On a human level, the scenes of visceral joy that greeted the election results in Greece were understandable. The proletariat had more than enough reason to feel betrayed by the ruling classes, whose cavalier attitude towards good governance and the obligation to pay taxes appears to have contributed not a little to the direness of the straits in which the country found itself.
That said, I can't help wondering how long it will take for the euphoria to die down and for reality to start chomping on the body socio-politic again. Elected on a "no more adversity" and "Merkel can get stuffed" pair of planks, the populist biker PM, whose aversion to ties also endears him to me, is going to have to deliver, meaning that quite apart from everything else, he's going to have to woo the lady who the electorate has told to get knotted.
Because, you see, it takes two to tango and an equal number to renegotiate and in the sad reality of the world, leftist assumptions that the world owes anyone anything generally do a pretty good imitation of water in blazing sun within minutes.
It strikes me that the Greeks might be wondering if they shouldn't have been a bit more careful what they wished for before casting their vote.
And whether the Greek bearing gifts should not, ultimately, be feared rather than cheered.
Elsewhere around the Mediterranean basin, people have learnt the "careful what you wish for" lesson with a vengeance. Everyone - and rightly - wanted Mintoff's ole buddy Gaddafi gone and, finally, gone he was, ignominiously and in deep shame.
The problem was that both by his going and by the manner of it happening, a vacuum was created that has brought about in its turn anarchy, violence and power-tussles of pitched battle levels.
Has this turned out better for the population at large?
It will take a longer span of history than that passed to answer the question, but the working hypothesis to date has been "better no dictator than a dictator."
On a concluding note of parallel, does anyone think that certain voters around here have been ruminating on the "careful what you wish for" theme?
Randomly (he grinned evilly) are the environmentalists still chuffed at getting rid of GonziPN? Is the artistic community glad to be governed by Muscat?
The Minister of Perceived Traffic Jams said it himself: things haven't really changed in public transport, but the moaning has stopped.
Who are Onan's Disciples now, pray tell?