A kind of professional tough guy is slithering into the market. And professional means that "it's worth it because it earns" – that's why he is a tough guy. After the Metapolitefsi, and mainly from the mid-1980s onwards, a type of person has settled in Greek society who uniquely gives this performance of "I earn, therefore I am worthy," in contrast to those who consider profit a result of merit.

The phenomenon is massive. The tough guys walk like one person. Dependent on the needs of political assimilation, supported by complicity, they maintain their pace as a mass movement. A new Greek phenomenon is emerging: The mass adoption of toughness elevates it to an element of identity, potentially equal to nationality and religion.

The contemporary reappropriation of it, as a now national point of self-reference, enjoys special immunity. The type is protected. The invocation of toughness absolves any action, if it does not elevate it to worth discussing, in the same way that it protects the magical adjective "popular" from any scrutiny. The tough guy is a kind of totem of modern society. No one touches him. The negative connotations associated with his name are all attributed to the "free tough guy." And when the discussion concerns him, only his "hagiography" is mentioned.