Tuesday 22 November 2011

"Participation in the political process that exceeds the bounds of logic"

I can't take my eyes off Greece, because it continues to be Ground Zero for the next phase of the economic Great Game we're all forced to play. I was originally going to call this post, "Long Live Death"---this is a title that Dr. Dawg likes to use when referring to fascist-exterminationist tendencies---but then I read this deliciously horrifying Crooked Timber post on security changes at Greek universities.

To put a long story short, as I understand it, after Greece's dictatorship years, police were banned from university campuses for obvious reasons. Greece recently abolished university asylum after the recommendations from a recent report on campus security which ends, after translation, like this:
The politicizing of universities – and in particular, of students – represents participation in the political process that exceeds the bounds of logic.

Now for the horrifying but satisfyingly predictable punchline: one of the coauthors of this report is *drumroll* UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi (who is of Greek origin and Was There during the overthrow of the dictatorship). Y'all have probably already heard of her role in the Kampus Kaptain Kapsicum outrage at UC Davis.

Um. But the quote from the report is delicious indeed. I would like to give it an "amen".

Now the original point I was going to write about is on a very related note, Greece again. This is the "Long Live Death" bit. Mark Ames at Naked Capitalism informs us of just who is participating in the austerity satrapy in Greece. Take a look at this:
HAMMER! HAMMERMAN!
That is Greece's new Minister of Industry, as a law student in the 80s, carrying a club intended, presumably, to brain leftist students. Think this was a youthful indiscretion? Sadly, no. He is a member of the neo-fascist LAOS party. Which is, in fact, also an old-fashioned anti-Semitic party: as in, real anti-Semitism, not mere human sympathy for the Palestinians. But real, right-wing anti-Semitism is not really an factor in consideration, when it comes to the empire of austerity so desired by the 1%.

6 comments:

deBeauxOs said...

Finally. A blogpost with gravitas.

And our readers thought that DAMMIT JANET! was all about the facile chuckle.

It's about pain! turmoil! death and taxes! too, folks.

Dr.Dawg said...

Good grief, Mandos, that's a couple of amazing catches! I'm in awe.

Námo Mandos said...

More importantly, when it comes to blogging, the facile chuckle and "pain! turmoil! death and taxes!" are joined at the hip. Rhetorical vandalism is where it's at.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Rhetorical vandalism is where it's at.

It's all we haz.

"They've got the guns, but we've got the Photoshop."
~

Hamish Mack said...

Great catch, Mandos. But Yurpeons is all lazy, we knows!!!!

ck said...

great catch indeed.

Next, we should probably drop in on the politics of Spain from time to time, as Mariano Rajoy of the right winged People's Party (inappropriately named, if you ask me--they're anything but)just trounced Zapatero's Socialists out of office.

I did some reading on the PP and dear ol' Signor Rajoy. There is a uber right winged faction who long for the days' past of none other than dictator, Francisco Franco. After reading about Mariano Rajoy, I am led to believe he is probably of that far right faction, too. Not only is he planning austerity (goody! With 22% unemployed, too), but he also plans to criminalize abortion and remove some culture course that is given to secondary school students that the CAtholic Church had been whining about the course 'indoctrinating too many left ideas' & too 'anti-Catholic'.

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