Tale zapis z Yanisom Varoufakisom v Der Spieglu, katerega povod je nemška izdaja Varoufakisovega romana “Another now”, je res smrtonosen. Ne samo, da ni uravnotežen, ampak je absolutno enostranski. Avtor zapisa je Varoufakisa pričakal na nož. Njegovo epizodo v politiki leta 2015 je označil kot utopično, njegov politični aktivizem po tem (stranki MeRA25 in DiEM25) pa kot luzerska projekta (3.44% na grških volitvah in 0.3% na evropskih volitvah). Avtor pač očitno iz dna srca ne mara ne Varoufakisa in ne levosredinske opcije. Ti oznaki sta karakteristični za ta zapis:

In hindsight, the euphoria surrounding Varoufakis at the time is almost incomprehensible. From the very beginning, he was out of his depth. He catastrophically overestimated himself and his influence, and almost nothing remained behind politically once he was gone. But the image of the Greek David fighting against the German Goliath, embodied at the time by the rock-hard German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, was branded into the collective European memory. The ascetic-seeming economist Varoufakis really did embody the hope – for a few weeks, at least – that a single, courageous Greek heart could prove stronger than all of Europe’s banks together. And since then, he has embodied the crushing of those hopes.

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His book, on the other hand, illustrates that not just he, but also the entire political left, has no vision for the future that can excite anybody. In Germany, too, the left side of the spectrum has become bogged down in the gender debate and reliving past social welfare battles. The left used to derive its energy from the promise of a better world for the many. Today, though, it can’t even describe that world, much less achieve it. How nice it would have been had Varoufakis been able to provide an escape.

Pošteno povedano, tudi mene program Varoufakisove stranke ni očaral. Pred leti sem komentiral programske točke njegove stranke na sestanku slovenske sekcije, vendar nisem bil pretirano prijazen. Program je imel nekaj dobrih točk glede financiranja razvoja in glede financiranja temeljnega dohodka. Toda v izhodišču je bil program absolutno utopičen (fantazijski) in neizdelan na ravni realnih socialnih in ekonomskih problemov. (DiEM25 je v osnovi panevropska stranka, katere glavni moto je, da je potrebno demokratizirati odločanje na EU ravni. Kot da bosta Nemčija in Francija kot edina relevantna skrbnika projekta evropske integracije in kot največji državi te integracije kdaj dopustili, da o ključnih zadevah odločajo majhne države! Poglejte si pravila v odločanju glede kvalificirane večine, iz katerih je jasno, da ne more biti sprejeta nobena odločitev na EU ravni, ki je ne podpreta Nemčija in Francija. Zato vsako odločitev pripravita in najprej med seboj uskladita nemški kancler/ka in franccoski predsednik, ostalo pa je del politične folklore, da lahko ostali vsaj formalno dvignejo roko, čeprav o ničemer ne odločajo).

Bi jaz volil za stranko, ki mi obljublja fantazijski svet (kjer se na EU ravni odločitve sprejemajo “demokratično”, pri čemer sistem “en človek en glas” ne prinaša vsebinskih razlik, pač pa enako prevlado največjih dveh držav po številu prebivalcev) in ki ne prinaša konkretnih rešitev realnih družbenih problemov? Ne bi. Preveč sem realist in želim si konkretnih rešitev za rešljive pereče probleme.

Jaz imam Varoufakisa seveda rad. Rad ga berem in spremljam njegove aktivnosti. Podpiram nekatere njegove ideje, ki se ne ukvarjajo s fantazijskimi rešitvami glede stvari, ki niso rešljive v politekonomski realnosti. Razumem njegov pogled na svet, ki je akademski. Od zunaj zelo jasno vidi stvari, denimo nemško politiko. Njegova oznaka Olafa Scholza, najverjetnejšega novega nemškega kanclerja, ki je sicer socialdemokrat, vendar ga po stališčih težko ločiš od krščanskih demokratov, je zelo na mestu (“the SPD version of Armin Laschet“, “…And Laschet is a man of the past. He’s a coal man. A diesel man.“):

Varoufakis, though, has a knack for saying clever and surprising things. Oddly, he is at his most interesting when he is talking about German politics, which he continues to follow just as closely as he used to. It’s not an obsession, it just that he is extremely observant of developments in Germany, such as the current general election campaign.

At times, he can be laconic, such as when commenting on the numerous discoveries in recent years of senior German politicians having filched parts of their Ph.D. theses: “German politicians have a tendency to plagiarize. I don’t know why, and I don’t care much.” At others, he is funny, such as when he adopts a high-pitched, smug tone when speaking of Olaf Scholz, the Social Democratic (SPD) candidate for chancellor. He is, Varoufakis says, the SPD version of Armin Laschet, who is running for the conservatives. And Laschet, he says, is “a man of the past. He’s a coal man. A diesel man.”

Varoufakisov problem je, da je akademik, ki je postal rock zvezda, ne pa populist. Razlika je v tem, da je tako prej kot akademik kot zdaj kot panevropska rock zvezda ekonomsko preskrbljen in neodvisen. Ima stalne vire dohodkov in zna svoje znanje prodati na trgu. Druži se z drugimi rock zvezdami, od Briana Enoja do Slavoja Žižka. Ne potrebuje politike za svoje preživetje ali da bi ga kdo opazil. Ni kot politiki, ki so v osnovi brez službe, če nimajo politične funkcije. NImajo znanj ali veščin, ki bi jih lahko prodali na trgu. Brez politike so brezposelni. Zato so agresivni in populistični, da se lahko prodajo na političnem trgu in zaslužijo za preživetje. Varoufakis je pač rock zvezda, ne pa populist. Zato si lahko privošči tak stil življenja in politični aktivizem, ki tiste, ki nimajo te sreče, močno iritira:

The strangest part about spending time with Varoufakis is that there is nothing left of the missionary. Not even a hint of aggression. He merely chuckles at questions about Wolfgang Schäuble and isn’t particularly passionate when discussing Angela Merkel either. She’ll be missed, he says, despite her mistakes. He prefers talking about his house on a hill on the island of Aegina. In the morning, he rides his motorcycle down to the port and takes the ferry to Athens. He drinks his coffee and answers his emails as the sea passes by outside. He then gets back on his motorcycle for the short ride to parliament. Perhaps he is living in his own kind of utopia.

Vir citatov: Alexander Kühn, Der Spiegel