Pouring gas

 

The blame for both trends — economic malaise and the growth industry of political extremism — may reasonably be assigned to Greece’s corrupt and inept politicians within the prevailing ND/PASOK coalition. Yet if it happens that short-term (and short-sighted) prescriptions are only further sickening the patient, as appears to be the case, then there may be a surplus of incriminations for the evident quackery.

 

 

Greece is an extreme, but they're hardly the only ones.  Short-term, top-down policies are common, as are divisive, aggressive politics and corruption, which is denied by the use of even more rhetorical vitriol.  Our leaders have forgotten the rules of political gravity.

 

People are losing faith in not just their political leaders, but their very institutions.  There's a cliff just past the horizon, one that can only be avoided if all sides of the partisan spectrum start pulling together.  It won't happen, though, because we have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are individually or tribally master of our own fate.  Will we keep pushing at each other until it's too late to back down?  Probably.  What has happened before shall happen again, etc.

 

But then the cycle resets, as predictable as the dawn.