Greek democracy resurrected

This post was contributed by Rohit Chandan, student in this summer's SOC 3013, Social Stratification.

The July 2015 referendum rejection of bailout conditions set by the European Commission and major lenders should be placed into the larger context of recent developments in Greek politics. The 2014 election led to a populist victory that surprised many observers (see this Guardian article). The leftist party, Syriza, won, which made Alexis Tsipras the new Prime Minister. Greece in the past few years has been experiencing severe economic problems which led to some rather severe austerity measures, as well as the inability to pay its debt to international creditors and countries. Generally, when a nation is facing massive debt, the typical response is that the government will raise taxes and reduce public spending, but many people in Greece are against this formula. A slash in public spending usually hits the elderly, working class, and the young most directly. Pensions are reduced, college tuition skyrockets, and small businesses often fold, while the rich and powerful are rarely affected. Therefore, Syriza's election victory signifies that the Greek masses are no longer willing to accept corruption and austerity as normal states of affairs. The leftist political party has promised to reject existing austerity measures, and instead promote greater unionization, higher wages, and the expansion of government services. Syriza's success clearly has diminished the power of traditional elites, and signifies the ascendance of the popular will in national politics.  

Nov 11: class, war, and dying (updated Nov 11, 2022)

Veterans' Day is a most appropriate time to reflect on the relation between social class and military service. In particular need of reflection is the fact that those from the lower reaches of the stratification order typically bear the brunt of casualties during war. Poor and working-class men are more often killed because they are more likely to serve in harm's way as non-commissioned front-line soldiers, but they also have been less able to avoid conscription by either paying another to serve as in the Civil War or receiving college deferment as in the Vietnam War (see MacLean, 2012). Today's military is exclusively comprised of volunteers who often join because they lack viable employment alternatives, and this has only heightened the class-biased composition of casualties from recent wars in the Middle East. Moreover, poor and working-class men are also more likely to feel the continuing effects of war in terms of psychiatric distress as they transition out of the service and try to adapt to civilian life.

Army and Marine suicide rates increased sharply between 2001-2020 and today are about twice that for the U.S. population (US Dept of Veterans Affairs 2022) . During the heigth of war in the Middle East, more active-duty military personnel took their lives than died on the battlefield (Williams, 2012). However, suicide among veterans is of even far greater magnitude. According to Veterans Affairs, although about 1 percent of adults served in the military over the past decade, veterans represented 20 percent of all U.S. suicides. As discussed in the above Democracy Now! interviews with Aaron Glantz and others knowledgeable about the issue, the extreme suicide problem among military personnel and veterans reflects several key factors, including multiple deployments to the Middle East and an inadequate government treatment response to depression and PTSD.

For an excellent description of how war produces mental disorders and other adjustment problems, view the PBS Frontline documentary, The Wounded Platoon, which follows soldiers in an Army infantry unit from Fort Riley to deployment in Iraq and then back to the U.S.