24-9-96
Modern Greece perpetually lives in a psychosis of competition. Its measure of success is others, and its problem is to prove that it can also perform.
This complex competition led it to reject the good in others, to avoid any derogatory comparison. Thus, we had the best saints, the best food, the best music. We had invented everything before others who officially found them first; the whole world was indebted to us. And if, against hope, we were clearly lacking or making mistakes, we had to attribute our inferiority to foreign intrigues, conspiracies, and manipulations, since a supreme nation cannot be wrong.
Our integration into the European Community, along with all the undoubted benefits it brought, also intensified these feelings, as comparisons were now almost automatic. We overcame a first reflexive reaction, according to which a Europe without Greece is inconceivable, and that Europeans should feed us in the Prytaneum. We also overcame a second reaction, according to which everyone is against us and no one loves us, combined with the resurgence of complex comparisons, where the European culture, deliberately disdainfully labeled as Western (since the farther east, the better), paled in comparison to our purer own, which it did not want to admit it originated from and had betrayed. All these were heard from many sides, not necessarily naive or insincere.
But the time has come to mature and accept our current dimensions, capabilities, and identities. Both culturally and economically, defining our place (a necessary thing) within the Community and the World.
Culture is not inherited but is continuously created. Our culture will be judged also by the ability to assimilate others. Wisdom was always in the mixing, not in the untainted one-sided choices. As for the economy, wisdom again dictates, instead of competing with others on their track, to discover the potential of our own variations. Small size and flexibility. Quality, not quantity. Individuals, not totals.
In other words, both in culture and economy, we need to define and accept our limits, with moderation and without grand ideas. This way we can succeed. On a small scale and in low tones."
Plato Rivellis