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Anastasia Balezdrova

Over the past two years, Greece has been experiencing perhaps the worst crisis ever. It seems mainly political, but it is deeply ethical. For a long time, viewers worldwide have seen on TV street clashes between demonstrators and police, strikes and occupations of government institutions and the refusal of state officials to undertake their duties diligently. This creates the impression that the people of this otherwise beautiful country jointly reject any reform and are fully determined to fight for their own benefits, although they are at everyone else's expense.

This is not true. Many of the Greeks want changes, they are tired of paying taxes to pay the salaries of people who do not work and have taken a clerical post with bribes and because they know a politician.

According to Dimitris Gousetis, author of many articles and commentaries in the Greek daily Kathimerini and member of the DARSI party, "the battle between the Greeks has lasted many years and apparently it will continue much longer, but its outcome is uncertain."

"Our country has won many negative records in Europe. Greece ranks last in competition, environmental protection, recycling, etc., but it ranks first in corruption, denial of justice, air pollution, etc. On the other hand, we are members of the European Union, and of the euro zone too, i.e. we belong to the rich men's club. This is a contradiction, which I have been trying to understand for many years. I have concluded that it is due to our having different cultural values from our European partners."

To explain the nature of Greek society, he referred to the definition of society by philosopher and social anthropologist Ernest Gellner. According to him, society is a collection of various governmental structures that are powerful enough to oppose the state and if they do not prevent it from fulfilling its role of ensuring freedom and being a referee of major interests, they could still stop its domination and prevalence over the rest of society.

"If we take the definition literally we will see that in terms of "prevention " we are European champions, as over the years we have prevented the Greek governments from doing many things. Examples include foreign policy, the security system reform in 1997 that the then Prime Minister Costas Simitis withdrew, the pursuit of education policy with the occupation of schools and departments, planning about 2 million illegal constructions in the country. We could therefore conclude that we are leaders in civil society, without having non-governmental organizations that are its constituent cells. "

Despite its apparent similarity with civil society, Greek society has very little in common with it. "Just to avoid this confusion Ernest Gellner explains that there are social formations which, although preventing the state from prevailing over society, are far from the concept of "civil society". He said it should be distinguished very clearly from its antithesis, which is segmented society. It may actually be pluralistic and it opposes centralization but it does not provide its members with the type of freedom we seek and expect from civil society. No ideology could survive in such a society because socialism, capitalism, fascism and every other "ism" is a precondition for social coherence and consciousness that is common to the whole society of the country and its fate. This is something that Greece is lacking and any of these ideologies could not survive. According to Gellner, an example of such a society was ancient Greece, where Socrates was convicted and poisoned for his "daymonion" and Muslim societies. "

Dimitris Gousetis pointed out Gellner’s definition for these type of societies and compared it with the Greek: "In Muslim countries the society is managed by circles (which resemble tribes) and unions, created on the basis of kinship or mutual exchange of services (i.e. bribes) or common religion and common experience. In general, it is based more on personal trust rather than on the formal relationships that exist in a structured bureaucratic system. Oddly enough, in particular countries this system does not cause great dissatisfaction, almost all members of society accept it and consider it normal. What impresses the researchers most is the strange combination of strict religious, moral and cynical clientelist relations. I found my country in Gellner’s definition of Muslim societies ," said Dimitris Gousetis.

In a segmented society, people are divided into small groups within which they are willing to do anything, even to give their lives to other members, but they are completely indifferent and even hostile to others. This is a typical example of lack of coherence in a society. The most typical types of segments in a society are family, professional organizations and local communities.

"In Greece, we are ready to give everything for the family, but we are not interested in anything outside it. We make huge sacrifices to obtain a large and comfortable home, but we do not care about the communal areas in the block. We throw the waste bag from the balcony with no concern that it will tear and dirty the entire pavement. We are known for our almost hysterical care for our children, but we take the last place in Europe in blood and organ donation. On the other hand, we take the first place in terms of racism and xenophobia." According to Dimitris Gousetis, nepotism in Greek universities and in the very politics of the country are typical examples of this model of society. "My opinion is that even today's protests involve only those civil servants who are likely to be sent to the labour reserve. The rest who will not be affected by the measure in one way or another do not respond. I.e. the reaction is an expression of the fear of every man individually, with no concern for the fate of others."

The second type of grouping in a segmented society is branch organizations. "In the old days, people were united in guilds according to their profession. They were all involved, from the master to the apprentice and each guild defended its interests against the interests of other professions. After the industrial revolution, it became clear that this type of vertical separation was useless and it was abandoned. Then, the unions were established based on class belonging and they continued to fight for the rights of their members. In the West, people are aware that economic interests are not the result of a zero sum and the interests of employees are not always opposed to the interests of their bosses, whereas things in Greece are different. In Germany, trade unions agreed to a reduction in income in order to cope with a crisis. If this happens here in Greece, or if a trade unionist even agreed to discuss this possibility with the Minister of Economy, he would immediately be declared a betrayer. Italian and Spanish trade unions voted in favour of the increasing the retirement age to 67 years. This is something the Greek trade unions would never do.

In Greece, we have examples of "fictitious" unions that fight for their interests to the detriment of the common interests. Civil servants and their associations are typical examples. "

The third category is local communities. "In no other country in the world are there unions of people coming from the country to the capital as in Greece. They are the source of votes for provincial deputies, and this forms the circle of clientelist relations. "For example, when the present Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos was Minister of Culture and Sport in the previous government, he cancelled the financial obligations of the football clubs of Thessaloniki. The opposition leader Antonis Samaras took the control over the archaeological department of the ancient temple of Apollo Epicurus from the district of Ilia and transferred it to the region of Messinia a few years ago, when he was also Minister of Culture."

The road blockades and heavy clashes of the Keratea and Gramatiko residents with the police because of their reluctance to the construction of a landfill in the area are more recent examples. "This attitude inevitably leads to racism. Local communities reject the possibility of their neighbourhoods having subdivisions of the organization to combat drugs as if no one needs them there. Victims of this racism are immigrants, national and religious minorities, and many others."

This segmentation in a country leads to the emergence and imposition of great negligence to democratic order and human rights. As an example, the lecturer pointed out the Greek Communist Party, which is very far from the definition of a democratic party. "These people exonerated Stalin, but apparently it does not annoy anyone here." In Ireland and Portugal, which have serious financial problems too, political parties are united in their efforts to save their countries from the worst crisis, whereas in Greece division and dissension dominate, because the parties act as former guilds. The other features of segmented society are found very easily, if one looks at the events happening in Greece every day: non-observance of laws, social irresponsibility, inability of authorities to respond to their obligations, over-large public sector, corruption and nationalism.

According to Dimitris Gousetis, the main reasons for these phenomena in Greek society are the uncertainty caused by the economic and social conditions and, largely, the influence of the Orthodox Church.

"I'm not optimistic about the future because the battle between the two "souls" of Greece will continue for a long time. I think the only hope lies in European integration. To be an area of Europe that will have all rights and obligations under the common governance that will take the decisions for those of us who are unable to do it ourselves."