It’s the people, stupid.

The document reveals that Great Britain is entering discussions over the Ukrainian issue with its own pro-Russian agenda. The leak is first published by the public (and not state) BBC and provokes a true storm… for all the wrong reasons.

For years it has somehow become accepted that we (also known as ‘the people’) are idiots and because of this – despite the fact that they allow us certain powers, like the power to choose our representatives – we do not have the ability to handle certain sensitive affairs of the state, e.g. diplomacy.

And not only are we unable to understand it but, for better or worse, it is better to keep us in the dark about it because if we got involved we might – involuntarily – harm negotiations.

If, for instance, the British Prime Minister came out and told the British, “Look, people, the Russian oligarchs have invested a truckload of money in the country, they have purchased their luxury homes here and their companies are on the London Stock Exchange so I propose that we do not participate in imposing sanctions against Russia,” then the immature populace might decide that the morality of the situation is more important than economics.

In our own struggling, crisis-hit country we have negotiations with the troika every two months. Of course we mustn’t know the agenda and how the talks are going except via leaks. Ι wonder, given that the strongest bargaining chip the government has – as it maintains – is that the people can’t handle any more austerity, why all of the talks with the ‘technocrats’ are not broadcast live on TV? I imagine that would make it harder for them to find the words when they ask for the blood of low wage workers and pensioners (unless of course it is not them who is choosing the targets but our own people).

When former Prime Minister George Papandreou attempted to make the only smart strategic move of his career by proposing a referendum over the demands of the troika (even if it was via a misleading question, as was recorded by history) the uproar was huge. Not only from ‘democratic’ Europe but primarily from the Greek ‘elite’ and mainstream ‘journalism’. The ‘commentator’ Pretenderis (an influential news anchor) almost called the prime minister an idiot on-air, saying that the risk to the country would be huge, while even SYRIZA and the Greek Communist Party were wary.

At this point their counter argument doesn’t sound all that convincing. How much worse could we, the ignorant masses, make the situation compared to those who operated with the benefit of all the facts?

Let them give us the facts. ‘The troika proposes this’, ‘we agree with this but disagree with that’, ‘we are thinking of proposing this third option to see how they will react’. ‘Regarding Ukraine unfortunately the guy we are supporting is a neo-nazi but we propose this for this reason.’ Let the people decide whether we are ready to cooperate with fascists because it suits us.
 
In any case the ‘elite’ needn’t worry so much. The most probable outcome is that we – as a people – decide that a leader arm in arm with fascism isn’t so bad when it suits our pocket. But that is a problem that we will have to face ourselves later, after we have first taken responsibility of our national identity.