On the Unhappiness of Being Greek
ON THE UNHAPPINESS OF BEING GREEK
A classic book … a bitter path towards self-knowledge … it examines with idiosyncratic sarcasm the subject of Modern Greek identity … a truly patriotic book. Dimou places himself at the right distance from his subject observing Greeks as they truly are.
Alexandros Stergiopoulos
, Eleftherotypia Newspaper
Nikos Dimou had a different kind of unhappiness in mind when he wrote
On the Unhappiness of Being Greek
back in 1975 … yet all the symptoms he described at the time contributed greatly towards Greece’s present predicament. The mentality that was developed … the national identity that was formed after the military dictatorship … we are still suffering from the same symptoms and very soon we will find ourselves just as unhappy (as we were back in 1975).
Chrystalla Chatzidimitriou
, O Fileleftheros Newspaper
The 30th edition of
On the Unhappiness of Being Greek
has just come out making this classic book a legend. There couldn’t be a better time for this new edition. I grew up with this book. In fact we grew up together. I was a student when I first discovered it and now I am what they call a middle-aged man. The only difference between us is that, unlike myself, Nikos Dimou’s book of aphorisms – having gone against time and change – has remained the same.
One cause for unhappiness for us Greeks is that this book has continued to be just as current as it was when it was first published … another cause for unhappiness is the way the book was received back then … especially by certain so called experts. They didn’t see it as it really was (small bitter lessons for those who love Greece and maintain the irrational hope that somehow miraculously it will be saved) but as the exact opposite: a book that lays blame for no reason at all (all blame is unreasonable in Greece, it goes without saying). Along with those experts appeared the demagogues as well. These people never read books, they just argue about the books they never read. For all those good patriots this book was deemed to be dangerous. In the 90s … everything that went against their attitudes, which were propagated in all the controlled media, was naturally labelled as ‘dangerous’. It didn’t help that Nikos Dimou was always in a peculiar black list … because he had many flaws. First of all he was an advertising man and a successful one at that. Secondly, as his work has shown, he was never one to go with the flow of our nation’s typical ideologies. On the contrary he fought against them as much as he could. Even worse, he never barricaded himself behind a particular caste, group, union or leftish ideology group so to be able to take part in the game. He remained the sensitive man that he was, who insisted on voicing his own opinions, (which is the reason why he did not last long in most newspapers and magazines he worked for.) … I owe this man a lot and this is the least I can do to thank him for his poems, photographs, newspaper and magazine columns, the breath of fresh air he’s been in our lives for so many years now. And rather unfortunately his remains the freshest voice in today’s free presses.
So now that the banners of the fight have been ripped apart, now that the allure of the great expectations of those propagating Greekness and anything Greek has worn off, the book has reappeared. And it is indispensable to us.
On the Unhappiness of Being Greek
has now become a classic best-seller and is again in the line of duty for a reason: it is high time young Greeks learned the reasons of our unhappiness so as to make their best in the coming decades to turn this book into a funny and bitter memory of all the lost years. I am happy this book has come out again. I am truly unhappy it remains so current.
On the Unhappiness of Being Greek
was the title of one of Nikos Dimou’s books that had caused a stir in the years following the military dictatorship. There was a line in the book: Whenever a Greek looks at himself in the mirror, he sees either Alexander the Great or Kolokotronis (hero of the Greek War of Independence) or (at least) Onassis. Never Karaghiozis (comic puppet character from the Greek popular shadow theatre.)
The truth of this observation has been corroborated many times in the past and it continues to be corroborated. For three consecutive decades, this country’s indigenous residents have been refusing to accept that their participation in supranational organisations was not by way of compliment. They were not accepted in these organisations because of their nation’s grandeur. It was an agreement with obligations for both sides: especially in the case of the European Union…. Our agreement with the European Union presupposes rights and obligations, too. We have claimed our rights. Our obligations have now prompted the creation of a fund. In today’s Europe it is a misfortune to say that you are Greek.
