Pericles in the above photo says to the Athenian citizens:
“Because we alone consider the one who does not participate in these <communities> not a peaceful one, but a useless citizen”
Some of Kastoriadis’ views on Democracy, for all of us to learn: we comment on them as much as we can.
1) The Republic of Athens
Plato’s Protagoras tells us: “You see that when the Athenians want to decide in their church how to build the ships or how to build the walls, or the temples, they call the experts and listen to them and if no non-expert wants to take the floor yoke him.
“But when it comes to discussing the general political affairs of the city, whoever speaks and everyone listens carefully.”
“That is, all the basic decisions that concern the future of society – because this is the government, I rule, I say I make decisions about what needs to be done, either as projects or as activities – must belong to society as a whole.” As we say differently, the people are sovereign.
2) Representative democracy today
In our state of representative democracy, the people can and do elect the deputies at regular intervals, etc. The delegates exercise either the executive or the legislative power. The people end up believing something like that.
“But everyone else is an expert, they are commendable, they know! Let those who know decide! … ”
What are our MPs doing?
“Once irrevocable representatives have been elected, the first and foremost job of these irrevocable representatives – unless we believe in Santa Claus – is to secure their re-election. Everything else is secondary ”.”
What citizens do
A French political philosopher of the last century… says the Athenians in the time of Pericles “they had this political passion, while we say here and I quote verbatim translating,” all we seek from the state is the securing of our pleasures “. And he says it neither categorically nor ironically, he says it because he knows modern people. “
3) The Greek “measure” and the correct “mediocrity”
In the Republic of Athens, the citizens: “There is only one way to acquire it, is to exercise political power, to discuss and make decisions, it is of course the complete opposite of the modern perception that prevailed and not the ancient reason the idea that “Democracy is representation, or representation.”
In a representative democracy today, our MPs, “They are therefore responsible, but they are constantly revoked and they are obliged to give an account of what they did to their constituents.”
What citizens should do
“We must say that there is a responsibility of the people in what is happening today,” he said. We say this to remind citizens that what happens, happens with their participation and complicity… .. What is needed today is the continuous creative activity of the public,… .. is this passion for the commons, the responsibility, the participation, the “policeman orga,
Citizens must ask institutional questions to our Members and propose ideas and solutions. We have to do this and if we do not do it, others will decide for us and the sharks for us and “others will do it worse than us”.
Citizens need to throw away their political identities and start taking positions on specific issues as they see them, rather than letting others decide for them.
What should our Members do:
Our MPs must inform the citizens and in moderation, where there are no exaggerations, listen to the citizens and answer the questions of the citizens. The real leaders must come forward, they must lead and they must take positions.
4) These small issues say a lot.
We have institutionally asked our 3 deputies to ask questions to the competent ministers on three issues that we consider important. a) the “Holy Space” of the 2nd National Assembly, the courtyard of the Archaeological Museum of Astros, the Archaeological Museum of Astros b) the exclusion of reductions for the pensions of MPs and elected officials in the Local Authorities and c) our transparency and debt, we ate other topics that we do not forget. We have also asked five ministers about our debt, when we ate them (two of them are active politicians today Mr. Tsakalotos and Mr. Konstantinopoulos, the other 3 are not active politicians today).
We have not received an answer, Everyone, not even out of elementary courtesy, did not answer us that at least they received our questions, as all politicians around the world do .. (To be fair, only Mr. Vlasis once He replied that we would find the answers to the debt “on the websites of both the Hellenic Statistical Authority and Eurostat”, and when we asked about the links we did not get an answer, and we did not find the answers to our questions).
What does their refusal to take a stand mean? Citizens will be forced to draw their own conclusions.
We wonder if they do not want the “Holy Space” or the courtyard of the Karytsiotis school open? why don’t they cut the chains of shame at the doors of the “Holy Space” with their own hands with pliers? why not do something once and take a brush once a year to paint the damaged road signs?
We wonder why all our politicians do not tell us when we ate them and they want us to forget the exception from the reductions of the parliamentary pensions.
