Greece: "Greeks buy into conspiracy theories"

Adam LeBor reports on the Greek crisis @ Newsweek:

And when things go wrong, society takes a darker turn. A population ruled by outside forces for so long, and once again feeling under siege, easily turns to conspiracy theories. Most Greek Jews were killed in the Holocaust and only a few thousand remain. But 69% of Greeks harbour anti-Semitic attitudes, according to the Anti-Defamation League, the highest proportion outside the Middle East and North Africa, and 85% believe Jews have too much power in the business world.

"Greeks buy into conspiracy theories, that the whole world is against us and trying to destroy us," says Constantinos Koufopolous, managing director of Axia Capital Markets, an Athens investment banking group. Koufopolous represents a new generation of business people who have no patience for the old excuses for Greece's economic torpor. "The Jews, the Americans, there is always a bad guy to blame for what is happening. Now it's the Germans. Greeks have a superiority complex because they feel inferior. We don't respect ourselves and our legacy and our ancient history. We feel that the world owes us, which may be true but we have to do something ourselves."  More.