And now for Greece’s moment of truth. Or not, as the case may be. The effectively bankrupt country, its economy paralysed and its banks set to run out of cash on Monday, goes to the vote in a referendum that may determine its continuing membership of the euro, as well as the fate of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza government. But no one knows what will happen. Only one thing is sure. More hardship beckons.

A Yes vote (to a bailout package that, incidentally, is no longer officially on the table) spells further austerity. A No vote could well bring a return to the former currency, the drachma, and generalised national impoverishment. Or, just conceivably, if the EU blinks in fear of a disintegration of the euro – even of the entire European project – a No majority might just be the key that unlocks the door to a deal.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses a crowd of 25,000 'No' supporters in Athens' Syntagma Square (YANNIS BEHRAKIS/Reuters)

I live in the US at a safe, but also illuminating, distance from the crisis. Here, the prevailing view is sheer disbelief that things have come to this pass. How can the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank, the “Troika” with whom Greece is negotiating, still hew to German-prescribed austerity, seeking to pile more misery upon misery, cutbacks upon cutbacks, when five years of such medicine has produced almost endless recession and 25 per cent unemployment? Why revisit the policy idiocies that produced the Great Depression, liberal US economists argue: will they never learn?

There is amazement too that if there is to be more austerity, the prospect is not sweetened by rescheduling or writing off a good portion of Greece’s debt of €250bn or more, which everyone knows can never be repaid. That at least might have given Greeks hope that there was light at the end of austerity’s tunnel. And whatever happened to the notions of solidarity and mutual support envisaged by the EU’s founding fathers?

Instead, Athens must play by the rules, it is told by official Europe, that conveniently forgets how both France and Germany earlier went unpunished for violations of the EU’s budget deficit regulations. Plainly, one set of rules applies to the powerful and another for the weak.

In pictures: Greek referendum Show all 28 1 /28 In pictures: Greek referendum In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum People celebrate in Athens after the first exit-polls of the Greek referendum Getty Images In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum A "No" supporter flashes a victory sign before a Greek flag atop the parliament in Athens, Greece July 5, 2015.Greeks voted overwhelmingly "No" on Sunday in a historic bailout referendum, partial results showed, defying warnings from across Europe that rejecting new austerity terms for fresh financial aid would set their country on a path out of the euro. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Supporters of the No vote react after the first results of the referendum at Syntagma square in Athens AP In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Supporters of the No vote wave Greek flags after the referendum's exit polls at Syntagma square in Athens AP In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis casts his vote in the country's referendum EPA In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum A ballot box is emptied by a voting official at the closing of polling stations in Athens, Greece July 5, 2015. Greece voted on Sunday on whether to accept more austerity in exchange for international aid, in a high-stakes referendum likely to determine whether it leaves the euro-currency area after seven years of economic pain. REUTERS/Marko Djurica In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum A photographer photographs a man waiting to vote in the referendum at a school in the suburbs of Athens Getty In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Greek voters are being asked to choose between backing their creditor's austerity measures or rejecting them Getty In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Tourists walk past posters with slogans that read “OXI“ (NO) and “NAI“ (YES) ahead of the referendum in Athens AFP In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Opposition parties to Syriza, including the centre-right New Democracy, are campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum Reuters In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Protesters on both sides of the argument ('No' pictured here) have rallied in Athens AP In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been branded reckless and a feckless liar by EU leaders Reuters In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum According to polls which surveyed some 1000 people across the country, 41.5 percent of Greeks would support the new bailout measures to avoid an exit from the Eurozone AP In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Despite Tsipras's assurances, many Greek people are not certain whether Sunday’s referendum is a vote on whether Greece will remain in the euro or not Reuters In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum The Greek and EU flags flutter in front of the ancient Acropolis hill in Athens. The Greek people have been called upon to show “calm and national unity” Getty In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses a crowd of 25,000 'No' supporters in Athens' Syntagma Square YANNIS BEHRAKIS/Reuters In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gave a televised address to the nation ahead of the vote. He has called on voters to reject creditors’ proposals for more austerity in return for rescue loans AP In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Protesters march holding a torn European Union flag during a demonstration for the 'NO' campaign in Thessaloniki Getty Images In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Greek Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has pledged to resign if his country votes “yes” to the bailout plan Reuters In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Pensioner wait to get their pensions outside a National Bank of Greece branch in central Athens. Banks only opened for pensioners to allow them to get their pensions, with a limit of 120 euros. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Protesters attend an anti-austerity pro-government rally in front of the parliament building Getty In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum The possibility of Greece leaving the Eurozone is increasing by the day. Merchandise already exists to accompany the event EPA In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum An elderly man waits to receive his pension outside the closed National Bank of Greece headquarters in Athens AP In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum People stand in a queue to use an ATM outside a closed bank in Athens AP In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum A banner supporting the NO vote in the upcoming referendum hangs from the offices of the Greek Finance Ministry Getty Images In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Greeks will be asked whether they accept the austerity terms demanded by the country's creditors Getty In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Eurozone finance ministers expressed disappointment at the Greek decision to hold a referendum on the bailout terms Getty In pictures: Greek referendum Greece EU Referendum Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, said bailout conditions had ‘asphyxiated’ his country EPA

