The reason of existence for this blog is to be an anti-newspaper of sorts. That is, a newspaper that publishes not just news but ideas and headlines that pop in my mind. Headlines that have some meaning and are not just sensational or catchy. News that I think should be read carefully. Line to line and in between. In the endless stream of information it’s very easy to miss the truly interesting bits, the ones that matter the most.
“May you live in interesting times”. This curse, which is also the basis for the name of this blog, is regularly attributed to the Chinese. No hard evidence has ever been put forward to support this, but times being such as they are, no hard evidence is needed to support anything, really. In recent years, entire wars have begun based solely on rumours or on unsubstantiated reports, later proven or admitted false. No one seems to mind much. At least, no one “important“.
All the “important” people care about today, is debt. And it is not just them. It seems that debt is all people are talking about on TV, in the newspapers, on the street, in Parliaments and in houses of ill repute (one and the same, actually). The Greek debt, the EU debt, the US debt. The debt crisis (a Greek word, by the way).
And so, I chose this wordplay as the name of my blog, where I will post my thoughts and feelings about the state of my country (Greece) in specific and the world in general as I see it. Hopefully, it will be interesting and, perhaps, pertinent to our times. But I can promise you now that reading it will not save you from debt, nor prevent global warming, nor bring about world peace. And that is the sole disclaimer I can offer.
It will, however, bring me some measure of personal peace by letting me express questions and thoughts that haunt me on a daily basis: about the human condition, about the so-called crisis and about whatever else I see fit to comment on. My hope is that, perhaps, it will offer a new perspective for some and that it will also help make people think more about our interesting times.
“Interesting” is, of course, used here as a euphemism, a Greek word by the way. Sort of like calling mass slaughter “collateral damage“. Or calling people looking in the trash for food and jumping out of office windows[1] “austerity measures”. Austerity being, as you might have guessed, another word with Greek origins. By the way.
It seems that my honoured ancestors gave this world all the values and ideas it needed to prosper and become a better place and all the necessary words to describe its failure to do so. Interesting, don’t you think?
[1] Any similarity with computer software of any kind is purely coincidental. Even if said software does make me want to jump out the window, on occasion.
Intermission #1
One of my all-time favourite songs. The fact that today, 23 years later, it sounds more pertinent than ever, amazes and appals me in equal measure. Pollution, violence, greed and the inevitable downfall of our society in a few, short lines.
And all the roads jam up with credit / And there’s nothing you can do / It’s all just bits of paper flying away from you…
Indebting Times 