The Peloponnesian Blues

It's hard to follow the tug of war over European finances that's been going on between Greece and Germany these past several months without thinking of Auntie Mame.  You remember how Mame was always telling her plain, repressed secretary, Agnes Gooch, to "go out and live a little."  Then comes the wonderful scene where Agnes, obviously pregnant, stands at the top of the stairs shouting down to Mame, "I lived a little; now what do I do?"  And of course, Greece looks a lot like Agnes, only much prettier and a lot less repressed.
My wife and I have old friends in Greece whom we've visited on several occasions.  On a visit in 1998, when talks about Greece converting to the Euro were underway, our friends expressed a lot of concern and apprehension about it.  They were worried about the probable rise in prices, but more than that, they were concerned for the effect on traditional Greece of moving into the EU fast lane with Germany and France.  Feeling they were already well on the way to losing the siesta, there was a lot more of the charms of Greece they forsaw being thrown away in pursuit of the Euro.  Now it looks like they may have been right on target.  Hard-working, earnest, frugal, cautious Germany(except when they're turning purple sunbathing too long under the broiling sun of Crete) is lecturing Greece on how Greece needs to shape up and become a kind of extremely southern Bavaria. And they certainly have a lot of virtue to their argument. The Greeks, getting used to living off the fat of the Euro with the old fashioned aid of cooking the books (probably originally taught as a course by Aristotle but modernized with the aid of Goldman-Sachs), are saying, you told us we'd be living well on the Euro, we're just doing what we've always done, and now you want to back away.  And of course, a big part of the charm of Greece that causes all those vacationing Germans to head there is just that laid back, laissez faire culture that's fundamental to how they view the world.  Meanwhile, both sides are wailing, why don't you do right?
Which brings me to my favorite old blues tune, by Lil Green and later by Peggy Lee, "Why don't you do right (like some other men do)?"  The Greek version is what I call the Peloponnesian Blues, "You promised lots of money when you took me in, then you got me drunk on Euros and started blaming me for sin, why don't you do right and get me some money,too?"
But of course, there's a larger issue they're struggling with.  The 21st century is building up steam and a lot of traditional economies are going to want to get on board in the next few years.  Unless they do so, we're going to have a sharply divided world of haves and have nots that can only lead to increased conflict.  Traditional countries are already showing a great deal of restiveness at what they see as the iron hand of the IMF and the Rich Countries.  I wish I had a neat solution, but right now none seems to exist.  To resolve differences only on the rich nations' terms, as is the current emphasis,  is going to require abandonment of traditional cultures, at a great loss to the traditional societies and to the whole world.  The dilemma is not going to be easily resolved, but just blaming the other party for the problem is definitely not part of the solution.  It's time for all parties to stop singing the blues, and learn to do right (like we all ought to do.)