3 - Thoughts on the Social Backdrop

Performance in school and exams, as mandated by the system for progress to higher education stages and its climax, that is, entering the university and obtaining a degree, was the imperative of every petty middle-class family, faithful the established social dogma and traditions for their offspring: in the suspended anxiety for the preservation of social status, for stability, entrenchment and self-affirmation, and ideally ascendence to a higher income and wealth bracket, all those elements of class mentality I criticized and treated with contempt and sarcasm later in life, despite being an organic member of these classes. There were, of course, some infernal goals, less obvious than the ingenuous of graduating with a degree and whatever knowledge that certified, which laid bare the class cynicism in the whole project: it was a position in the state-bred and -fed apparatus and bureaucracy that would ensure forever, without worries what tomorrow would bring, until death, a relatively comfortable life away from the plebs of wages and toil, or ascendence to the proud bourgeois caste of doctors, lawyers, engineering contractors, etc., the bourgeoisie proper of the city. At the root of all this, of course, were the accumulation and preservation of private property and wealth, this materialistic vanity that man in capitalism measures and preserves as something sacred, which one daily looks after like as much as he does his eyes, as the saying goes, ignoring the fact, one day, all this will be pulverized and scattered in the chaos of the universe, along with the bodies of the men that produced it.

This system of raising children and bringing up adolescents into adulthood in Greece has become more elaborate over the years. During the post-dictatorship period and its generation (that is, my generation), a gradually counterproductive and parasitic development of the Greek economy was taking place, evident even to immature young eyes. It was directed, in some deterministic way, by globalization, international competition and global division of labour. Such changes of historical magnitude, which direct the future evolution of a nation’s economy, were normally hidden behind sporadic, apparently insignificant news nobody paid much attention to: such as the shutting down of a textile or electric machines factory or the ritual advertising of each government increased tourist arrivals and revenue. Dependent on the global economic centres in a obsequious manner in a clientelist framework, panting behind technological advances, despite the anaemic and usually ineffective reform policies attempted by governments from time to time. The contradictions of this unproductive model of growth would unfold spectacularly a few decades later in a historically large and unprecedented economic crisis.

Economic reality and systemic crises, now and then, demystify given preconceptions and beliefs about the socioeconomic structure of Greece, although they are quickly forgotten, until the next crisis occurs. As a rule, they fragment and impoverish layers of its middle class, and devalue the political system and state apparatus that was built on and recycled -to serve and in turn be supported by this class.  In the meantime, however, it forms the peculiar characteristics of those transitional, ‘floating’ small and medium-sized strata and defines the temperament, idiosyncrasy and peculiarities of Greek society: children of the middle classes have to be educated at all costs, hoard degrees and certificates; at worst, follow in the footsteps of their parents in the public sector or in their professions in small primarily retail businesses, at best, advance a bit further than the previous generation, but not diverging too much from the same, ‘well-trodden path’. In short, many personal ambitions were drained in the pursuit of a rather predetermined career, under the auspices, directly or indirectly, of the gigantic and ubiquitous state. The motto of civil servants (the elite amongst them prefer the euphemistic title of ‘public functionaries or official’), the multitude ‘freelancer professionals’ and to a certain extent the vanity of the Greek middle class, stems from latent social instincts of self-preservation and perpetuation. It could be summed up in the phrase a family friend, a grand local lawyer of the ‘shark’ species, had solemnly uttered in one of Mother's rare soirées: ‘Sans-culotte I may end up, but I will make sure my daughter gets her university degree!’ And she did. And she worked and succeeded as a solicitor in her father’s legal practice, along with her more capable brother, whose education cost less.

In conclusion, the absolute minimum degree of success of the offspring of a family of civil servants or city professionals would be measured by a degree or certificate, their number and prestige. The sought-after type of university subjects and the possibility of further postgraduate studies was usually based on an arteriosclerotic and, by and large, obsolete by contemporary standards and irrelevant assessment of the employment opportunities the Greek society could offer and which was generally belied by a rapidly evolving global reality. And the final restoration of the young graduate into the  ‘comfort zone’ of prescribed and entrenched professional spaces. In turn, the achievement attainment of intermediate or ultimate goals (the acquisition of that one or more and better degrees and diplomas), presupposes incremental successes and advancement in a closed education system of successive loops of ‘delivering the curriculum’ and examinations on this ‘teaching material’. The level of comprehension, resting often on learning mechanically and by heart and memorizing the study material, and the final success in the exams naturally depended on the zeal and intelligence of the student, but also on the support one would happen to receive, amounting to the supervision and where necessary the ‘push’ from the close family and, lest we forget, the private tutoring centers run side-by-side and ‘shadowing’ the public school system. The latter and its teachers were simply the long arm of a ministry in a bureaucratic educational organization, the intermediaries so to speak, who mechanically taught (‘delivered’, would be a more apt term) study material compiled by ‘expert’ civil servants in a cramped office of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. Creativity, critical thinking, initiative, cultivation of skills and talents were attributes forgotten or neglected. One wonders: what creativity could one draw from repetitive orthodox religion studies or the grammar and syntax of a half-dead language? What history can be learnt from texts tailored to a narrow national and nationalistic narrative? The means provided for an aim or to an end in life, were grossly inadequate. And blessed were those who left school with their initiative and spirit not fully checked.