The Moral Rot of Europe

Kim Rogalin

"Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.”—Jean-Francois Revel

"Materialism and self-gratification are why Europeans gave up on the future in the first place.”—Mark Steyn

Prof. Francis Fukuyama spoke of an ennui environment that would result at the end of the Cold War. It underscores Europe’s increasingly hedonistic life-style, one that puts personal pleasure and wistful fantasy ahead of principle and conviction. As European Jews suffer the wrath of Muslim mobs in French cities EU apparatchiks demonize Israel as fascists and kowtow to the mullahs in Iran. As they host, fund and honor Arafat their anti-Semitism goes unaddressed in their self-proclaimed capitals of culture. As the Balkans destructed they diddled. Europe believes that their self-proclaimed sophistication and the world’s modern technology will mystically transform autocratic run nation-states into benign members of a modern world-community that eagerly embraces pacifism and promises affluence and prosperity in equal measures for all based on verbal negotiation and consensus. On the surface Europe claims to be moving away from conflict and deterrence and towards mediation and stability. To that end the US alone, as a major member of NATO, has closed 32 military bases there and reduced troop strength by 66% since the height of the Cold war.

Yet looking closer, it seems to appear that Europe’s age-old drive for power has started to reassert itself, particularly as it relates to the US. This can be seen in the posturing and criticism of the US due to its seemingly lone acting in confronting terrorism. However, the real reason seems to have more to do with realpolitik, the desire to champion their own power, with a dose of snobbery, as a way to heal their wounded pride resulting from the psychological residue of their 20th century failure.

America’s belief in right and wrong, along with our willingness to act on those principles and convictions infuriates Europe, along with our visible distrust of moral laxity masquerading as sophistication. America for them is much too comfortable, for an anything goes Europe, with making relatively clear-cut choices. It is precisely because America recognizes the existence of evil that it believes it is justified in using force to strip power from murderous dictators and tyrants, the likes of which at times were created, cuddled and barely survived by Europe itself.

The European Union is the latest manifestation of a belief in the possibility of a benevolent socialist utopia. The European Union promised soft borders and low trade barriers, but delivered a massive superstate with overwhelming regulation and social engineering resulting in self-serving soft tyranny. That is not surprising. Europe has had a long history in dreaming up and implementing schemes of that nature, schemes that often end under the heavy boot of an oppressive and often murderous state, from the French Revolution thru the 3rd Reich, and some may argue under the passive acceptance of the recent Balkan debacle. The EU, like its predecessors, is claiming to invent a European man, freed from local attachments, resentments, conflicting interests, and ethnicity and differing ideologies. It presupposes enlightened bureaucrats, accountable only to other bureaucrats, offering extensive welfare benefits though massive economic regulation that somehow, contrary to all other attempts, will deliver swelling peace and prosperity, which by the way, as long as it relies on the US and the US answers the call, perhaps the peace part will be possible.

Like Europe’s Brave New Worlds of the past, the EU is in fact a deeply anti-democratic mechanism that conveniently allows elites to grab power while mouthing covering platitudes of brotherhood. The EU is authoritarian in nature, which allows it to rule by diktat rather than by the checks and balance procedures found in the elections of representative forms of democracy. This authoritarianis m reflects the EU’s disdain for democracy, in particular the US’s. Nothing appears more unnatural to European state utopianism than the American emphasis on individual liberty, local self-government , equality under law, the rule of law itself and the slow and often imperfect pace of change aimed at reform. All based on American exceptionalism’ s core principle, a belief that all men are fallible, self-interested , love their property, creations and fruits of their labors. Furthermore, America believes that entering into public service does not mystical transform man into an all-knowing omnipotent benevolent being, capable of greater wisdom than the free-market comprised of millions of individuals pursing their own best course under the rule-of-law. Nor that government, in any form, can possible pretend to even have a chance at being benevolent without being limited and containing within it institutional checks and balances and without it through a perennially informed vigilant individualized citizenry. America’s astounding record of dynamism and productivity are the result of this deep-seated and somewhat ingrained belief that individuals are best responsible for their own destinies and have no claim on the state for their welfare. All of which is diametrically opposed to the EU’s drive towards collectivism.

Like the previous efforts of the past, the attempt at an extensive EU seems destined to fail, certainly due to the inherent flaws of the necessary central planning aspect of all utopias but also, if for no other reason, than that most Europeans don’t view themselves as European but as French, German, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, etc. What is of concern though is that a reinvigorated EU, or a significant move in that direction, could denigrate into a militaristic chauvinism in some form once it realizes that its objective of greater European influence through hegemony is not capable of occurring through their reliance on dialogue and sanctimony. It is still possible that European multinationalis m and pacifism below the surface is merely pretense and platitudes. The potential for a return to the historical norm of a continent torn by envy and pride, fueled by utopian fantasies, is still real.

