Posted on 11/11/2003 8:12:11 AM PST by quidnunc
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Your article in the Spectator was really enjoyable. I don't know whether you actually lament the persistent decline of Europe as a political, social and economic region when you write about it. I mean it certainly is lamentable that the European demographics will change dramatically in the next 50 years or so. Lamentable because it is not a change that one would normally envision of a country and its indigenous population. Rather than grow and be prosperous, the population tends to shrink and do anything imaginable to effectively forgo any future economic growth. Taxes, welfare subsidies, long holidays, etc. I remember reading about half a year ago that if the Germans had had one week less of annual holidays, the German GDP would grow by about 1% per annum. No need for PhD Economists and their models, just go to work at least as often as "downtrodden" masses in North America, and your economy will do just fine.
Will we see white Dutch or Blond Swedes or Red-Head German babes speaking Arabic? Maybe yes, maybe no. True, Europe, especially the Western part of it, is in decline, which can only be understood clearly if one analyzes long-term consequences, as you do. The European liberal elites are themselves to blame for their troubles. But ordinary people carry the biggest share of the blame. Politicians can be removed and replaced by ordinary citizens. After all, democracy and the choice of political regime was a European invention. And if the Europeans have a fetish for liberal totalitarianism, then let them "enjoy" it. They are grown-up people who make rational choices, and it seems they have made their choice. They would rather have long holidays, fat state subsidies, state control over every imaginable aspect of life, and it, therefore, does not take even a 6-year-old to realize that such a lifestyle can only produce passive, closed-minded people. Hence, the root cause of everything the Old Europe stands for these days.
The European ancestors of many contemporary Americans left the old Europe centuries ago because they were sick of everything the Europe stood for. And many contemporary ancestors of many future Americans still continue emigrating from Europe. You don't see people leaving USA for a better life across the Atlantic. The major traffic is westbound. Except for Madonna and a couple of loopy American human shields.
I don't want to pull The Naked Prince Consort, our "greatest intellectual colossus", when I say that a certain equilibrium is happening in Europe nonetheless. The indigenous population declines, or leaves the continent, the other is flooding in. Europe has undergone almost similar demographic change in the 8th century, during the Arab conquest of Spain and South-Eastern Europe. There was a vacuum of political power, the Roman Empire was gone, the Papacy had not asserted itself fully yet. So no surprises there. Almost identical conditions are pretty much prevalent in today's Europe: a vacuum of political power, even though the EU has more political bureaucracy than Canada and USA combined; its helpless and passive population, its economic stagnation. So no surprises that the continent is undergoing another Arab conquest.
As you see, the European mentality cannot be altered. The history repeats itself and the mostly passive Western Europe will become a footnote in the history books for the next generations.
Eugene Shmeilin
Toronto
Your column brings to mind the “manifestations” (demonstrations) in Paris of Muslims throbbing through the streets in anger that I have observed in years past. At the time, I remember thinking, “How did all these foreigners get into Paris?” Your article brings the situation — and the foreseeable future — into clear focus.
In Israel, for example, a small minority of “Hasidim” (the black hat dudes) keep most cities kosher. You can't get a pepperoni pizza for the life of you. And most Israelis are irreligious. But they don't want a rock thrown through their window, so they comply. In France in like manner, I suspect that many of Chirac’s positions are due to his fear of his own exploding Islamic population (pun intended). And France has a lot more than a small minority to deal with, the Muslim tide keeps immigrating in, they don't abort their babies, and they are prone to do a lot more than throw a rock.
The great irony here is that France has historically been so defensive about cultural encroachment: trying to project/protect their language, asserting state-subsidized “French” movies and television, etc. The French have forcefully resisted every on-par culture, only now to be subsumed by the worst culture on earth. God has a sense of humor, no?
Dean VanDruff
Saratoga, California
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(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Silly question. Slaves aren't allowed to speak.
Hypocrisy.
Theological thugs. Typical behavior by those who claim to have a direct line to G-d.
He sure does!
LOL!!!
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