One of our fundamental human rights is the right to democracy. We can participate directly or indirectly in the governance of our country. We can freely elect our representatives and freely utilize public services of the state. Moreover, we have also another equally important right: freedom of expression. We can freely express our views without fear of the consequences of our speech. At the same time, we can search and spread ideas by any means around the whole world.
But here is a problem. What is the limit of freedom of expression? Is it limited? How does it affect the way we understand democracy, since democracy is based on the famous right of “equality” and “frankness”? Does freedom of expression itself obstructs the functioning of democracy? Could it be that democracy has not destroyed morals, but morals and speech have ruined democracy?
Undoubtedly, we have the right to vote and stand for election. We are voting for someone or some politicians and inevitably we vote against some others. So do all other citizens by country and municipality. In a democracy where the election system is proportional or not, majority or not, the way does not matter that much, but the result of the conflict of voters is. In the end, someone will always be unhappy and someone more pleased. Until the next elections when the first one will be happy and the second one unhappy. It’s not “since the majority counts most!”, but “it counts more the votes of those who vote to see results.” Even if the party or the government that is elected is not us, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have good cause or it’s against our own interests.
For better or for worse, we live in a country which has been troubled by kings, governments, conquerors. We have learned to anticipate situations suspiciously and wickedly; to act selfishly first, so as not to be tricked at the end by others. We have learned not to trust anyone now, not only foreigners, for whom we do not even care about and treat them like they should live in the streets, but also our compatriots, Greeks.
In the books of the ancient Greek philosophers it says that democracy means unity. It means equality. It means teamwork spirit for positive results and progress. It means accepting the different, the educated, the skilled people. It means common management problems.
Where is that in New Greece?
The question receives a single answer: In Greece we don’t have democracy. We construct a type of democracy, but for which no outside factor is to blame but ourselves, fellow citizens.
For years, we select to vote for our representatives democratically. It’s us who gives them authority, no one else. They manage to stay there thanks to us, because we are doing less or more than we can imagine, leaving them to power. But in the end we blame them. Is it reasonable?
And then, we blame other citizens who voted those that were elected or blame them because they didn’t vote those we voted. How much more reasonable is that?
Such behavior will always lead to rupture of the people and the system. It isn’t a matter of education, but it’s a matter of learning the importance of elections, how they work, their tricks and their secrets.
Democracy needs work. It wants willing in order to be implemented and completed. It wants tolerance and acceptance, cooperation and solidarity.
Let’s not blame others; especially neither organizations in which Greece participates for years, foreign policy, nor those who work in politics or economics, neither to those who vote differently from us.
If we want to do something better, to live in a democracy, at least, “let us be the change we want to see in the world”.
Katerina Chliara, Student, International and European Studies