D) The “Holy Space” of the 2nd National Assembly of the Greeks, the courtyard of the Archaeological Museum of Astros and the Archaeological Museum of Astros.
—– Forwarded Message —–
From: JOHN KOUROGIORGAS
To: Κωνσταντίνος Βλάσης <k.vlasis@parliament.gr>; Odysseas Konstantinopoulos <press.odysseas@gmail.com>; George Papailiou <g.papailiou@gmail.com>
Cc: Χαρά Κεφαλίδου <xara@xarakefalidou.gr>; Olga Kefalogianni <ol.kefalogianni@parliament.gr>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2017 3:02 PM
Subject: When will the three spaces finally open? The “Holy Space” of the Second National Assembly, the courtyard of the Karytsiotis School and the Archaeological Museum of Astros;
“Main deputies of Arcadia
We know that we have to build Romeiko in the area and in the sector we are in and we all have to take public positions on all issues.
We are waiting for a public intervention for the Archaeological Museum of Astros and the Sanctuary of the Second National Assembly of the Greeks, from the mayor and our three deputies, whatever it is, let the archeological service decide for us, we must tell them what do we want.
Let us immediately open at least the “Holy Space” of the Second National Assembly of the Greeks, we can do this without spending anything, not even a single euro …… “
1. B) Except for reductions, the pensions of deputies and elected members in the Local Authorities
“Our deputies legislate and exclude themselves from reductions in pensions for themselves, from reductions that are made for everyone, even for our farmers with a pension of 345 euros. We wonder how much is the pension of our deputies or how many pensions everyone spends and makes ducks and says nothing about the exception of this unconstitutional law. We are not talking here about their earnings that should have been reduced by 30% since 2009 for symbolic reasons, no one thought about it.
For what is still happening today after so many memoranda, we say that the crisis is mainly a moral crisis “
“Exception window for parliamentary pensions is revealed in the application of the provisions of the insurance law 4387.”…
“This neglect creates a huge gap in the law, which leaves open the window of exclusion of parliamentary pensions from the provisions of the law. Nobody knows today in the General Accounting Office (Ministry of Finance) whether the national and the contributory pension will be applied and how especially for the elected, as well as whether the salaries of those who already receive a parliamentary pension or pension of mayor, deputy mayor should be recalculated and reduced. , prefect, etc. ”
For those who want to see details let’s see the link.
http://www.iefimerida.gr/news/325906/ektos-meioseon-oi-syntaxeis-voyleyton-kai-aireton-stoys-ota
C) Now that we have or must have transparency for everything and our debt.
“We ask and ask the Minister of Finance Mr. Hardouvelis and the Deputy Minister of Development Mr. Konstantinopoulos, now that we have or must have transparency for everything, to give us the numbers on a permanent basis, on a web page, from 1999 until today, and always from now on, for Public Debt, Debt Increase, GDP,% of GDP, Revenue, Expenditure, Interest, civil servants, to draw our own conclusions and to have the official data. ” .
Sometimes it is useful to look at the numbers, and to draw our own conclusions, without analysis by any “experts”, who always serve some interests.
If we all knew what was happening from 2000 to 2009 we would not be where we are today.
Our ancient ancestors had solved the issue correctly with the exile, the Americans with the limited tenure and our younger ancestors with the “black”.
“Democratic Defense”, exile, limited tenure and “black” are the weapons of Democracy and society.
If we do not re-establish democracy, if we do not build true democratic parties that will operate with real democratic processes and if we do not institutionalize political engagement as a lucrative profession for some, we will never see fate in the sun and then we are accomplices in the crime of political apathy. and worthy of our fate
We do not expect to agree on everything, but we want to know their positions. We want to offer in public debate. Democracy is not an empty shirt and nothing else. We and our fellow citizens will return, when and where needed, and insist:
Those who want to know more about “The problems of democracy today”
see the following link the positions of Kastoriadis.
http://tvxs.gr/news/ellada/ta-problimata-tis-dimokratias-simera-toy-kornilioy-kastoriadi
astrosgr.com 