Yanis Varoufakis: The Un-Politician We’ve Been Waiting For?

While Greece on the cusp of walking out of the Eurozone is dominating the headlines, an action that could very well render it the tipping domino we dread igniting the mother of all global depressions, there is a back story emerging that deserves our attention. There is a new politician out there, let’s call him the un-politician, who is poised to change how you and I think about those we elect to lead us.

Photo Credit: Daily Sabah Europe

Rather suddenly plucked from the world of academia, including a stint in Texas no less, where he professes he “quietly wrote obscure academic texts for years” Yanis Varoufakis, the new Finance Minister of Greece, may well be poised to be in the final running for Man-of-the Year. Though it is yet to be determined exactly what for, I am of the opinion he’s got the goods to qualify on several fronts: brains, charisma, humility, a clear vision that is his own and the keen gift of timing in arriving at this moment in history. Most importantly he is a new kind of leader, one we desperately need.

American politics of the dying old paradigm exists behind a veil of smoke and mirrors, layer upon layer of orchestrated and controlled messaging and the ability to build an electable persona to be worn by the paid for puppet. We just witnessed Mitt Romney make a desperate attempt to repackage himself as a candidate running on a platform to eradicate poverty only to get the cane from stage left. He remains utterly clueless to the fact that we are not seeking a persona for office, we are seeking a person. This form of political process is not only futile in a wired world, it is rendered obsolete by citizen owned technology. The average individual walking down the street can now access information as quickly as any political strategist and we expect truth and authenticity, nothing less.

Political handlers will study Yanis Varoufakis as his popularity grows and they will begin to question the rules of the game they currently abide by. God help the freshman congressman who first shows up at a news conference with his Brooks Brothers untucked, emulating the aura of audacious non-conformity so easily carried by Varoufakis. Of course, the wanna-be will probably be blind to the content, the character and the intellectual capacity of the man that can get away with such a cleverly communicated message. This isn’t Mr. Smith and this isn’t Washington.

I believe Yanis Varoufakis represents the grounded, value-based intellectual of a leader who has what it takes to survive the relentless demands for transparency in today’s environment of global connectivity. In the few interviews thus far, we have seen these attributes in action and they work beautifully. Varoufakis owns his intelligence, he communicates with a passion derived of experience and wisdom and the result is a man that is capable of earning the trust of millions as a leader.

This video was just published two days ago and left me a bit, well, stunned. In listening to him speak I found myself recalling the text by cultural historian and evolutionary theorist Riane Eisler entitled The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics in which she espouses the concept of measuring GDP by qualitative factors relevant to the human condition vs. quantitative measurement derived from extracted resources. I wondered too if he has spent some time studying the great systems theorist Buckminster Fuller in addition to his obvious practical understanding of Marx. To hear an elected ‘un-politician’ end several extended commentaries in the speech given at the same event at which this video was recorded with the words, “..the end goal being…to reduce human suffering” is profoundly startling in the current landscape of the bought and paid for political prostitutes we are surrounded by here in America who solely represent the interests of their corporate sponsors.

The old tradition of hiding behind speech writers, intermediaries, official press releases and the like only serve to build a wall of distrust and opens the possibility of manipulation and gross misinterpretation.Varoufakis is demonstrating his understanding of this new, totally transparent humanist political landscape by dis-arming the attempts of corporate controlled media to frame, alter or otherwise seize control of his message. He is continuing to maintain his own twitter account in which he can speak directly to us, immediately correct disinformation no matter the source and is also continuing to blog on his established blog.

Yanis Varoufakis will surely steer Greece through this moment in history to the best of his ability. He is also single handedly re-writing the politicians playbook, perhaps a more enduring legacy.

©2015 Nancy Kotting  All Rights Reserved  Reproduction by permission only