Anyone who thinks liberalism is non-violent and moderate needs to consider the 19thC Greek revolution which razed virtually every trace of the Byzantine and Ottoman legacy to the ground in order to reach a pagan past falsely identified with a secular future. Real Greece was lost.
The continuities from the pagan past through the Eastern Christianised Roman Empire of Byzantium and even through the Ottoman Empire were denied in favour of an alien nation state identity that had in reality far *less* to do with the political legacy of ancient Athens.
In this way an excessive myth imported from the north of the failure of Greek democracy and of lost pure classical art was encouraged. Christian and even Islamic mediation was refused. But this tragedy of modern Greece *is* also the tragedy of modern Europe.
Sadly most of the current Greek elite perpetuates these illusions. But many younger theologians continuing the work of the visionary Christos Yannaras are questioning them. Their questioning is important for all of Europe and its future.
Perhaps they can help us imagine how to combine participatory with representative democracy and degrees of regional and national autonomy with a Europe wide democratic political order. For they can see that we need the legacy of both polis and imperium against sovereign state.
My brilliant guide today took me in a counter-tour of Athens to see how some traces of a denier continuity survive: superb Byzantine churches, converted mosques, streets that still look and operate like near oriental souks, the flea market of ‘Ethiopia’ recalling African links.
Ethiopia has given food aid to Greece in the past. It even gave some coffee-aid to Britain in 1953 after the terrible sea-incursions that drowned over 300 people! And in the 18thC Athens had a small black population.
Ancient Greek statues were mostly coloured and ornamented just as their wine was seasoned. Classical purity is in many ways an illusion of weathering and erosion. Thus the ‘oriental’ interval was no interval at all.
So I suppose wine snobbery could be taken as a symbol of our lack of self-comprehension.......
Pagan slab showing symbols of the the Eleusian mysteries built into the wall of a sixteenth Century Byzantine church in Athens. 
Old converted mosque.
Steps that once led up to Ottoman houses in Athens, now leading nowhere. Beneath the drop at the top lie excavated ancient remains.
Seems that the cheesy egg or bechamel top layer of moussaka was only added in a 1920’s cookery book trying to achieve a European Oriental synthesis. It was an incredibly good idea all the same!
There is really nothing like hanging out in Mediterranean cafes beneath louring skies shot through with lemon sunlight reading the latest pseud book in French.
Talk on populism in Athens Megaron Hall went very well with excellent audience and interesting questions. Thanks to all and especially my friend Costas Douzimos of Birkbeck and Syriza who kindly invited me and set this up.
Many argue that the first public temples in Athens created the shared space that allowed citizens self-rule later to form. Does true republican democracy always really depend on religion as well as the city?
Athens taxi drivers all have a device to trick their automated systems into thinking they are wearing seat belts when they are not. Say they hate being inhibited. So sadly liberty of the moderns even in cradle of liberty of ancients. But I here Spartans are still fearfully tough.
