O is for OXI
Petros Diveris
What was being celebrated that day is not straight forward. One could argue that it is the "heroic OXI"* sent to the Italians in 1940 by the Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas, following their ultimatum to the effect that Greece surrenders to Italy. Or, as others point out, we are effectively celebrating the start of the war. To complicate matters, Metaxas himself was a fascist in all but name, and was not that unsympathetic to the Italian regime and its strongman. In fact he copied a lot from them, so there is a long discussion as to what made him send the telegram with just a "No" to the Italians. The rest is history, as the outnumbered Greeeks somehow managed to push the assaulting Italian army back deep into Albania, thus making inevitable the consequent German invasion and occupation. The Asahi paper wrote back then, prematurely one might be inclined to say, “Greece does not retain a trace of ancient Greece’s greatness and her end is forgone without the aid of Germany and Japan.” [2]
The marches taking place in Athens and in the rest of Greece are in their nature pathetic, not only they are remnants of a past in form and aesthetic, they are also principally designed to gloss over everything, and to uncritically promote a sterile notion of national heroism, one somehow apparently embedded in the Greek psyche. This year was particularly nasty; with a new government seemingly modelling itself on Pinochet not just in economics but also on state violence, there have been many attempts at revisionism by officials. The minister for "labour and social affairs" for instance, Domna Mihailidou, wrote in Facebook that "today's national day reminds us the values of community contribution and volunteerism [..] let us honour them (our predecessors who fought the Germans) reminding to everyone that volunteering is not just about social contribution but the nation's responsibility." The same woman has also attempted to interpret the students uprising against the colonels in Athens, November 1973, as something that more or less didn't happen. Add to this that the minister for culture (!) sent the police to Athens' cinemas to check for underage viewers of the Jocker movie, and you can start imagining the kind of response the impromptu and uninvited theatrical intervention of a group of students who "intruded" [3] on the march in a northern Athens suberb and performed a "silly walk" is having. There have been hundreds of posts and newsitems relating to the event. Even the Daily Mail reported that "Girls spark fury with Monty Python-inspired 'silly walk' during Greece's solemn remembrance service for its military heroes" [4]. Over-analysing Greek intellectuals were quick to point out the connection between John Cleese's silly walk sketch and the effect the war had on the returning shell shocked soldiers, many of whom had developed tics. I am not so sure that the performing thespian undergraduates were aware of that possible connection. They did, however, explain their act in writing and their explanation was no less valid. It was about "childrens' games dictated by military chiefs, armies and their soldiers" and how theirs was also an intervention but purely an artistic one, without any aggression. They asked what's militarism got to do with freedom; how come defending freedom come to mean "patriotism," at least in the way it's taught at school. They went on to say that humanity's fight for freedom is "neither an epic, nor a tragedy. It's life itself, in motion." [5] It is clear that the Greek junior minister mentioned above could learn a thing or two from these young actresses.It is a pity that Helena Smith of the Guardian, who has written extensively from Athens about issues which sometimes the Greeks themselves aren't aware of, didn't find the current saga worth writing about. The mayor of the municipality of Philadelphia, a town which is part of Greater Athens, for example, a certain Mr. Vouros, is hellbent on unmasking the "ridiculous subjects**" in order to defend the.. honour of his municpality. For the mayor believes that interpeting history is somehow an act that brings shame to the body of the volk and his municipality.
Notes
[1] Ohi Day, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohi_Day.
[2] https://neoskosmos.com/en/20171/ultimatum-to-greece-oxi-day/
[5] https://www.efsyn.gr/ellada/koinonia/216810_manifesto-ton-10-koritsion-tis-parelasis
* όχι, pronounced [ˈoçi], Greek for no.
** the term υποκείμενο in Greek, although translated as "subject" in English, is actually more akin to something below human.