George Lakopoulos
,
www.protagon.gr
First published by Zero Books, 2013
Zero Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., Laurel House, Station Approach,
Alresford, Hants, SO24 9JH, UK
[email protected]
www.johnhuntpublishing.com
www.zero-books.net
First published 1975
H ΔYΣTYXIA TOY NA EIΣAI EΛΛHNAΣ
For distributor details and how to order please visit the ‘Ordering’ section on our website.
Text copyright: Nikos Dimou 2012
Translated by Professor David Connolly
ISBN: 978 1 78099 295 2
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers.
The rights of Nikos Dimou as author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design: Stuart Davies
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
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In memory of Emmanuel Roides
1
There are Greeks who question themselves and there are Greeks who don’t. These reflections mostly concern the latter. They are dedicated, however, to the former.
N. D.
On the Unhappiness of Being Human
1
We define happiness as the (usually temporary) state in which our desires coincide with reality.
2
Correspondingly, unhappiness must be the non-coincidence between desire and reality.
3
In other words, we could call unhappiness the gap between desire and reality.
4
The greater the gap, the unhappier we are.
5
Our happiness (or unhappiness) depends: on the magnitude, intensity and sum of our desires, on the one hand, and on the nature of reality, on the other.
6
I may be unhappy because I have excessive and inordinate desires that (quite rightly) remain unfulfilled. Or, then again, my desires may be ‘reasonable’ (moderate by human standards), but reality keeps dogging me (like Job). In this case we speak of ill-fortune.
7
We have a statistical sense of happiness. We think that a person with ‘reasonable’ desires should have an equal share of successes and disappointments.
(As proof: the expressions ‘a change of luck’, ‘a turn of the wheel’ etc.)
8
Life, however, does not confirm this view. Usually, those who have strong and numerous desires satisfy more of them than those whose desires are few and moderate. Except that the insatiable nature of the former rarely allows them to feel the state of equilibrium that we call happiness.
9
The gap that we called unhappiness functions both positively and negatively. I don’t have what I desire, or I have something that I don’t desire (e.g. an illness).
10
Those who offer ‘recipes for happiness’ usually try to modify or reduce desires – since it’s not easy for them to alter reality. Naturally, the fewer desires we have, the less risk we run of being disappointed and hurt.
11
The next step is the doctrine of the Buddha, who teaches the suppression of desire as a foolproof antidote for unhappiness. (Even more effective: the negation of the source of all desire – the Ego.)
12
In animals, the gap between desire and reality is minimal. The basic pursuits of an animal are in keeping with the possibilities open to it. It is totally adapted to its surroundings.
13
It’s difficult to talk of happy and unhappy animals –since the tension between these two (human) poles must not exist in them. Something tells me, however, that the birds of the air must be happy …
14
Unlike animals, man by convention and by nature has unfulfillable desires. He longs for immortality. Whereas the only thing he knows for certain about the future is that eventually he’ll die.
15
We could define man as an animal that always desires more than it can attain. A maladjusted animal. In other words, we could define man as a being that carries unhappiness – innately – within it.
16
Or, then again, we could define man as a tragic animal. For what else is tragedy if not the agonized experience of the estrangement between man and the world?
17
The more human you are, in other words, the more you crave and seek, the wider the gap grows. And if you are a hero, you fight and lose. And if you are an artist, you try to fill the gap with forms.
18
If man,
qua
man, carries unhappiness within him, then certain categories of men have a greater predisposition for this. Even certain nations. And among these, for sure, are the Greeks. The modern Greeks.
19
The thesis of this book is that, due to history, heredity and character, the modern Greek reveals a wider gap between desire and reality than the average for other people.
20
So, if to be human already signifies the certainty of an amount of unhappiness – to be Greek portends a larger dose.
21
We can speak of ‘the unhappiness of being Greek’.
22
Axiom: a Greek does whatever he can in order to widen the gap between desire and reality.
23
He succeeds in this either by increasing his demands to an unreasonable degree, or by destroying his environment to the best of his ability. Or even by doing both.
