There is now a general conviction that all those in power have got where they are by illegitimate means, and that lawlessness is prevalent and rewarded. At the same time, people live daily with the corruption, incompetence and disintegration of the public sector, which was starkly confirmed last year by the fires that raged right across Greece. The Political Elite The dominant political elite – what in Greece they call the‘big houses’ – have held power for decades and the whole political system, which is dependent on this elite, benefits from it. The politicians concerned are not adversely affected by either scandals, change or disasters. The same political figures remain, regardless of whether they have contributed anything. A network of family ties, clientelism, support mechanisms, and connections with business and the mass media is in place that has not changed for decades. In response, people resort to tax dodging, breaking the law, polluting without restraint, competing for public sector jobs and generally trying to do whatever suits them and get away with it. The government, appealing for a return to order, declared that the police would adopt a defensive stance. In other words, it effectively confessed that it could not guarantee the citizens' fundamental right to the protection of their lives and property. The Situation of Young People For young people in particular, the situation is intolerable. Unemployment among the under 24s exceeds 24 per cent. Universities do not produce scientists so much as unemployed persons. The education system is subject to constant change but fails to educate. Even degrees or postgraduate qualifications are not sufficient to ensure a job. One needs to know people with influence who can‘pull strings’ on one's behalf. All accounts of young people’s attitudes these days confirm their general frustration in the face of an intolerable present and worries about the future. One 15-year-old in the first year of lyceum(last three years of secondary school in the Greek education system, 15–18 years) writes: How can a country, a state have a future, when the hopes and dreams of its new generation are lost and erased? How can they ask this new generation to have pride in its heritage after all this? How can we, the children of this new generation, not abandon Greece at the first opportunity? Is there anything worse a country can do to its children than to actively show them each passing day that they should not have hope? I, as a part of this new generation, feel that my wings are being clipped, that all the people in the government are sacrificing my future for their own interests and games and, finally, for their careers. I feel that the future that awaits me is violence and insecurity. Just the thought makes me want to cry in despair. I do not know how I should react and who to turn to. I am disgusted with this chaotic state of affairs. For the first time in my life I feel hatred... What is immediately apparent from similar statements by hundreds of young people is that they are not the children of a society in which people are going hungry or which has suddenly become impoverished. They are the cries of a society which realises that its relative comfort is fragile and feels the social downscaling that is coming. It understands that the consent that it has given all these years to private enrichment and public poverty is now turning against it. At this point we must highlight a particular trait of the Greek family, which has only now started to be affected by the crisis. Young people lack the means to become independent from their parents, in other words a good education, a decent job and policies that support them. Parents try to compensate for this by extending their protection. For the greater part of the lower and middle social strata this amounts to spurious consumerism. However, its greatest cost is not economic or social but psychological. Adult society is effectively denying young