Also posted in Europe thread, but it really belongs here:
Some time ago during Easter in April 2012, I went for a visit at my mother's hometown some 140km outside Athens. It is really a blessed place, a micrography of Greek landscape, combining the beauty of the sea, mountains and farmland. It produces olives, olive oil, wine, tobacco, grapes, almonds, lamb meat, peanuts, fish and many other things in smaller scale like herbs, cotton, wheat, corn and honey. All people there have a piece of land, small or big, depending on the heritage of their ancestors or the wise decision to buy farms from people leaving for the big cities. They also have a decent house and a neighborhood feeling that is long gone from the cities. What they obviously lack is a proper education. That wouldn't be a problem, since Greeks are kind hearted, friendly and hospitable people, that usually make up for most of the luck of education. Unfortunately the only thing that can be substituted is the knowledge of what is good for them. And that is why they were fooled by the politicians for centuries and up to the last two elections. Because the ones that voted yet again in May and June 2012, for the two political parties that had formed the coalition since November 2011, were mainly them!!! They were lied upon, they were ripped with new heavy taxation, they received no promises for a better future, but still they went ahead and voted mainly for PASOK (the "socialist" party), the political party that have been ruining the country (together with the right party New Democracy) since 1974!
I tried to discuss with many of my relatives and friends the situation and actually understand why they vote for these parties and maybe convince them to vote for smaller parties that maybe were closer to them. I knew that they were voting for them and I didn't try to confront them straight ahead, so that I would not insult them for their previous choices. After all I thought that the new taxes and economical burdens would have brought them to their knees.
But alas! I was surprised to hear, more or less, the same reply:" You are right, by all means, and looks like you have studied the whole matter, but I am still voting for them, because they are the ones we know" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You don't have anything to answer to that! It is peculiar yet true. It is human nature. Trouble is that their vote affects my life as well! And it has nothing to do with ideologies, it is just simple logic.
Now back to Athens. I had the chance to meet with many people during the summer, that open up with their opinion. I was stunned! So many people worring about what to vote, because no political party could express them , like myself. And on the other hand so many people daring to say that they will vote for the extremist right wing party. The so called radical left party got many votes (up from 8% and 4th placement to 27% and 2nd !!!!!), but it was mainly protest vote, not ideological attachment at all. Many people I know, voted for New Democracy, without believing in it, but because they have certain problems (health, pensioners etc) that would lose their lives if the system collapsed without a government that IMF and the EU liked and supported. Of course it is plain to see that the politicians lied once again and the EU and IMF cares only to profit from it and not help.
What worries me most, is that since 1996 voting has ceased to be compulsory. It means that every lost vote comes from a person that can not find a fit representation. Now if only the 60-70% of the voters go to vote and from them only a 29% elects the first party (that together with the 3rd and 6th have joined forces, and formed the recent government) with a percentage more or less 48% but 167 out of 300 parliament members, you can see what kind of democracy we have. The 50% of the 70% is 35%. So we have the rest 65% disagreeing but unable to be expressed.
I believe that this happens to most countries of the world, but people either suffer quietly, because they don't know better, or live in countries with stronger economies or ways to get by, so they don't feel the wave that is coming after Greece, Spain, Portugal.
I have written before that this is a war with other means. Just think what will happen if tomorrow you are left without a job. How long can you sustain?