Βy Vassilis Kostoulas
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The average Greek citizen, eight years into an unprecedented post-war economic implosion, now wants a smaller state and lower taxes -- cornerstones of a western liberal outlook.
Nevertheless, a majority of respondents in a recent poll, which generated the aforementioned results, also view capitalism with suspicion.
The head of DiaNEOsis, an ambitious new Athens-based research and policy institute, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, also told "N" this week that Greeks' affinity for Europe also appears to be sliding, even with 160 billion euros already funneled into the country's coffers in the form of bailout loans by European creditors.
The average Greek respondent is proud of his identity and admires Vladimir Putin's Russia.
The one-time dichotomy of "Right-Left" on the Greek political spectrum has now given way to dilemma of "Europe or Anti-Europe".
Essentially, the average Greek citizen, circa 2017, is changing, yet changing without any clear indication of where this change is heading.
One out of three respondents considers a return to the weakly drachma as a solution to the country's economic woes. Even more eyebrow-raising is the fact that one in four respondents believes he or she is being "sprayed" via airplanes' "chem-trails" - a claim that was even reproduced during the crisis years by smaller political parties that subsequently entered Parliament.
