The Greek elections result was announced to a morose electorate and jubilant ‘markets’. It is now becoming increasingly evident that horrors without end await the troubled population that is unable to decide on an end however horrible. Medical science teaches that the alternative to amputation is sepsis.

Students of modern history are advised to look beyond the last century into the events of the 18th century, when a ‘shot was heard ’round the world’. The era of royalty ruling by divine right confirmed by organized religion, was drained by internecine warfare and withered when challenged first by enraged colonists facing austerity and then by ‘sans culottes’ determined to end their miserable existence. The message was driven home in the Napoleonic wars that toppled royal houses and redrew the map of the world. Tsunami-like the ripples of these conflicts destroyed centuries-old empires and led to victorious  independence struggles in the Balkans, South America, the Middle-East, Asia, the Indian sub-continent, Africa and most recently Southeast Asia.

Fittingly, Tsou-en Lai, late foreign minister of the People’s Republic of China , when asked in the 1960′s on his opinion of the outcomes of the French revolution, responded that it is ‘too soon to tell’.

In our time, we are witnessing the implosion of a world order cobbled by Britain, Russia and the United States,  amidst  the ruins of huge global 20th century conflicts. Time proceeds relentlessly in its cyclical rhythms of  regeneration and destruction and now we once again enter a winter with Britain no longer great ,  Russia no longer soviet nor a union, and the United States experiencing the ravages of age and dissolute behavior.

Greece, the proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’ has registered its message addressed to the proponents of  misguided financial ‘globalization’. The rumblings of Mount Vesuvius and the smoke plume from its  peak were long ignored by many in Pompeii …

Lacon Lykos

06.17.2012