LAGARDE THE CYNIC

THERE MAY NO DOUBT be good reasons for Greeks to be outraged and insulted by Christine Lagarde’s statement suggesting that they are less than law abiding. Indeed, the announcement by burly Evangelos Venizelos, the leader of PASOK, that Greeks are honest and that the history of Greece is one of decency, aestheticism, art and literature may ring true today even on the sidewalks of Athens, where thousands of pot-bellied, bare-chested men sit getting drunk and spitting pistachio shells all over the place every day.

YET AS A RENOWNED INTELLECTUAL and someone well versed in current and past political and social philosophy, people often come up to me and ask, “David, why is Greece doing so badly and why is that fruity French lady in charge of the IMF saying that Greeks are dishonest?”

THE SHORT ANSWER IS THAT BOTH political figures are correct. The history of Greece is indeed a source from which we may take lessons about the Greece of today and Lagarde does have a point. The issue revolves around what part of Greek history and philosophy we should cast our eye upon.

THE COUNTRY’S MOST RECENT contribution to European culture upon which I have cast my eye was the song “Aphrodisiac” by Eleftheria Eleftheriou, described by at least one commentator of the programme as the lady with the most “approachable” rear end in the competition; but Greece’s history is replete with excellent examples of figures that should be followed closely.

DIOGENES THE CYNIC (404 BC – 323 BC) was a major figure in Greek and European philosophy. His father was a minter of currency, and somehow Diogenes “debased” it, and was then punished with exile. He ended up in Athens, where he decided to set himself up as a moral leader, seeing that Athens was a corrupt society. He took it upon himself to show extreme austerity, seeing true virtue in being poor. He thus begged for his food and slept in a bathtub in the street.

THE MOST FAMOUS OF HIS MANY public actions was when he wandered around Athens for days and days on end carrying a lamp. Whenever anyone stopped him and asked what he was doing he would reply that he was looking (in vain) for an honest man.

MY TOP PICTURE SHOWS THE PAINTING “Diogenes Looking for an Honest Man” (c. 1780)(probably) by JHW Tischbein, one of the remarkable moments in Greek history that Greek philosophical historians apparently choose to ignore, and the second one, “Diogenes” by Jules Bastien-Lepage (1873), depicts what most Greek people will look like if Lagarde has her way.