when i say the greeks invented tragedy, i don't mean that bad things were not a constant theme in life and history. just that the greeks invented it in a theatrical and philosophical sense, as related to hubris. and, i think they probably had a hand at defining theatrical comedy as well.
there is, after all, a little of both in each. or, is that a little of each in both? well, who cares.
and, so, the tragedy that is the euro union financial scheme plays itself out, and german hubris sets itself up for a colossal prat fall. and, the comedy that is the greek habit of borrowing more than it can ever pay back goes along, the germans playing the doofus foil.
you see, the greeks are laughing all the way to the banks in the trees, just as robin hood stored his booty when he stole from the sheriff off nottingham, and the rich idiots who insisted upon driving their coaches laden with gold through sherwood forest. were there no other roads. for you see, that is the kind of socialists the greeks are, .... , rob from the rich, that being the germans, the imf, and the other euro union fools compelled by the euro bureaucrats to contribute, and give to the poor, which quite conveniently for the greeks are, well, themselves.
with clear conscience as socialists, they expropriate the rich of their money, and spend it with greek gaiety, swilling bad wine and eating all the wonderful mediterranean food they can stuff down their gullets, all the while doing absolutely nothing to earn the money to pay back the money and largess they live off of. this is the comedy, by the way.
you might say they are community organizer communists, along the lines of saul alinsky. have fun. make fun of everybody, especially their values, believe in nothing, steal from everyone not your own.
now, to the tragedy. and, a genuine tragedy born of hubris.
you see, the germans and the northern europeans are believers, brooders born of dark and cold winters, and earnest and devote in their ideological belief that socialism has arrived, and that they will spread the worker's paradise, and extend their own hegemony over europe, by spreading the euro currency around to their fellow committed communists.
and so, the germans and the wealthy norther euro's spend their money earnestly, devoutly believing that they spread and enshrine socialism to whom and wherever they spread their largess. and, the greeks, why they spend the money believing that by destroying the euro union they spread socialism, and through the dialectic, arrive at a higher stage in history.
sort of like the faithful whore spreading her legs to the pimp who beats and berates her, and sends her forth to work harder while he indulges in the sloth to which he is beholden as of right.
aeschylus would have approved, heartily, and with a knowing laugh. i am afraid that wagner would not have approved, and would see nothing funny about it at all. the tragedians, i think, win out.
john jay @ 09.27.2015
p.s. no one will link this, no one will acknowledge it. yet in the end, it will be common fodder. i think the greeks must have invented irony, as well. laughing.
