Europe Braces Itself For A Revolutionary Leftist Backlash After Greece

[Purveyor]

Athens' ritual humiliation was a cautionary tale for Leftists in the Mediterranean but it won't be enough to kill them off just yet

By Mehreen Khan
1:00PM BST 25 Jul 2015

A pre-revolutionary fervour is sweeping Europe.

“The atmosphere is a little similar to the time after 1968 in Europe. I can feel, maybe not a revolutionary mood, but something like widespread impatience”.

These were the words of European council president Donald Tusk, 48 hours after Greece’s paymasters imposed the most punishing bail-out measures ever forced on a debtor nation in the eurozone’s 15-year history.

A former Polish prime minister and a politician not prone to hyperbole, Tusk’s comments revealed Brussels’ fears of a bubbling rebellion across the continent.

“When impatience becomes not an individual but a social experience of feeling, this is the introduction for revolutions” said Tusk.

“I am really afraid of this ideological or political contagion”.

His unease reflects a widespread conviction that Europe’s elites had no choice but to make an example out of Greece.

more...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11758853/Why-Greeces-ritual-humiliation-wont-kill-off-Europes-revolutionary-Left.html

[azmom]

1. I stand in solidarity with the people of Greece.

[tazkcmo]

2. They better fear.

Europeans know how to protest and they're very quick to do it compared to the U.S. Plus the parliamentarian system makes it easier to unseat politicians than our rigged "two" party system.

[PSPS]

3. The wording of that title is exhibit A in what's wrong

"Europe Braces Itself For A Revolutionary Leftist Backlash"

By wording it this way, the writer implies that "Europe" is a separate entity from the purveyors of a "backlash," meaning these "purveyors" are distinct from "Europe." And then, by qualifying that with the word "leftist," it further implies that "leftists" are distinct from "Europe."

So, in seven words, we are led to believe that Europe is (or should be) devoid of leftists. Leftists are "the other." Leftists are "bad." Europe must "brace itself" for an assault from this menacing threat -- the "leftist."

This is what one gets when the media is controlled by and written for the oligarchs -- the top .01% -- who think they alone comprise the real "Europe" or, at least, it is only they and their desires that merit consideration and protection.

[Igel]

4. Interesting eisegesis.

I take "Europe" as synecdoche for the governments or the established power centers of Europe. The rest follows without much more manipulation.

We already need this for when we say "Greece" negotiated and received a bailout, or "Europe" punished "Greece." Think of it as a free ride, the principle of parsimony, or just nice Gricean maxims in action.

[PatrickforO]

5. You know what, president Tusk?

The contagion is NOT people wanting better lives.

The contagion is neoliberal capitalism, period.

Because this 'widespread impatience' is rapidly 'infecting' everyone here in America too.

You neoliberal capitalists have been pissing down our backs for 40 years and telling us it is raining, and most people are fed up. Fed up with corporate lies, billionaires owning government, their tax money being wasted on war spending, and having their quality of life nickel and dimed to death by the relentless quest for profit at the expense of all else.

The primacy of shareholders at the expense of labor, customers and the environment has got to stop NOW.

You are literally destroying this planet to eke out another few pennies of profit.

You, sir, ARE THE CONTAGION!!!!!

[Turbineguy]

6. Luckily

the Money Boys have the Islamic terrorists to distract and help keep a lid on things.

[starroute]

7. Why not get the word from the revolutionaries instead of the authorities?

This is from a radical Dutch blogger who hasn't been very active lately but still has extensive connections in Spain.

https://postvirtual.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/real-democracy-now/

June 30, 2015

It has taken four years for the 15M movement to arrive from the occupied squares to the palaces of power. Last month, grass roots political parties all over Spain have shaken up the establishment and conquered, among others, the municipalities of Madrid and Barcelona. Local platforms and nationwide party ‘Podemos’, inspired by the indignados movement, are now gearing up towards the general election next November, to replace the old regime.

In Barcelona, anti-eviction activist and sweetheart of the movement Ada Colau has been elected the first female mayor of the city. The platform for which she was a candidate, ‘Barcelona en Comú’ (Barcelona in Common), proposes a radical democratic revolution, with continuous citizens’ participation, transparency of government, right to housing and basic sustainment for all, and a lot more.

In Madrid, a traditional stronghold of the Conservatives, the new platform ‘Ahora Madrid’ came in a close second, wresting control of the city in collaboration with Socialists. The new mayor, Manuela Carmena, a 71-year old lawyer, describes herself as a “caring grandmother” to the generation that took the streets four years ago to usher in a new era of democratic change. What she has in common with Ada Colau is a ‘feminine way of doing politics’, based not on hierarchy, but on horizontal organization.

Manuela Carmena was a communist activist under the Franco regime, which made it easy for the leading lady of Spanish conservatism, Esperanza Aguirre, to accuse the Ahora Madrid platform of being a ‘springboard to destroy the western democratic system as we know it.’ She probably couldn’t have made better publicity for her opponents. It reminded me of one the slogans we used to sing when we filled the streets of Madrid. “Madrid será la tumba del sistema”: Madrid will be the tomb of the system.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. "but something like widespread impatience"

This sounds like something an Englishman would say.