Interesting take on what's happening in Europe (budget austerity following debt crises in which the banks get bailed out -- sound familiar?) from Sturdyblog:
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. (Note: Does that sound like the Koch brothers and Scott Walker to you?)
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.Sturdyblog (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the Black Swan guy) anticipates the Parthenon will be privatized and turned into a cheesy theme park. He explodes the myths that the Greeks are lazy, retire early and have a weak economy. And he issues a challenge:
...this is a battle between our right to self-determine, to demand a new political process, to be sovereign, and private corporate interests which appear determined to treat us like a herd, which only exists for their benefit. It is the battle against a system which ensures that those who fuck up, are never those that are punished – it is always the poorest, the most decent, the most hard-working that bear the brunt. The Greeks have said “Enough is enough”. What do you say?
