Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Alexis Papachelas on "loving one's country"

This is one of the most insightful articles which I have read of late. I am no expert on the Greek psyche but it seems that some form of misguided pride prevents Greeks from recognizing reality.

If you get yourself into a mess, there is not too much to be gained from thrashing blame around. What is called for, instead, is to recognize which behaviors got you into the mess and to change those behaviors going forward. "Self-recognition is the first step towards improvement" - this is one of the first things we learned about ancient Greek wisdoms back in Gymnasium.

I would be curious to know what percentage of Greeks could identify themselves with this article. If it were more than 50%, hope for a better future would be in sight.

Several decades ago, Citibank had a legendary CEO by the name of Walter Wriston who had a wonderful talent of putting important messages into a few words. I remember clearly some of his words which would apply to Greece today: "When the world changes, we don't lament about the change. Instead, we look the new world straight into the eye and deal with it. And - don't analyze things to death. Instead, do something!"

Or as an old Doris-Day-movie was titled: "Don't just stand there; do something!"

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