It is customary for our politicians to use quotes, sayings and other phrases when addressing their voters/subjects to support their positions. From our recent History we can recall Andreas Papandreou in the 1980s (the years of the first austerity) who spoke of penthouses – namely the highly paid employees.
In the 1990s Konstantinos Mitsotakis discovered vested interests and introduced the term in Greece. Obviously he had never heard of how much the average Greek knows…
The new user of sayings and quotes has already appeared. By drawing material from the endless folk sayings, the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is already “slamming” his colleagues in Parliament.
The scholars of political semiotics note that when the dogs (cease to) bark, the caravans may stop so that the desert travelers can take a rest. Then there is a danger of the “black crows” eating us up!
Stavros P. Psycharis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
