One of the dominant narratives of the crisis is the narrative of bankrupt states that kneel, succumbing to the whims of the markets, and are indebted to austerity treatments. The undisputed kingdom of liberalism is also that of business logic. It is enough to show the wastefulness of the state to prove the necessity of "reform," synonymous with cuts and privatizations. The argument is unshakable, the conclusions drawn absolutely convincing, but we forget that they presuppose a logical leap: the state is not a business. The power of ideology is to present as self-evident something that is by no means. That is why the most powerful ideology is the one that presents itself as non-ideology.
The texts in this volume come from the conference "The Greek Symptom," which was organized at the University Paris 8 in Paris in January 2013. Thinkers from various European countries, mostly philosophers, but also economists, historians, and other members of the "humanities community," as well as artists, met. A heterogeneous mixture, which we hoped could influence the character of the conference itself, but also of this volume.
The term "symptom" in the title, chosen to sting us like a Socratic fly, conveys an ironic element regarding this dominant discourse of political medicalization. In no case was the aim to replace the technocratic experts, prescribing new - alternative! - treatments for the people. On the other hand, if irony implies a kind of denial or criticism, and therefore the response of the texts was not just a category-accusation of the applied "treatment" but also an answer, the formulation of another idea about health and the assumption of responsibility for it.