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The gradual transformation of Greece into a kind of European Sahel is unprecedented in European peacetime history. As the crisis affects the very foundations of the social structure, we must examine the specific factors underlying the emergence of this exceptional situation, which results from an unusual co-occurrence of disparate elements that go a long way to explain the historical development of both internal structures and the international economic context. Despite its gradual insertion into the European Community, Greek capitalism was never able to develop an effective productive base, while the country’s entry into the eurozone ruled out the option of devaluing the currency. As a result, competitiveness had to be regained through massive internal devaluation, entailing brutal cuts in the living standards of the great majority of the population, a state of affairs that is both socially explosive and potentially uncontrollable. In reflecting on the causes of this catastrophic path, we cannot exclude the possibility that behind the doctrine of internal devaluation, we are witnessing an experimental prelude to a new strategy of international capital. The clinical experiment carried out in the face political resistance by a people reduced to misery could well provide indications for the systemic limits to redistributing social wealth in favor of capital.