Posted on 11/29/2004 12:52:48 PM PST by jb6
HERE IN GREECE, a writer’s thoughts turn to antiquity. The past is everywhere, not only in the ruins of ancient temples, but in the road signs, billboards and Kellogg’s cereal boxes spelled out in Greece’s unique and beautiful 3,000-year-old alphabet. The social engineers of the European Union have not yet gotten around to eliminating this stubborn remnant of Greek identity, but give them time. As Hitler might have put it: One Volk! One Reich! One alphabet!
Make Comments
View Comments
Printable Article
E-mail Article Already, the Euro-commissars have persuaded Greece to abandon the drachma – the world’s oldest living currency, used in the time of Pericles – in favor of the euro, a soulless thing, whose cheap, play-money look evokes the Soviet-era ruble.
The euro’s dull design exemplifies modernist corruption. As Tom Wolfe chronicles in From Bauhaus to Our House, modernism long ago filled our cities with bland, glass-and-steel towers – the legacy of Bauhaus architects, whose Marxist dogma condemned ornamentation, on the grounds that columns, pediments, cornices and sculpture might remind us of kingly palaces and other forbidden, aristocratic splendors.
Having vandalized urban skylines, modernists now turn their attention to money. European banknotes were once masterpieces of the engraver’s art, adorned with the proud faces of kings and warriors, bedecked with scrollwork, filigree, coats-of-arms and other symbols of majesty.
But today’s euro, like Muslim art, is devoid of human faces – not to avoid idolatry, but rather to avoid glorifying dead white males who founded nations, led armies and did other naughty things that today’s sensitive Euro-males are discouraged from doing.
Euro banknotes sport a minimalist look – a map of Europe in silhouette; lifeless etchings of architectural landmarks. The euro’s blandness is deliberate. Powerful words or images that stir patriotic feelings in one member nation might offend some other member. Better to arouse no emotions at all. And indeed, the euro stirs no feelings in the human breast, other than the creepy sensation that one is having one’s pocket picked.
When I last visited Greece, in 1999, drachmas traded at 340 to the dollar. You could put a smile on a bellhop’s face with a 100-drachma tip (29 cents) or treat your wife to an elegant dinner for 5,000 drachmas ($14.70).
Greece was a paradise then – a nation with First-World amenities at Third-World prices. Foreign tourists came in droves. Bare-breasted Scandinavian women thronged the beaches. Here on our secret island, trilingual signs in some store windows beckoned in Greek, English and Swedish alike.
But the foreigners are scarce this year. The blond beauties from the north have fled to Turkey, where the hyper-inflated Turkish lira still offers bargains.
Night after night, the sidewalk restaurants along the paraleia – the waterfront – are nearly empty. The beach is desolate, except for weekend day-trippers from Athens.
With the euro trading at one to the dollar, local merchants are giddy at the prospect of charging New York prices – but seem oblivious to the dangers of overpricing. In fact, euro-mania has cost Greece one of its chief attractions; affordability.
An airport limo driver offered to take me to Athens for 90 euros ($90) – twice the cost of a cab ride from JFK to Manhattan. Dinner for two now costs $35 here on the island – comparable to the price back home in Queens. Last weekend, one of my in-laws, newly arrived from New York, gasped in horror when a small bottle of sun-tan lotion set him back 14.50 euros ($14.50).
Not content with scuttling the Greek economy, the Euro-commissars are also plotting to annihilate Greek culture. The word "euro" currently appears on banknotes throughout Europe both in Greek and Latin script. Such alphabetic diversity cannot long endure – especially since the EU will almost certainly end up absorbing not only Slavic nations with Cyrillic alphabets, but also Caucasian states such as Georgia and Armenia, each with its own ancient alphabet. The Euro-commissars will surely demand a common standard.
When I raised this issue with a Greek friend, he said that the process of language unification had already begun. Techno-globalists are already complaining that Greek script hampers computer use. And, last year, EU Commissioner Anna Diamantopolou urged her home state of Greece to adopt English as a second official language.
Don’t expect many dissenters to speak out against Euro-assimilation. Parliamentary candidate Pim Fortuyn tried that in Holland. He was gunned down by a so-called "animal rights activist" who had somehow managed to acquire the precision shooting skills of a trained assassin.
Thus Europe bows to its new masters, guarded this time not by SS battalions or Roman legions, but by tree-huggers with guns.
BUMP
I believe the expression is "piyanis sto hades." That's what the Greeks should be saying to the EU.
I can't imagine how it got better. What with the EU being unelected and their new proposal for a sitting unelected president of 2 or 3 years.
Totally agreed: France and Germany have finally accomplished what the Treaty of Versailles and the blitzkrieg failed to do. It was a dark day when France picked up her old Vichy mantle to ally herself with the Fourth Reich.
Except this time there is also Spain and Portugal, Ireland, no resistence in Denmark or Poland or Czech or Slovakia. Bulgaria is back in too. If they get Ukraine, Belaruss, Georgia, Armenia and Turkey too, then it's all over for Russia. Guess who's next after that.
Not really. Europe's demography is disastrous. In thirty years their population will decline by 70 million people. High marginal tax rates make it diffucult for the middle class to have more than one child and maintain a middle class lifestyle. Ethnic Europeans are either by contraception or abortion are not reproducing themselves. Of course Muslim immigrants have no problem raising five children with generous welfare payments from the state.
Yes, the revived Roman Empire is here. Just as the Bible stated. It is also the LAST one before He comes back.
Dan. 2:31-46
[31] Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
[32] This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
[33] His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
[34] Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
[35] Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
[36] This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
[37] Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
[38] And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
[39] And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
[40] And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
[41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
[42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
[43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
[44] And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
[45] Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
[46] Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.
The UK has so far held its own against Berlin, Paris, & Brussels and I hope they hold firm.
Exactly, if Russia survives, we'll need Britian to relaunch the western front invasion of Fortress Europe.
Is the EU then the whore of Babylon, having given up Christ?
Yes. Now that 14.50 Euro bottle of sun tan lotion will cost you $19.29
The European Union was created out of the European Economic Council, or EEC.
The western hemisphere has the Organization of American States which is developing the economic agreement that will unify all the countries here into an EU style regional government. In order for free trade areas to exist, it is a given that a supranational government must be created to support it.
First, they can't fall that far from 350 million (not counting the future conquests of Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Belaruss, Russia, Georgia, Moldovia, Armenia, Azerbajan and Turkey). Second, with a socialist and unelected government they can force people to have children. It has been done before. Especially if a strong enough cult of personality develops. Then there is the Arab immigration issue too.
The Third Reich was unquestionably the EU beta version.
The SS was a cross Europe army that had Germans, Austrians, Belgians, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Romanians, Italians, French, Danes, Fins, Croatians, Albanians, Bosniaks, Slovanians, Greeks, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ukranians, Estonians and even some Britians. They did it once, they can do it again.
Yes, those feet of clay and iron are assembling (the EU). They will soon be crushed by Christ's return. Watch as the King of the South (Iran) pushes at the King of the North (EU) by cutting off their oil. It will not be a pretty war, but it will be the beginning of the war, that will end all wars.
"If France and Germany think they can turn the EU into a superpower to rival the US they are mistaken."
A big factor in the creation of the EU was to mitigate against future war AMONG the EU states.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.