That’s another post, the third or fourth of the last two days I want to start with a big sigh and whisper “Oh, dear!”. American magazine Vice wrote a whole article about the right-extremes of Golden Dawn celebrating a “Neo-Nazi Beach Party”!
Well-built guys and girls trying to re-interpret the ancient Spartan sports arts: spear throwing, wrestling and -why not? – giant souvlaki race.
OK, the guys and girls of Golden Dawn have a little too much flesh and they don’t resemble at all the ancient Greek warriors, the Spartans, who used to live on olives, figs and black soup, a soup made of boiled pigs’ legs, blood, salt and vinegar.
But is the XXL-size of Greek neo-nazis reason enough for Vice to make fun of them and question their physical ability to revive the ancient Greek spartanized spirit? Or even describe as ‘kitsch’ the re-interpretation of national culture?
VICE: “Greek Neo-Nazi Beach Party!” by Gavin Haynes
The Golden Dawn is a steel truncheon crunching the bones of the European Project. In the lifetimes of the generation who fought in the Second World War, mainstream Nazis have returned to the continent. To openly read the anti-Semite blood libels The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the Greek Parliament. To suppress entire towns beneath their thumb as vigilante social “cleansers.” To increasingly hold the balance of power in an increasingly unbalanced state. And, to party.
That’s right, just because you spend your spare time whipping Egyptian taxi drivers with a bike chain doesn’t mean you don’t need to blow off a little steam every now and then. Which is how, every year, the Golden Dawn hardcore end up in Crete, having a racially-pure away-day, where they pretend to be Spartans. Spartans in Crete. A bit weird, but historical anachronism is not something they can spell, much less avoid. The basic idea is simply to have a bonding sesh, get all Judd Apatow and express their man-feelings with one another. (full article Vice.com, used the picts uploaded by GD )
