I have been asked in the last few days what I make of the electoral results in Greece and Europe, whether it is Syriza’s victory or the rise of Golden Dawn and fascist parties. There are a lot of celebrations and alarms raised by different sectors of the political and media classes. But the situation is a lot more complex and complicated than what superficial conclusions are being drawn from election results. The reality is that people are pissed, confused, scared, desperate. In Greece a lot of us know that there is a significant number of greek voters who alternate between supporting Golden Dawn and Syriza. In the conventional left-right view of politics this makes no sense whatsoever. In the more personal reality of people who are desperately “shopping” for who might be able to restore their lives and society into something that resembles normalcy and calm this becomes a little more comprehensible. What this shows however is that the political situation is a lot more volatile that even the election results show. There is little reason to believe that things will get better for the majority of ordinary people. Nor is there any reason to think that any of the formerly marginal political forces which are rising to some prominence and power now have the capacity to “make things right.” The Titanic is sinking and no rearranging of the chairs or threats to “jump overboard” (or to “throw others overboard”) will change the fact that the Titanic is still sinking and it is not salvageable. I don’t know how and when it will go under, but the direction is not in doubt. And as long as we are looking for who will “save us” or who has the right “fix” then we are looking in the wrong direction. I understand, I feel the desperate desire for the leader who will lead us into the promised land, the expert who will make everything work again. There are plenty of times when I have wished that they could be found. But they don’t exist (although we have plenty who are vying for the positions). Nobody will save us. We need to (re)learn to take care of ourselves and each other. Nobody will fix this. We need to (re)create our own world, for the benefit of all, human and non-human, current and future generations. In the end, the most frightening aspect of the situation that we find ourselves in is not how bad things are. It is that it is up to us to “make it right.” But, for me at least, this is the aspect which gives me the most hope.
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