By the same token, too, it is not so surprising that Greece is one of the world’s greatest producers of poets and that they should be honwedl here, even in a world now awash in prose, above al others,, for the excellent reason that they have understood the total Greek experience most profoundly and expressed it with a passionate concern which everyone feels in his bones. They are the tree citizens of the Greek Republic, whatever Plato may playfully have said to the contrary.
It was Greece that inaugurated the idea of having a moment of silence in the contemplation of international peace earler this year, and that was a very fine thing. Is there not reason then to plead now for a moment of silence for internal peace? So that the 1985 parliamentary elections can add to this ongoing epic a new stanza with a republican, a truly faithful, patriotic ring?
