Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/542972
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 JULY 2015 Opinion 23 we can add torture to the motifs lifted straight out of Game of Thrones. But where the analogy strikes deepest is the requirement of a suspension of disbelief. It takes belief in magic and the preternatural to argue (as the EU has done) that these conditions will result in anything but the complete annihilation of the Greek state. Greek sovereignty has already vanished into thin air: its assets have been carved up and appropriated by the European Union. Hopes of economic recovery have likewise been spirited away: the two prerequisites, growth and liquidity, having been banished from the country indefinitely. Yet the EU argues these impositions are necessary for Greece's future prosperity (a prosperity that will presumably be enjoyed by the remote descendants of those Greeks who do not commit suicide in the coming years.) Perhaps the Eurogroup does believe in magic; perhaps it is so high on its own power trip that it no longer sees any difference between its own political fantasies and the ugly reality it has now unleashed. Or perhaps, like Martin's villains, the whole point of the exercise was in fact to humiliate and utterly destroy its political 'enemies' in the name of absolute power. There is mounting evidence that the second hypothesis is true. Jurgen Habermas, one of the architects of the vision of a united Europe, had this to say on the matter: "Forcing the Greek government to agree to an economically questionable, predominantly symbolic privatisation fund cannot be understood as anything other than an act of punishment against a leftwing government." Punishment for what, one might ask? For Greece's past economic mismanagement? If so, it is clearly misdirected. Syriza is not responsible for the crisis; and, more importantly, neither is the ordinary Greek man in the street who will be bearing the brunt of the consequences. No, the punishment meted is for a much more sinister crime. By riding on a democratic wave of anti-austerity sentiment, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras was threatening the cosy arrangement that has already proved so profitable for his country's creditors. The Eurogroup had in fact engineered a situation whereby Greece had to constantly be lent more money in order to pay back what it already owed. And 90% of the last two bailouts went directly back to Europe to bail out German and French banks. How dare this Greek upstart try to upset our comfortable little applecart like that? And how dare the Greek people refuse to lie prostrate while their country was raped and pillaged, Game of Thrones-style, so that they themselves are kept in poverty while the rest of Europe greedily gobbles up their assets? No, this cannot be countenanced. How would George RR Martin handle this? He'd send in one of his most psychotic and demented characters to torture them all into submission, of course… so we'll do the same. Well, we've 'done the same' in more ways than that. For just like Game of Thrones blurred the distinction between fantasy and reality, the EU's actions these past two weeks have exposed the fallacy at the heart of its own mythology. So far, we have always spoken about Europe in terms lifted straight out of the fantasy genre: 'the European dream', for instance, which once stood for a vision of willingly-pooled sovereignty, of equal rights under the same treaties, and of European integration under a banner of unity and peace. All that is ancient history now. The resentment left in the wake of Greece's humiliation has left the EU divided and embittered, and about as likely to 'unite' as rival band clubs at a local village festa. And the economic divisions that will arise from this new Europe – a Europe where power is concentrated among only two or three countries, while the rest kow-tow to their political masters – will also spell an end to the myth of a Europe in which everyone is supposed to be subject to the same rights and opportunities. Europe has, in a nutshell, just tortured its own fantasy to death. And the reality that has arisen to take its place is every bit as ugly as the ultraviolence of Game of Thrones. Thrones The resentment left in the wake of Greece's humiliation has left the EU divided and embittered, and about as likely to 'unite' as rival band clubs at a local village festa