Goodbye Civilization: So Simple A Greekman Can Do It
Around 1000 people per day are still losing their jobs in Greece with the percentage of the population not working now uncomfortably larger than those who are employed. This is creating drastic – or perhaps more aptly philosophical – reflections by its people. As the BBC reports, the feeling in Greece is that a “whole generation is on hold” and there is a growing trend towards the creation self-sustaining eco-communities – free of the ties of money and modern civilization. “What others saw as a global economic crisis, [Greeks] saw as a crisis of civilization” and so they are trying something different, growing their own food, bartering with one another, and exchanging surpluses with other villages. The community calls itself “Free and Real” – an acronym for Freedom of Resources for Everyone, Respect, Equality, Awareness and Learning – and it is growing as a stunning76% of Greeks would like to emigrate. The positivist angle notes that the Greek crisis is not all bad as it shows the lives we are leading are not working and Greeks can “begin to look for alternatives.” Everyone is stressed; but “Being able to work is a basic human right in a civilized society, if the government won’t provide us with it then we will have to fight for it.”
