Wanted: Healthy role models

Any society needs good role models in order to move forward. Here in Greece, two generations have found inspiration in, among others, Communist Cuba's poster boy Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Greek guerrilla fighter Aris Velouchiotis. Meanwhile, many among the so-called "Polytechnic generation" (a reference to the 1973 student uprising against the 1967-74 military dictatorship) raised their children with the idea that everything is permitted in the name of "protest" or "freedom."

As a result, it was OK for university students to interrupt a class or raise havoc whenever they felt like it. Populism and pretentious disobedience became an integral part of Greek political culture in the post-dictatorship era. So we reached the point where a private school teacher told his pupils that 19th century prime minister Harilaos Trikoupis was able to attract foreign investment because "he...