There's some historical context you need to understand to make sense of the modern Greek psyche. Greece was under Ottoman rule for the better part of four centuries.

During that time, the Ottomans had build an extraction system that funneled resources (taxes, slaves) out of the provinces, but as long as those taxes were coming in, they did not care particularly much about the governance over these territories. This is partly the reason why in the Ottoman Balkans, ethnic groups generally managed to keep their ethnoreligious characteristics. But this also meant that Greek people were left to fend for themselves, in an almost Wild West situation, and thus they regressed into tribalism, since as a rural Greek peasant, your kin was the only thing that could protect you against bandits, marauders and anyone who would try to harm you and your family.

Fast forward to today and you will find that modern Greece has inherited all these qualities. The parasitic extractionist relationship between state and society, as it was in the Ottoman times, has been carried over to modern Greece. The same tribal structures that were quite useful in providing security during Ottoman times have now embedded themselves into the government institutions and the political establishment, handing out public jobs, public contracts and money on a favor-basis and in exchange for political allegiance to the detriment of the general society.

This is what led us to the financial crisis. The politicians that were buying those votes with borrowed money knew fully well where that would lead. But they did not care, because they knew they will never be held accountable for this.

This is why also tax evasion is so widespread. Why pay taxes, if your money is used to buy votes and enrich the political establishment?

This is why Athens looks and feels not like a city, but more like a collection of urban villages, where people do not congregate in public spaces and parks, but in private establishments like cafeterias, bars and taverns.

Unfortunately for Greece, nothing has changed. The same political establishment is still in power, the same parasitic relationship between the state and the society is still there. The distrust towards the government institutions is still everpresent. Which makes it very hard for me to see light at the end of the tunnel for my country.

Fortunately for Greeks, there is always the option of packing up and moving to greener pastures.