24
The basic psychological factors in the widening of the gap: a permanent predisposition for hyperbole that always leads us to extremes and our – also permanent – inner inconsistency and inconstancy. Not for us the ‘golden mean’ of Aristotle.
25
A Greek lives cyclothymically – in a permanent state of elation or depression. As a consequence of which: a total incapacity for self-criticism and self-awareness.
26
‘The nation must consider national whatever is true.’
2
For years now, we have been trying to convince ourselves of the opposite.
27
Whenever a Greek looks at himself in the mirror, he sees either Alexander the Great or Kolokotronis
3
or (at least) Onassis. Never Karaghiozis …
4
28
And yet, in actual fact, he is Karaghiozis who imagines himself to be Alexander the Great. Karaghiozis with his many professions, his many faces, his constant hunger and his one skill: playacting.
29
How many Greeks (apart from Emmanuel Roides) have seen their real face in the mirror?
30
This is why the Greeks have never forgiven those ‘anti-Greeks’ who painted their portrait. (Poor About!
5
)
31
In all fields a Greek tries his hardest to be unrealistic. And then he is unhappy because he is unrealistic. (And then he is happy … because he is unhappy.)
32
Basically, Greeks are unaware of reality. They live twice above their financial means. They promise three times more than they can deliver. They claim to know four times more than what they actually learned. Their feelings (and emotions) are made to appear five times greater than what they actually feel.
33
Hyperbole is not just a national failing. It is a way of life for Greeks. It is the essence of their national identity. It is the basic cause of their unhappiness, but also their supreme glory. Because hyperbole in
self-awareness is known as
philotimo.
6
Hyperbole in behavior is known as
leventia.
7
34
From the intentional or unintentional ignoring of reality, in its extreme forms, come tragedy and comedy. Both owe their existence to hyperbole and conflict.
35
Besides, the difference between tragedy and comedy is more a matter of perspective than content.
36
Neither the tragic nor the comic hero possesses any sense of measure, logic or humor.
37
There are various ‘remedies’ for reconciling the individual to reality. (The most sublime of these: religion. The most civilized: humor.) None of them works on a Greek. He lives (when he lives – and hasn’t fallen into a state of lethargy) constantly in the gap between desire and reality. And when no gap exists – he provokes one.
38
A tragic way of life? Masochistic self-chastisement?
39
The modern Greek seems happy when he’s unhappy. When everything is going well, he feels worried and uncomfortable. If he has no reason for being unhappy, he’ll find one.
40
The happiness of the modern Greek’s unhappiness is expressed perfectly by the Greek
grinia
8
or grumbling.
41
A remnant of the Turkish yoke? A characteristic of afflicted peoples? Anyhow, the best that you’ll hear is a deep (meaningful) sigh and the phrase: ‘Well, you know, things could be better.’
42
For no other people on earth does the purely formal question ‘How are you?’ lead to a full analysis of the medical history, family circumstances, financial difficulties or sexual problems of the person asked.
43
The verbal masochism of the Greeks (as this is expressed in the modern Greek grumbling): inexhaustible, plethoric and monotonous.
44
There is a strange bond linking a Greek and his unhappiness. Which is why he is always at his best when he is unhappy or when he feels threatened. Crisis and conflict strengthen him. Negativity turns into positivity.
45
On the contrary, a Greek always finds a way of turning something positive into something negative. This might happen in a conversation (where the two people conversing suddenly change position for no other reason than to disagree), but also in any endeavor whatsoever (where immediately, as soon
as things are going well, the dissension starts).
46
For a Greek, negative is positive. So that when he has a position, he negates it in order to be able to begin again from negativity.
47
The Greek ‘Parkinson’s Law’: two Greeks do in two hours (because of disagreement) what one Greek could do in one hour.
48
Present deep in the Greek soul are both Hadjiavatis
9
and Alexander the Great. Wretchedness and valor to a hyperbolic degree. The pride of hubris and the hubris of grumbling. Constant and ancient causes of unhappiness and creativity.