The financial dilemma of Greece has thrown the whole European system of mutual co-operation into a tailspin.
It’s a unique tailspin that bids fare to unhinge many years of intense negotiation and trust that had the prospects of underpinning the re-emergence of the European block of nations as perhaps the major player in the economic financial and political affairs of the entire globe.
The apparent post-war success of the European adventure seemed to challenge the oft repeated evangelical postulate that, according to the Biblical revelations of the Book of Daniel, the iron and clay of Nebuchadnezzar’s image would never cleave together. A practical challenge to the eschatological teachings and beliefs of many of the modern day evangelicals.
The chink in the seemingly impenetrable armour of modern European invincibility was thought to lay in the apparent weakness of the economy of Iceland and the overheated real estate debacle in Ireland.
But alas, these apparent fissures did not prove to be the chink in modern Europe’s armour. The repeated failure of Greece to balance its budget and the repeated number of times when Germany, the northern bastion of the European juggernaut had to bat for the survival of Greece is a matter of historical record.
Now the people of Greece have revolted and have said they have had enough of austerity and belt-tightening. The people of Britain have overwhelmingly rejected the Lib-Dem/Conservative coalition in the local elections and the shaky coalition has become a political funeral waiting to happen.
The flamboyant Nicholas Sarkozy of France has been humiliated by being defeated after only one term in office by Monsieur François Hollande, who has been elected seemingly on the promise of spending his way out of tight fiscal and monetary restraints.
The whole world is waiting with bated breath for this inexperienced, left-winged socialist to achieve Liberté, É galité and Fraternité by a spending splurge.
Angela Merkel has had her confidence shaken in the local German elections for her obstinate clinging to the illusive hope of keeping Greece solvent and within the fold of the Euro, by pumping German support behind Greece. The German electorate has given a hint of its displeasure by trouncing her in the local elections.
It is clearly obvious that a spirit of discontent is pervading Europe. How far the spirit of discontent will extend is an open question that only time will tell.
Could it be that without its colonies upon which it could count for raw materials and a ready-made market that Europe is foundering in attempting to stand on its own?
The shades of Alexander the Great and his mentor Aristotle are probably restless in the depths of Purgatory, that Aristotle invented, as the fortunes of Europe and its monetary system bob and weave in fits and starts as Greece decides the future of Europe in a gambler’s throw of the financial dice affecting the future of Europe and possibly the world.