Although Mr. Clapp’s article does not reach the heights of Gorgias, it is an excellent example of the tradition of the sophists, who use techniques to make something untrue appear as true, says Apostolos Doxiadis.
In Alexander Clapp’s article published on Monday in the New York Times entitled “The Rot in the Heart of Greece is now plain to all” he responds with today’s article in the English-language edition of Daily the author Apostolos Doxiadis.
Mr. Doxiadis writes:
“One of the wonders of democracy and the freedom of speech that comes with it is the fact that a citizen can freely attack a democratic government by making his case publicly. However, this miracle does not extend to the point of giving such an attack as magic and the value of truth. As the Greeks who lived in Athens realized during its eight decades of democracy in the 5th century BC, public argumentation contributes to public debate precisely because it can itself be freely attacked, scrutinized and evaluated. , both for its content in terms of real data, and for the conclusions it draws from its data.
Two days ago, Mr. Alexander Clapp published an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled “The Rot in the Heart of Greece is now plain for all to see.” This, in its conclusion, refers ironically to the reference made by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “to the ancient Greeks” during his speech to a Joint Session of the US Congress a few months ago. In particular, it is mentioned in his words that the ancients “considered arrogance, extremism and excess as the worst threats to democracy”. The irony, according to Mr. Clapp, which he formulates with the traditional means of the rhetorical question, is “Why doesn’t Mr. Mitsotakis share their feelings?”.
Gorgias, the most famous Greek sophist, was known for his claim that he could take a stand on any issue, convincingly and movingly buy any view—but also its diametrically opposed one. (Anyone who has watched a prosecutor and a defense attorney argue in a trial knows what that means.) But while Mr. Clapp’s article falls short of Gorgias, it is an excellent example of the tradition of sophists who use techniques to untrue to be presented as true. With these techniques, alas, modern people are becoming more and more familiar in our age of rising populism.
It is always useful to start by stating indisputable facts, as Mr Clapp does, pointing out that it was recently revealed that the EYP had been tapping the phones of a journalist and the leader of an opposition party. Unfortunately this is true and it is a big failure on the part of Mr. Mitsotakis, as the secret services are under his control.
However, Mr. Clapp uses this indisputable truth to build an edifice of arguments that are some false, some possibly correct (but possibly incorrect), and some unsubstantiated or incompletely substantiated, in order to support the dramatic message contained in the title of the article, thus creating a false image of today’s Greece: as a dark and undemocratic state.
He writes in his article that the recent surveillance scandal “is called the Greek Watergate”. But he neglects to mention that this is what he is called by the Greek media close to the opposition. It also ignores the obvious difference: at the heart of the Watergate scandal was an American President who refused to reveal his own involvement in a case of gross abuse of power, while in the Greek case, which is being given the same name, the the Prime Minister himself confirmed the scandal and took immediate action, sacking the head of the secret service and also his powerful Secretary General, the latter for the “objective responsibility” he bore, as he had been entrusted with the role of overseeing the Service.
As a Greek democrat I feel the same revulsion as Mr. Clapp for the specific wiretapping. However, unlike him, I remember that what distinguishes a democracy from an authoritarian regime is the existence of institutional counterweights. And although, ideally, the system of counterweights is intended to prevent malfunctions, or, failing that, as a tool for assigning responsibilities and removing malfunctions. The first unfortunately did not happen in the case of wiretapping. But the second one happened, which proves that the mechanism of institutional counterweights exists and worked.
Most of Mr. Clapp’s citations via links to other sources, intended to bolster his views, are citations to politically-armed, anti-government Greek media. Therefore, in order to show that in Greece “a darker reality lurks” and that there is “corruption and conflict of interest”, Mr. Clapp provides links to articles in which we read about the allegedly scandalous fact that the Prime Minister’s son works as an assistant in the office of a Spanish MEP (awesome and terrible!) as well as the possibly libelous claim that an actor and director with a long and distinguished career who had been appointed Director of the National Theater was later found guilty by a court of rape – the alleged scandal here is that his appointment was not made on merit but because he was a “friend” of the Prime Minister (he wasn’t) and the government tried to cover up his wrongdoings (it didn’t).
Mr. Clapp states that wiretapping “is a dark element of the Greek state” – and of every state, I would add. He doesn’t like it, just like I don’t like it, when they aren’t justified by hard evidence. However, to be perfectly honest, I say that as the previous government’s security services secretly watched me too, due to my activism for the rights of Turkish refugees, I cannot embrace Mr Clapp’s righteous indignation – mainly because he never he spoke of that government’s appalling attempts to control freedom of the press and the media by law, and other undemocratic practices it employed.
Unlike a sophist, a person speaking in the name of objectivity should not resort to generalizations based on meager claims, especially if they are not supported by evidence. Therefore, I disagree with the general tone and creeping conclusion of the article in question, which I interpret as an attempt to convince the reader who does not have the necessary knowledge that Greece is sliding into an abyss of totalitarian power and decay. But that doesn’t happen.
If Mr. Clapp’s article had any elements of objectivity it would make sense to counter it by detailing Greece’s achievements over the past three years which resulted, among other things, in exiting the so-called “enhanced surveillance regime” of the European Union last week , after 12 years, thus putting an end to the Greek crisis. I could also refer to the big blow the government has made to the bureaucracy, thanks to a successful digital transformation, major crisis management and more. But these great achievements Mr. Clapp dismisses as “phenomenal.”
But as I am neither a mouthpiece nor an advocate for this government, I am writing this article because I am reacting to the insult I felt, as an ordinary citizen, reading Mr. Clapp’s biased opinion of my country. And I close by pointing out that the most reliable institutions for evaluating the level of democracy in each country, i.e. Freedom House, which was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Economist’s Democracy Index conclude that in the last three years Greece is markedly more, rather than less, a democratic country than it had previously been.
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