It would come as no surprise to anyone were it to be disclosed that Antonis Samaras is a pathological narcissist. Which is one reason why a recent cartoon by the brilliant cartoonist Yannis Ioannou depicts him smashing one TV set after another, because none of them reflects back that he is the fairest, brightest, most successful of them all.
However, in his recent fit of absurd pique, he has taken the mirror metaphor further. He smashed the TV because it didn’t show him what he wanted in a childish tantrum. Yet, as I heard on free radio today, what he managed to do was what he least wanted to do.
The people of Greece have been lulled or drugged or terrorized into a state of lethargy through the shock doctrine that has hit them hard. This has turned them into docile couch potatoes staring at their TV sets. But when he shut down state TV they, we, all suddenly saw a black screen staring back at us, reflecting what our life has really become and what we can look forward to. A black nothingness.
This, the radio commentator said made us all jump up off the couch in shock and dash onto the streets and to the TV building in support. All of a sudden we saw what they have reduced us to and we did not like it. We did not like it at all. It fired us into realisation of the truth, it fired us into action.
Regardless of how this will play out or where it will lead, I would suggest that Mr Samaras has achieved the unachievable.
Under state control the TV stations were regurgitating his idiotic propaganda about how well he has done, how he has changed the climate, how Greece has turned the corner, and how he has achieved the Greek Success Story. The private TV stations were even worse in plugging this idiotic tale nobody could believe in, because they are dependednt on the state for favours and tax free profits.
So in imposing a black out, he blacked out his own propaganda tool, with the aim of replacing it with a better propaganda tool, but in the meantime, his mesmerised, stultified people, woke up, jumped out of their stupor, saw him for what he really is and ruined his whole image!
Bravo Antonis! Bravo. That really needs brilliance to achieve. Perhaps your mirror will reflect this when next you dare look into it.