It was called by many a social uprising. The events were covered by worldwide news channels and newspapers. For people of my age, the December “riots” in Greece were probably the most important national event we have ever experienced. And what is more, we were supposed to be the protagonists. Since the whole thing started by the killing of a teenager by a police officer, the “enraged youth” as we were called by the media, were the onew that had to go out to the streets and protest for their disapproval. Demonstrate for what is right. The problem was most of us had never done anything like this before.

Since I can remember myself watching the news and understanding what a demonstration is, the news channels would always talk about incidents of vandalism and fighting between protestors and the police. It is only natural that my naïve little sponge-mind would connect these two and confuse them into being the same. In my case, I was lucky enough to receive a much better explanation of the situation by my far wiser parents. But obviously other kids did not have that privilege. So when our turn came up to protest, kids could only do what they had learned from the media; protest and fight these " pig cops " because we all know they are bad guys and since everyone hates them, they have to be right. And that is where I started to get angry.

I got angry because the words “hooligan”, “demonstrator”, “teenager”, “hood-wearer”, “student” and “anarchist” all had the same meaning in the language of TV channels. They would talk about how dark the future seems for this poor generation and how this made us angry, but I don’t really believe that every 15-year old that started throwing rocks because he saw his friends doing it, was thinking about his 700-euro salary in the future. The reality was far simpler. People that threw rocks and molotov cocktails at the police, destroyed shops and put fire on trash bins were mostly just hooligans, violent people if you prefer, to whom whether they fight because their team lost the championship or for a gay rights demonstration, makes no difference. Some of them, who would mostly throw rocks (because they simply did not know how to make a molotov cocktail), were kids who took the actions of the former as an example of good and just way of protesting.

I got angry because every politician would chew their words and always end up to “how sad it is that a boy was killed”. Thank you very much for telling me that I had to feel sorry for Alex, mister, because I would have never thought about it myself. But when you are a part of the government that runs this country, I expect to hear something more from you, like a course of action to stop the riots and things like that which seemed to have been forgotten by everyone. When the events first started, politicians would say how much they supported “our kids” for rioting out of rage so they could gain supporters from early on. But when they realized how serious things are, and that the public was not glad to see them embrace such events, they started blaming each other for doing what everyone did.

I got angry with those who watched. Not because they did nothing, but because of their reactions. “Oh my God, they burned down the Christmas tree!” one would say to his friends, and a whole conversation would start about how these hooligans, these outcasts of society, respected nothing and wanted to destroy their holidays. The lack of objectivity in judging the situation was infuriating. Half the people blame the government and the police. The other half want to see every demonstrator get his ass kicked because they are the cause of everything, couldn’t they have just stayed home and leave everyone at peace? When a nation’s society reaches a point when people are afraid to participate in a march, that is where the deeper problem lies and not, like every materialistic Greek likes to think, to a burnt Christmas tree.

I finally got angry when I took part in demonstrations myself. Because who wouldn’t get angry when he or she goes to a demonstration with the pure intent of being there, of taking part in group solidarity and finds himself lost among the chaos of rocks flying around, tear gas to the point that you can’t breathe, let alone see, burning cars, riot control officers running around, hitting everything in their path and hooligans screaming back at them while setting on fire these terrifying little bottles that will in seconds make a whole team of policemen disperse away from their flames. In such a situation some will panic and start running around without thinking reasonably, only to end up being arrested. Others will keep on marching and nothing will silence their voice of protest except maybe tear gas. Some, feeling the urge of adrenaline in their blood will dispose of rational thinking and start throwing anything that can hurt a human being, back to the police. In my case, I just got angry.