The Political Physicist

Edit: Once the initial disappointment was over, I was able to step back and appreciate that this was a rather infantile post. While I stand by my comments that Tsipras was naive and feel that, if they weren’t going to use it to fight back against the EU, calling the referendum was ultimately harmful because of the ensuing economic turmoil, name calling such as this is not very helpful. On the other hand, I don’t wish to erase history, so I have decided to leave the post up, but with this disclaimer.

January 21, 2016

So it’s come to this. After my fierce criticism a few weeks ago, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras briefly managed to redeem himself somewhat in my opinion by calling a referendum on the (incredibly bad) deal which Greece had been offered and asking people to vote “no” (“oxi,” in Greek). As the population was scared of the possibility of being forced out of the Euro, everyone expected the result to be close and no one was sure which way it would go. Much to everyone’s surprise, Greeks gave “oxi” a landslide victory of over 60%. Finally, I thought, Tsipras might actually play hardball with Europe.

Of course, Europe took no notice. They told him he had until midnight Wednesday to submit a “credible” proposal for a deal, or Europe would begin preparing for Greece’s departure from the Eurozone (the so-called “Grexit”). So now Tsipras has submitted a proposal for a deal that is objectively worse than the one rejected in the referendum.

There is a lot that I could say about this. I could mention how incredibly naive Tsipras and the leadership of his party (SYRIZA) were. I could mention how incompetent there were when it came to planning for other eventualities. I could question why they even held a referendum if this was to be the result. But I’m too frustrated to form a coherent blog post about that. In any case, it has already been said by others, both SYRIZA members and international sympathizers. What I have to say is much simpler, far more puerile, and infinitely more satisfying:

Alexis Tsipras, go to Hell! Seriously, FUCK OFF TO HELL, YOU FUCKING QUISLING BASTARD!

I want you to starve to death on the poverty income that nearly half of all Greek pensioners are receiving. I want you to feel the despair and hopelessness which has caused a 35% increase in suicides since the beginnings of austerity. I want you to go down in history as a traitor to your cause, more reviled by your party than even Ramsay MacDonald was in Britain.

It may well be true that the situation is complex and there are reasons for what you did. But I don’t care. I want you chained to a rock where buzzards will peck out your liver each morning for the rest of eternity. Or perhaps you could be made to push a bolder up a hill every day, only to have it roll back down just before reaching the summit.

Barring that, I at least want you kicked out of your party and force from office.