It is written by Metropolitan of Syros-Mykonos, K. Dorotheos B’
They have passed 39 years since that night of July 24th 1974, when the people of Athens celebrated the collapse of the seven-year military regime 1967-1974.
He was celebrating, par’ all while Greece, disorganized and isolated, was in agony and Cyprus, stabbed in the back, was bleeding..
He was celebrating, because he believed that a new era in the political reality of our country would dawn, that the Republic would return to the place that gave birth to it stronger, more mature and more real, a new one, creative, just and peaceful, Greece to guarantee!
Over forty, Nevertheless, years, which have since passed, everything but the hopes of the Greeks at the time were justified, on the contrary, they tarnished the name of the Republic, the questioning against her was raised and a step to her enemies, even in the Parliament, they gave…
The pathologies of our Democratic system are well known, which led to today, for now, impasse and certainly a painful situation for our country and people!
Unfortunately, Nevertheless, most of us either limit ourselves to an inexpensive and painless symptomatology and simple recording of the grim reality, whether we are looking for responsible people inside and outside the walls, and yet we avoid pondering and tracing the content of generative causes and causes.
Perhaps, because it has escaped us that the quality of a state is not determined by its formal name, but the experienced in his daily practical experience.
Such as, newly born, Angelos Terzakis once wrote in BIMA, "many - we will not say most - think that Democracy is a state. They don't know what it's about’ ending and’ not for’ starting point. Democracy means a level of civilization. It presupposes many things • not just an ideological orientation or a direction of taste. You become worthy of being elevated to the democratic idea when you have previously passed through some stages of internal civilization. A Democracy among the Kafrs is unthinkable...".
And this, because Democracy, in the final analysis, it means knowledge. It is not enough that citizens have the right to participate in the political process, they must also have the ability!
The more educated a society is, the more real, more genuine and deeper is its democracy. Uneducated peoples did not acquire, and if they acquired they did not long retain their democracy. And, if in ancient times, this state in its most perfect form was realized only in Athens, it is because the Athenians had a higher education than the other Greeks, Athens had turned into a "School of Greece"!
Democracy is a highly sensitive state, as it presupposes a continuous exercise of morality, and on behalf of individual citizens, but primarily on behalf of political leaders, which should be role models for the people, to be true leaders and not of the "immeasurable" and "incomposable", according to Demosthenes, crowd queues!
Why, as an ancient sage said, "see the good man ceasing from the beginning, not richer, but more glorious events", the right politician must not have become richer when he leaves power, but more glorious!
Democracy needs people to thrive, that offer more and settle for less!
"Excellent host state", said Kritovoulos, "where the statesmen look for him rather or the law of appropriation", where politicians fear accusation more than the law, and a city "does well", Pittacus found, "where the wicked are not found", that is, where the wicked are not allowed to rule!
We have another, it looks, forget that Democracy is not a prize, but a constant struggle, in which citizens participate every day, having full knowledge and awareness not only of rights, but also of their obligations, subordinating the ego to the we.
Nevertheless, all these years we have tried to become people not of value, but of success, on whose altar we sacrificed principles and ideals, and we often betrayed our ideas.
In the name of Democracy we have abolished every concept of hierarchy and meritocracy, in the name of equality we abolished all notions of respect, and we leveled everyone and everything, with the dominance of populism.
Is, sure, fact that 183 years since the foundation of the Greek State, true and genuine Democracy is always the goal, the ubiquitously promised and the often denied!
In addition, historical and political circumstances, wars, divisions, civil strife, dictatorships, foreign occupations and national disasters did not leave the new Hellenism much scope for cultivating and consolidating the Republic.
But, it's never too late! In the Republic, after all, there are no dead ends!
It is a historical debt of our national survival, on the edge of the cliff even, to take advantage of the crisis as an opportunity for a collective recovery and a steady path towards true Democracy!
Now is the time, united and unified, based on our timeless values, the cooperation, solidarity, the responsibility, the industriousness, courage and determination, to reject the, what brought us to this point, let's fill the gap opened by the earthquake with flowers, so that in the future we celebrate no more restoration, but the rebirth of the Republic!
† THE SYROS-MYKON DOROTHEOS II
("EPIKARA" magazine, τ. 57, 25 July 2013)