Why does Greece not simply get it over with and default?

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution. 

History has shown that defaulting countries tend to fall harder but recover faster. So why does Greece’s left-led government not simply get it over with?

Roos's essay provides some answers to this question and to Greece's dilemma as the Syriza administration play this game of chicken with their international creditors. So far the creditors seem to be set on an uncompromising hardline course--perhaps because their capitalist "house of cards" is so fragile that they have no choice. So, it appears that the outcome is finally up to ordinary Greek citizens. Their dilemma and ultimate choice brings to mind the soliloquy of Shakespeare's Hamlet. 

To be, or not to be, that is the question—
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them?

Should the Greece government default, the consequences could have widespread geopolitical as well as economic reverberations throughout the world. As usual, the vast majority of my fellow Americans are sound asleep, and their dreams are filled with illusions purveyed by corporate media which have little to do with the real world.