A Europe that has achieved a true sea-level change from its flawed past would exhibit, among other things, a different approach to the US. It would cooperate with the US by ending arms sales and large commercial transactions with rogue nations. It would join the US in actively working to end the scope, influence, expansion and destructive actions of terror. For example it would support the war on Islamic terror, join the effort to defang North Korea and stop funneling billions to the Palestinian Authority’s terrorism.

America seeks neither a hostile nor subservient Europe. Rather it seeks one aligned with the concept of a free and open society, which includes both the civil structures and the military assurance to support such. Europe’s failure to act in such a manner has given the US cause for an equal and opposite reaction. It is the rational for why the US continues to attempt to seek good relations and coalitions with willing European states, presuming that the US can be friendly with many but knowing that it cannot be friendly with all. It is why, as Europeans attempt to co-opt the above defined US position by their support for unaccountable international organizations like the UN (where blatant hypocrisy puts the biggest violators of human rights on the commission intended to prevent such abuse), that we approach those efforts with such heed, caution and concern. Such organizations have never prevented nor ended a war, let alone truly stood for the liberty, freedom, rights or democracy of oppressed peoples.

An approach to Europe by the US that recognizes, as Colin Powell stated: "…common interests and values that neither feuding personalities nor divergent perceptions can derail…” but, understands that major nations such as France and Germany will not always be our ally given the respective views identified above, is what we see unfolding today. The current differences with Europe are not a failure of foreign policy. To the contrary, it is more the result of what we represent as a nation than any particular policies that we pursue. This type of intramural conflict amongst nations sharing core values is not new, and not limited to any nation, creed or race. Utopians have always warred on free societies. Let’s hope that America has the resolve to continue to stand up against such flawed ideology, one that believes human nature is perfectible and therefore is will to devolve into paying any cost to obtain it. The same centuries-old ideology that failed to reach its goal in the 20th century but, in the process was responsible for the deaths of approximately 150 million souls and the enslavement of whole nations, without coming even close to its stated objective.

"Wherever you live in the world the landscape of the imagination is America…The differences between America and Europe in the 21st century are nothing to do with insensitive swaggering Texas cowboys. Indeed, they're nothing to do with Iraq, Iran, Kyoto, the International Criminal Court, or any other particular issue. They're not tactical differences, they're conceptual." --Mark Steyn.

If you want to see a public culture that reeks of indestructible faith in its own misplaced, mistaken, and somewhat malevolent righteousness, try Europe. The new, turning inward self-absorbed Europe, complete with its own resurgent anti-Semitism and explicitly racist or true fundamentally-e

Tim adds:

If you want to understand the primary problem of Europe and the E.U. in particular it must be understood that the Eurpeans rejected their Judeo-Christian roots. It was once called Christemdom and while quite imperfect (there were kingdoms always warring for power) the people themselves had a moral core and a spiritual underpinning that gave their lives meaning and gave them a sense of purpose. But the West rejected that in a series of evolutionary steps, in the post-Enlightenment era. France with the Revolution and Reign of Terror to Germany's adoption of Nihilism and acceptance of socialist ideology, to the adoption of socialism in all of eastern Europe. For a time these false religions (National Socialism, Fascism, Communism, Democratic Socialism) were able to provide some sense of purpose to the Europeans, a sense that they lacked after having dumped the Judeo-Christian beliefs. But the modern Europe, free from the heavy toil of Empires and corrupted with moral rot and a desire for little beyond pleasure, has left a yawning chasm in the European soul. The E.U. is exactly what one would expect of a continent full of immorality, inrantilism, and learned helplessness; they play act everything, pretending to be sophisticated and righteous when in fact all they are is a bunch of whiney crybabies using their new morality to prop up their fragile egos. They double down on the very thing which cost them their consequentiality in this world to begin with. Instead of reviving the old Judeo-Christian heritage they disdain it all the more thinking this will somehow purge them of their sins. But they are suffering a guilty conscience, and not because of "racism" or war or any of the things they blame their troubles on, but rather because they rejected the God of their Fathers and are now desperately seeking an idol to replace Him. "Tolerance" "equity", etc. are poor substitutes for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and for liberty and self-reliance. Nobody who is a ward of the State can feel pride in himself/herself, nor can a person who has mad a god of government ever stand against real adversity. And it is only by facing trials and tribulations that a person can truly believe in themselves. So the E.U. is nothing but a kidergarten for spoiled brats who refuse to grow up. And they are being replaced as they refuse to defend their own culture out of a misplaced sense of guilt. They AREguilty, but of paganism and immorality, not of the things they believe themselves to be convicted.

I wrote this criticism of the E.U. years ago and it's still pertinent.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:29 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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