Tuesday, June 21, 2011

"The protests in Greece concern all of you directly."

"I have never been more desperate to explain and more hopeful for your understanding of any single fact than this: The protests in Greece concern all of you directly.

"What is going on in Athens at the moment is resistance against an invasion; an invasion as brutal as that against Poland in 1939. The invading army wears suits instead of uniforms and holds laptops instead of guns, but make no mistake – the attack on our sovereignty is as violent and thorough. Private wealth interests are dictating policy to a sovereign nation, which is expressly and directly against its national interest. Ignore it at your peril. Say to yourselves, if you wish, that perhaps it will stop there. That perhaps the bailiffs will not go after the Portugal and Ireland next. And then Spain and the UK. But it is already beginning to happen. This is why you cannot afford to ignore these events."

By Alex Andreou, a successful lawyer turned actor living in London.

The post ends with:

"Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the Lebanese-American philosopher who formulated the theory of “Black Swan Events” – unpredictable, unforeseen events which have a huge impact and can only be explained afterwards. Last week, on Newsnight, he was asked by Jeremy Paxman whether the people taking to the streets in Athens was a Black Swan Event. He replied: “No. The real Black Swan Event is that people are not rioting against the banks in London and New York."
(
h/t Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The protests in Greece and elsewhere have been described as apolitical. As long as they remain that way, they are doomed. About the only change that is likely to occur is a move towards more authoritarian rule as economic conditions worsen.

Chaos said...

Not apolitical, by apartisian.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, my mistake.

Anonymous said...

Not all the riots can be attributed to the economy.

Damo

Ralph Musgrave said...

I am not moved to tears. Greece entered the EU on a fraudulent basis: its national accounts made Enron’s look almost honest. As to “the attack on our sovereignty”, joining the EU by definition involves a loss of sovereignty. And relying on creditors because you’ve lived beyond your means for years means a further loss of independence, whether it’s an individual, a business, or a country.