Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Mythical bollocks

This is the worst start to any article on the Greek referendum that I have had the misfortune to read. Nothing could be more cringe-making, surely.
 From the cradle of democracy, a lion has roared.
No, please no. Owen Jones, who else?

Such horrible hyperbole is typical of the sort of journalism we get from someone who knows little of modern Greece. Please, it's not the Greece of antiquity. It's a beautiful Balkan nation with a fascinating, but troubled, recent history; one that has democratised itself since emerging from a military dictatorship only forty years ago. (This is what Joseph Stiglitz called "its strong democratic tradition.") Yet the press regularly call on the classics to fill out their cliché quota, not always accurately.

So, it was good to see a classicist, Natalie Haynes, put them straight on a few things. My favourite line is this one.
As for the referendum result, I doubt the phrase “Greek Tragedy” has been used so much since Vicky Pryce was convicted of having once liked Chris Huhne more than any reasonable person could.
Cruel. But then so is much Greek mythology.

3 comments:

Anton Deque said...

Just to thank you Peter for these posts.

Josh said...

I don't know Owen Jones' work, but I think sentiments like that are a classic example of the politicisation of history, and I can actually get behind it (odd for a historian to say).

The left in Europe seems to be growing, although still tiny, and I think that it will gain in power the more it can inspire people. Hyperbole is one of the tools being used to build hope among the left, because it is with hope that progressives can thrive - fear is the tool of the old guard, and so far fear has been winning out all over Europe.

Preservation of the truth of history is important, but not as important as now. History is a concept, what we do with it is real, and I have no objections to people misusing historical narratives to try and better the lives of real people today. Maybe that is my naivety showing through.

Of course I might be reading too much into it. Maybe Owen Jones was simply told by his editor he needed a snappier intro in this click obsessed world.

Anonymous said...

actually, the classical text i thought of was plato's apology, especially that part when socrates, after he's been found guilty proposes his own alternative punishment--to be maintained at state expense for the rest of his life, a reward generally offered to athletes and people who had done the athenian state some extraordinary service. (well, he was 80 years old, so how much longer did he have?) in my view of international politics, which is no more fantastic than the spectacle it already presents us with, i think that's a little closer to the current situation than anything sophocles or euripides ever wrote. although, let's face it, i think we're all waiting for dionysus to outwit pentheus, no?

les