# taz.de -- Spotlight Populism: Stop Using the Word | |
> Societies slide towards those who give simplistic explanations and | |
> promise easy solutions. Thoughts of a member of political party „To | |
> Potami“. | |
Bild: Europe in Greece: A man checks bags in a kiosk at a market area in Athens | |
Having lived my whole life in Greece and being a journalist for the last | |
twenty years I think I am entitled to have an opinion on the issue of | |
populism, as in my country we have blessed ourselves with certain | |
unfortunate privileges | |
We have a government of both left- and right-wing populists. We have | |
elected far-right MPs who have their bodies covered in nazi tattoos. We | |
even have an active shady organization with 200 local offices in Greece, | |
owned by someone arguing that he has 600bn euros available to payoff the | |
Greek debt. Obviously the guy is penniless, but still, with two hundred | |
offices all over Greece, he has enough power to be considered dangerous | |
enough – a strange cult fugure. | |
In Greece, there is also an ever-evolving anti-european sentiment. Its | |
advocates are trying to make people forget the positive impact the EU had | |
on their lives. They claim that political isolationism and a national | |
currency will solve all of our problems. | |
They all rely on dishonesty, deceitfulness and demagogy. They all try to | |
offer magic solutions to those most in need. However, all of them have | |
different ways to express themselves and eventually different agendas, | |
which makes the threat they pose, an asymmetric one, difficult to deal | |
with. | |
What I describe are all aspects and expressions of populism. Although the | |
term has been used analytically in the past and is widely-used today, it | |
doesn’t help the public debate much. In my view, it even causes | |
mis-interpretations and deadends. | |
Today, populism cannot be defined with the tools political science and | |
analysis used in the past. Today, the issues at hand are raised in a | |
different way, so we need different and novel answers as well. Using the | |
term “populism“ for any “easy solution“ is oversimplifying and not enou… | |
to explain our era. The very fact that our era is a critical one, makes | |
analyses even more difficult, thus finding a solution is more difficult in | |
itself. We cannot take explanations for granted. We live in an era of such | |
great changes and technological advances, that we cannot even fully | |
realise, let alone interpret. | |
So, unfortunately, societies slide towards those who give simplistic | |
explanations and promise easy solutions. All in all, we are in a vicious | |
circle: there is inability to comprehend, there is inability to explain and | |
describe, and there is inability of the elites to confront populist | |
interpretations that have the upper hand. | |
I am not optimistic and I do not have an optimistic message to share. The | |
battle against anti-rationalism will be a long one. However, the first step | |
we should take is stop using the word “populism“. | |
Christina Tachiaou lives in Thessaloniki, studied Law and since 2000 has | |
been working as an editor, reporter, columnist and presenter of radio | |
broadcastings in Greek media. She was elected Member of the Greek | |
Parliament in January 2015 and served until September 2015 with the | |
political party “To Potami“. | |
18 Jul 2017 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Christina Tachiaou | |
## TAGS | |
taz in English | |
taz international | |
Spotlight Populism in Europe | |
Populismus | |
Griechenland | |
Europa | |
taz in English | |
USA | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Alleged visa-faking ring in Ghana: The fake fake US embassy | |
According to the US government a crime ring issued fake US visas out of an | |
inconspicuous building in Ghana. The people living there are mystified. | |
A student exchange to provincial USA: Do you believe in evolution? | |
At age 17 our author – a left-liberal, big-city Berlin girl – wants to go | |
to New York, and lands up in rural America amongst nothing but Trump fans. | |
What now? |