In sum what we have from Mr. Aspden is a lengthy extemporizing  on the Lazy Southern Tier of Europe: Greece,Italy,Spain,Portugal etc. vs. the mercantile virtues of the Anglo-Saxons and Gauls that make up the Northern Tier of productive virtuous entrepreneurs.

Mr. Aspden wins his readers with the the story of how his father and mother met in Greece, and then with the long history of the German’s fascination with modern Hellenism, indeed nearly inventing it. On the recent scholarship, see On Germans and Other Greeks  by Dennis J. Schmidt. Yet Mr. Aspden leaves out the very pertinent fact that Winckelmann was homosexual, and addicted to contemplating Greek naked male statuary and then rationalizing/rhapsodizing it’s power to move him as a universal aesthetic experience. To engage in a necessary argumentative foreshortening.

The ideological intent becomes clear when Mr. Aspden then integrates into his story the laying of a memorial wreath by Alexis Tsipras, with the additional argumentative and cultural zing of Zorba the Greek and Never on Sunday, two classic instances that feature the Southern Tier Mythology, in Mr. Aspden’s view, yet both exist as entertainments that make arguments to live life to it’s fullest: carpe diem!  But the reader must assemble the pieces of Mr. Aspden’s argument from his almost charming ramble of an essay for herself/himself.

Political Observer

P.S. The photo of your father and mother must be a prized memento!