When I was taking a college course back in the late 80s, the professor asked us to write opinion pieces for publication in “a European newspaper” arguing either for or against the introduction of a common currency before the introduction of a common government. I argued that the expert on monetary, customs, and postal unions was Otto von Bismarck, and that Bismarck would have counselled strongly against the establishment of the Euro. It is not possible to get people to agree on taxation and fiscal policy unless they feel they are part of the whole; and, assuredly, Greeks feel they are Greek, Poles are Poles, Spaniards are Spanish. They are who they always were, and as an afterthought, they are European. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had a common currency, but it never functioned as a democracy; as soon as people were given a choice, they ran away and created linguistic unions.

Greece, the country that gave us the very idea of democracy, is showing us how language and culture trump idealistic notions of a common currency, even when pursued in the noble cause of a European Union.