How do Greeks identify themselves in terms of civilization? Do they feel more connected to Western or Middle Eastern civilization and why?
07.06.2025 05:08
No, we don’t “feel” closer to the ME. Not by a long shot. Except some spoiled woke 19-year-old college girl who wears halter tops and dates a different guy every month, and votes communist because she feels a connection with “our fellow oppressed peoples of the East”, while she’s never actually stepped foot in the ME, and hops on Ryanair flights to Prague, London, Barcelona, and Amsterdam every other weekend. But she’s knows a Westernized half-Iranian girl in Athens, and do you know my Iranian friend parties and drinks alcohol? They’re like, so much like us, except they wear like hijabs instead of a crucufix! -Those are the only people that feel closer to the ME. Delusional college-age communists.
We share some music genres and a couple dishes with the northern ME, and that’s it. And no, we don’t even learn Middle Eastern civilization, culture, literature, history, anything from MENA in school. Maybe a little bit on pre-Islamic Egypt. Our history & literature education is 89% Greek literature and civilization (all 4000 years of it), 10% European Enlightenment, and 1% world history.
We’re not Middle Eastern. I don’t need to explain this. Adopting baklava from the ME doesn’t mean we marry our cousins and women always have to be chaperoned; it just means we like some of their foods. It’s Europe. It’s historically Christian. We wear bikinis and speedos to the beach; not burkinis. We take school trips to see naked sculptures in museums. We date. We celebrate Christmas, Easter, Assumption, and Carnival. Not Eid Al Fitr and Eid al Adha. We have churchbells…everywhere. Not muezzin. We don’t wear long Middle Eastern garments; we wear pants. We’re nationalist (a European trait), not religionist and tribalist (ME trait). This is the birthplace of Western civilization, in case you haven’t heard. Yes, we continued Roman law and learning the Classics throughout the Middle Ages, and yes, in Ottoman times too (the Ottomans taxed us jizya, which kept us poor, but they allowed us to continue Justinian’s code/Roman law for our own affairs). Venetian Greece had the Renaissance. 18th century Greeks had the Modern Greek Enlightenment. We’ve had more cumulative years of democracy since 1800 (starting with the Septensular Republic) than the Germans. We drink beer. We drink wine...in church. And no, alcohol is not a vice; we grow up with wine at the dinner table. We associate wine with family; not as some forbidden fruit. We don’t consider dancing haram. We don’t jail gays. We don’t consider atheists as “traitors” who have offended the collective. We don’t riot if someone draws a caricature of Christ or Mary, or puts a crucifix in urine. If we’re poor, we don’t sell the house to pay for a lavish wedding to show off. I don’t control my sister. Our women are not told to be quiet. We don’t consider women whores for wearing a tank top on a hot day. We don’t do FGM, virginity tests, or honor killings. I don’t disrespect my mother (she would beat the shit out of me if I ever treated her the way I’ve seen Egyptian men treat their mothers). I don’t feel more at home in Cairo than Naples, Barcelona, or even Dusseldorf. I’ve had far far far far far far far far more culture shock with Egyptians than French, Spaniards, or Americans. We completely assimilate in the rest of Europe or the Americas; and other Europeans completely assimilate in Greece. We have major issues with Iraqi Kurdish immigrants; we never have issues with Germans, French, Dutch, or Italians that live here. Do I need to go on? Do I really need to explain this? Or are you trolling us?