Greece was selected as The Frau’s great experiment. First because it was in a terrible mess and second, but perhaps most important, it was too small to make any real difference if it failed. Or so she thought.
So the torture starts gently. Hike VAT and other consumer taxes, initially freeze all wages and pensions. In 2010. Get the puppet Minister of Finances there to assure everybody that by 2011 Greece would be back in the markets. Okay. The people accept it. The blame game filtering through. It was our fault, we were profligate, we were corrupt, we borrowed too much and all that.
Though poor little Greece and the Greeks were not exceptional in any way. In that there is major corruption throughout Europe, and don’t forget the major corruption scandals in Greece were bribery from German companies like Siemens, Ferrostahl and others. But be that as it may. As for over borrowing, the Greek private debt (as opposed to public debt) is probably the lowest in Europe. But be that as it ay again.
Anyhow as the first wave of shock and awe struck, we were badgered into believing that it was all our fault and we had to pay for our sins. Since Greeks are the first to admit that they are indeed sinful (don’t forget ‘know thyself is Greek too), we just somehow accepted that. But then, as George Papandreou has recently informed us, The Frau told him that look here laddy, for this to work it’s really got to hurt!!! He didn’t tell us, but obviously this is what happened, he just nodded and smiled and acquiesced.
Then in 2011, the economy was in even worse shape despite the ‘sacrifices that must not be lost’, whatever that nonsense sentence may be supposed to mean. So the screw began being tightened even more. Across the board deep slashes in pensions and wages. Extortion taxation on the electricity bill, prices going up and all income sliding dangerously down lower and lower.
Well, the Greeks began to react. Following the Spanish Indignados they began collecting peacefully in Constitution Square outside Parliament. The crowds grew and grew, the clamour became louder. This wasn’t good for the experiment. The victims are supposed to grin and bear it. So in comes the cavalry. The peaceful demonstrators are attacked by the riot police (while the real hooligans are allowed to burn down buildings in Athens totally unimpeded). So much teargas is sprayed on the people that the Square still reeks of it several days later.
This happens several times till the peaceful crowd is defeated by brute force and chemical weapons. Smiles all around. There, we’ve settled that one, now for the big beef! Slash all wages in the private sector! Abolish all laws pertaining to workers rights! Make them grovel, make them into slaves. With unemployment soaring to over 20%, what will they do?
And it works again! The Frau pops the Champagne bottles, or maybe just beer, Champagne is too Frenchy a thing. She is delighted! What she’s done to Greece she has begun to replicate throughout Europe. Though what exactly is it she wishes to achieve? The Greek economy has been destroyed. Five years of deep recession. Soaring unemployment. And as Yani Varoufakis tells us, Greece has, in essence, become a failed state.
Nevertheless, that is presumably what The Frau wants to achieve, a state and a work force so broken that it will not resist anything any more and just do as it is told! Triumph! Triumph of the Will (perhaps?)
But then, however, those stupid Greeks decide to call an election. Of all things! Well never mind. Last time around when that idiot of a fellow tried to have a referendum we showed him! We pulled his ear, publicly humiliated him and his country and made it quite clear in no uncertain terms that it was NOT for the people to decide anything! You hear?
So anyway, let them hold an election. What harm? They’ll get it out of their system and then the two parties that have officially signed their country’s rights completely away and to us will just form a coalition between them and carry on business as usual! And what’s more this will be totally legitimate after the people have actually voted on it! The appointed Quisling Prime Minister has already told them that in the summer 77 new crushing recession inducing measures must be enacted or else! Another 11 to 15 billion Euros must be extracted from an already disappearing economy, or else!
And we know what lily livered scarriedy cats the Greeks are! They’ll be terrified into submission again! No problem.
But something did go wrong. Those stupid Greeks did not vote the way they were supposed to. The Greek experiment has exploded in The Frau’s face. And the failure does not consist of having ground the Greek economy into a pulp and making Greece a failed state. No, in itself, that wouldn’t matter at all.
It’s the repercussions. Throughout Europe. It’s that she is reducing her lebensraum to pulp. It’s that the will of the people cannot be totally demolished by fiat. And the rest of Europe has SEEN that! They have seen that a people CAN shout NO! for all the brutal police repression and chemical warfare waged against them.
She has of course succeeded in destroying an economy completely and in hijacking Europe. But unfortunately, history comes back to haunt us. German supremacy has never lead to growth and prosperity for the continent, ever. But unfortunately, the contrary. Death and total destruction. But of course, the only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history, as the saying goes.
Unfortunately, and not only for us, the Greek experiment has turned out to be a miserable and utter disaster, a complete failure.
Moral of this fable: Do you think The Frau might draw some conclusions from this rout? Yes. But you can rest assured they will be the wrongs ones.