MessageFrom what I've read, the Greeks on the streets maybe mad as hell, but if
so, it's because they've been spoiled as hell. Greece has become something of
a 'social paradise'. About the only way the Greek government can straighten
things out and get back into a manageable position is to default on its debts,
get out of the EU and go back to using a currency whose value it can control -
i.e. the drachma. This of course would put the ECB and the Eurozone into huge
difficulty. Perhaps what I'm really saying is that the European Union, which
has a single currency but no central fiscal control system, will not likely
last much longer.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: michael gurstein
To: 'Keith Hudson' ; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Riot as Performance Art
Yes for sure, the situation in Athens is very significant not the least
because it signals that the people in the streets "are made as hell and they
aren't going to take it anymore"... and good for them. Why the general
population should be made to suffer while the banksters and corrupt
polliticians and business people get off unscathed is beyond my understanding.
The problem is that at this point there are no credible alternatives
conceptually or politically to the disastrous neo-liberal "matrix" that we find
ourselves trapped inside. The irony of course is that Papendreiou (sp) who has
(or had) a lot of street cred as a fairly radical economist and progressive
politician is the one who has to impose the hurt (mostly not of his causation).
That it is him and not one of his right wing colleagues who is being called
out by the people in the street signals that the old paradigm is essentially
bankrupt and about to topple but no one has any idea of what (apart from
possible chaos) will replace it.
Which brings me back to the "riots" in Vancouver which to my mind signal not
very much at all except that the (still) largely privileged young people in N
Am are also disengaged from an older paradigm of action/consequences (posing
with face exposed for pictures commiting criminal acts). Exactly what their
paradigm is (perhaps something similar to the "we are no longer afraid"
paradigm of the young people in the Middle East but this time without any
political content) is not clear, but that we are in extremely volatile and
unstable times economically, politically AND culturally is to my mind very
clear.
M
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 12:50 AM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Riot as Performance Art
The one riot that needs to be watched -- and taken very seriously -- is
that which is going on in Athens right now. Greece is now very close to a
default which could ripple disastrously through to several large French and
German banks (which have bought Greek eurobonds) and thence to American banks
which have largely sold insurance to them (credit default swaps). This week-end
might see the beginning of the same sort of panic that occurred at the tail-end
of 2007 and, if anything, could be far worse.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/06/
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