Comments on: Is Greece European?

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:20:25 +0000

Good point Dean, by the 2nd century BC the Romans plundered mainline Greece and shipped a lot of artwork to Italy. In the first century BC Pompey conquered the Selecuid Empire which one of Alexander’s general’s started and Cleopatria the last of the Ptolemy had to make political alliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony to be queen as much as she possibly could in spite of the great military might of Rome. Octivian or later Augustus defeated them and Egypt became Rone’s most important breadbasket province even into the 7th century when Islam finally conquered Egypt.

By: Dean Calvert

Dean Calvert — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 03:35:53 +0000

In reply to cynthia curran. Cynthia, With due respect...at the conclusion of the Lamian War, Demosthenes committed suicide, the Macedonians occupied Athens and shipped off every family with less than a certain amount of money (can't remember) off to Thrace. It emptied the Pireaus of the manpower which had been (for centuries) the backbone of the Athenian Navy. At that moment, (322 BC), in fact on that afternoon, I believe Athens ceased to exist as a power and became nothing more than a cultural backwater....an echo of it's former self. It's as if the Macedonians surgically removed the heart of the city. Go read Lords of the Sea by John Hale. I always wondered what happened...i.e. how Athens fell so far, so fast. Throughout the Hellenistic period, you never hear a word about Athens. I think Hale nails it. Best Regards, Dean

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 04:06:26 +0000

Well, sometimes Byzantium gets surveyed in western civilzations lasses. In fact you can come acrosss a western civilzation class made for Tv that has the episodes now on you tube and there are a few on Byzantium. Victor Hansen stated what is West of Persia is Western civilzation.

By: macedonianReader

macedonianReader — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 23:02:44 +0000

I love the way Golden Dawn MP’s debate. You disagree with them, they come up and smack you around. I heard one method they talked about using with regards to “being right” on the immigration issue, was a plan to go to hospitals and “take care” of any non-Greeks. This stuff just makes me want to give them a bug hug….

I’m sorry. Sooner or later, when you suffer from addiction and insanity you have to hold yourself accountable. Greece has been so out of sync with reality for so long, so unwilling to accept criticism, and responsiblity that I have a hard time mustering any sort of sympathy for that nation.

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:11:41 +0000

Michael the remark isn’t that bad. As for Greece its not worst than most Latin American countries face over 10 years ago or so. Granted, Latin America has had the extremes of the left or right and autocratic leaders.

By: Harry Coin

Harry Coin — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 22:29:46 +0000

Who are the ‘middle aged guys’ Fr. Hans writes of? How does the system ‘work for them’? Do people who want to be ordained need to pay someone off before they can be clergy?

By: Michael Bauman

Michael Bauman — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:33:08 +0000

In reply to Dean Calvert.

Dean, really? Even though I am no fan of Greek triumphalism, I am even less of a fan of stupid, callous sarcasm such as Mr. Kulow’s

The dissolution of any country should be a concern to us because of the human suffering and the resort to tryanny that almost always follows such a dissolution.

No government or culture lasts, all die but the human and social cost of those deaths are not just born by those most intimatly involved.

Not funny at all!

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:00:10 +0000

Well, Dean, its true that the peak of Greece was probably in the age of Pericles a little latter. In fact, Greece was very decentralized in anicent times and allowed for varius types of govenments. Anyway, Greece play an important role in the Roman Empire Paul mentioning about the Epicurians and Stoics in Athens.

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:55:46 +0000

Well, I agree with you that illegal immirgation has caused a lot of problems with Greece, its not the only problem. Golden Dawn while right on the immirgation issue in Greece was involved with the Serbian military in Kosvo and is not like the right in the US more nationalistic and favors more government involvement and more violence.

By: Dean Calvert

Dean Calvert — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 02:40:38 +0000

In reply to Geo Michalopulos.

Hi George,

I think the best comment I’ve heard was by Larry Kudlow, who said last week (n his radio show), “I’m struggling to figure out why i should be so concerned about a country that peaked in 450 BC.”

I was laughing so hard I almost drove off the road.

Best Regards
Dean

By: Geo Michalopulos

Geo Michalopulos — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:00:59 +0000

In reply to Maksim. Maksim, you are quite correct. While The Golden Dawn does hold some reprehensible views, they present the native population with the only other alternative to the diversity-cult that is destroying the great nation-states of the West. As someone once said, "halitosis is better than no breath at all."

By: Maksim

Maksim — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:33:41 +0000

Can someone tell me how a country that has been infiltrated by approximately 2 million immigrants (mostly illegal/muslim and mostly within the last five years) have this author call Golden Dawn a neo-nazi movement)? Isn’t it funny how trying to defend your national heritage is considered fascism now? Recent reports reveal that as much as 70% of the recent riots are being led by Islamic immigrants (ILLEGAL). Alas, defending borders and national heritage/culture is now considered unacceptable and outside the bounds of acceptable public discourse/national policy. We have truly entered dark and evil times.

By: Harry Coin

Harry Coin — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 23:12:28 +0000

I have a ‘mind’s eye’ picture of the scene Fr. Hans described– the one where a stranger approaches some ‘graft desk’ where a ‘heavy type’ takes money and, in ‘exchange that adds no value at all’ puts on some routine paperwork ‘a stamp’ indicating the heavy type was paid. Enough ‘stamps’ and the functionary obstructing the routine matter relents and does their job.

Now that scene has got to be taking place 1000 times every hour in Greece in one way or another. What I really want to know is how the world looks from inside the head of the person sitting around waiting for strangers to pay money in exchange for a stamp. Who are these people? How do they deem it wise every day to act as they do? How do they look in the mirror and say ‘yes, that was a productive day’.

Fr. Hans made it plain how the world looked from his perspective, getting the stamps and all and I think 99 of 100 people reading here understand how he felt and what was going on.

Can anyone explain what the world looks like from the perspective of ‘the middle aged man’ Fr. Hans writes of above?

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 21:58:27 +0000

Anyway, I visited Italy in 1992 and some of what father Jacobs desribed is correct. Italy’s museums were kind of dirty and there was a paid bathroom the emperor Vespasian invented the paid toilet. Both Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are highly sucessful outside of their countries and I agree with the comment of George that its a shame that he more of a moderate by Greek political standards had a bad economy. My take on family own business this most be trace thru to Byzantine times since most people in the middle ages did the tade of the father and Byzantium as mention for more of an agricultural aristocracy with the state any involved a lot with the silk trade.

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 21:40:47 +0000

Anyways, Greeks still admire classcial pagan Greece and the Byzantines while Italians admire both the Roman Republic and Empire. Most western European countries particulary Germany who is probably number one in classical studies admires this. Maybe Greece like Italy is probably more western but has more ties to the east particulary the Middle East.