And there’s another, more personal reason, for my sympathy towards Greece. More decades ago than I care to remember, I studied its modern language and its wonderful modern literature, and travelled there constantly. The experience left me with a deep affection for a maddening, ferociously proud and hugely generous people. The place could drive you crazy, but I loved it.

None of this blinds me to the facts. Yes, Greece has been a leading member of the EU’s awkward squad ever since it joined in 1981. Its acceptance as the 10th member of the European Community (as it was then called) owed more to the heart than the head. Membership, just six years after the Colonels were forced from power, would guarantee Greek democracy – and how could Europe deny entry to the land of Aeschylus and Plato, the very cradle of the Western world?

In fact, today’s Greece is a descendant more of Byzantium than of classical Athens. And back in the mid-1970s, Europe’s bureaucrats warned that this relatively poor country, with a fairly primitive economy, on the Continent’s farther fringes, was simply not ready to join. But the European Commission was overruled by the politicians. The same, basically, went for Greece’s adoption of the euro a quarter of a century later (an error admittedly facilitated by the then Athens government’s cooking of the books to qualify). But had heads ruled hearts in 2001, the biggest crisis to hit the EU in its history would never have happened.

The Greek and EU flags flutter in front of the ancient Acropolis hill in Athens. The Greek people have been called upon to show “calm and national unity” (Getty)

And yes, successive Greek governments were profligate borrowers and spenders, building a bloated welfare state paid for with other people’s money while doing nothing to force through needed reforms. And yes, Tsipras has played his hand lousily.

When his Syriza party was elected in January on an anti-austerity platform, there was much sympathy for its demands. Instead, his in-your-face style and erratic, ever-shifting demands have alienated likely sympathisers. A skilful politician might have built a broad European front against the austerity preachers in the Brussels bureaucracy and the organ grinders in Berlin. But he blew it. These days, everyone is simply fed up with Greece.

And now the referendum. When Tsipras announced it eight days ago, urging his countrymen to vote No, it briefly seemed like a potential masterstroke – what’s called here a “Hail Mary” pass, a last-ditch gamble by an American football quarterback to claim victory from seemingly inevitable defeat. Alas, the move now looks more like a dreadful miscalculation that makes a deal more unlikely, and that could force Prime Minister Tsipras to resign.

But by calling the vote, he has also rendered a massive service, reminding everyone of the gaping hole at the heart of the EU: its lack of genuine popular legitimacy. Syriza, which had made no secret of its goals, was democratically elected. Now, when the success or failure in attaining those goals may determine Greece’s future in the 21st century, he is again asking the people to decide.

Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gave a televised address to the nation ahead of the vote (AP)

And the response from the Euro establishment? An outraged “How dare he” – that this young and tireless left-wing upstart might seek actually to bring the people into the decision-making process, instead of meekly bowing to what the great and the good in Brussels and Berlin had already decided.

Beyond doubt, some of these latter want nothing more than Greece out of the euro and Tsipras out of the prime minister’s office. But a clear majority of Greeks want to keep the euro, and my own guess is the Yes vote will narrowly prevail. But don’t bank on it. Greeks have a sense of honour, and a hatred of humiliation to match.