Posted on 05/23/2004 7:14:42 PM PDT by Eurotwit
America sees Europe as excessively inward looking, sometimes dangerously so. Worse, informed Americans see anti-Semitism running rampant in Europe and xenophobic political parties on the march in country after country
Europeans are constantly reminded of all that is wrong with America. But perhaps Europeans should reverse the process: what do Americans think is wrong with Europe?
Above all, Americans see Europe as a continent of self-inflicted stagnation — and with good reason. Economic growth in the EU was near zero in 2003.
Several countries, most notably Germany and France, seem hobbled by inflexible labour markets and regulations that inhibit dynamism. The European Union’s highly touted ‘Lisbon Declaration’ of a few years ago, which proclaimed that Europe would become the world’s most competitive region by 2010, appears laughable to Americans, whose productivity gains seem to scale new heights constantly.
America also sees Europe as excessively inward looking, sometimes dangerously so. Worse, informed Americans see anti-Semitism running rampant in Europe and xenophobic political parties on the march in country after country. Not even pacific Scandinavia is exempt from this.
Americans see a total inability by Europe to handle immigration in ways that encourage dynamism and diversity instead of antagonism and higher state spending. This seems all the more puzzling because Americans realise how badly Europe needs new immigrants, given its extremely low fertility rates.
Europe’s perceived attitude towards rogue states and global terrorism only enhances this perception of self-satisfied inwardness. Americans may differ about what policy should have been pursued in Iraq, but they know that their country cannot run from its role as a world leader responsible for developments in North Korea, the Middle East, Pakistan/India, Taiwan, and elsewhere. It is a jungle out there, as Americans say; not every problem and conflict can be handled through the sort of peaceful, drawn-out negotiations that the EU prefers.
Germany and France were against meeting Saddam Hussein with military force, but had no alternative for getting rid of him. “What was the European answer to the problem of Saddam Hussein?” asked Senator Joe Biden in a panel discussion at the recent Davos forum. Biden is a Democrat and strong critic of President Bush. “I asked French and German leaders, but never received any credible answer.”
“We are not even ready to forcefully meet conflicts on our own continent,” Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski sighed. Bosnia’s Muslims thank America, not the EU, for their deliverance from slaughter. Europe devotes half as much in financial resources to the military as the US, resulting in one-tenth of America’s military strength, observed Pat Cox, Speaker of the European Parliament.
Americans now see Europe as compounding its military weakness by losing its leading position in science. Two-thirds of Nobel Laureates in the sciences during the last quarter century were Americans; many of the others do or did research at American universities. According to Time magazine, 400,000 European researchers now work in the US. Lack of funding, bureaucracies so complicated that even purchasing a used computer is problematic, hierarchies that hamper the joy of curiosity and creativity: all of these barriers confront European scientists and are responsible for inciting today’s ‘brain drain’ to America.
Add economics to this recipe as well. Price regulations and other ill-considered features of European policy contribute to the fact that 60 percent of the world’s new drugs are developed in the US, compared to 40 percent only ten years ago.
This sterility and inertia make Europe less and less interesting for Americans. So American eyes are turning elsewhere: to China with its 1.3 billion people and an economy growing at 8-10 percent, year in and year out, and to India, with its 1.1 billion people and 6 percent annual growth.
Indeed, India now has some of the world’s best engineers, IT technicians and medical professionals. India probably encompasses the world’s largest middle class. With new patent laws coming into place, India will have the same attraction for the pharmaceutical industry as it has for IT, providing clinical trials for new drugs at a quarter of the cost of Europe or the US.
While America increases its population somewhat, due to normal reproductive rates and large immigration flows, Europe’s share of the world’s population is approaching a mere 4 percent and seems doomed to growing older as it shrinks even more.
Demographic change in the US is also working to change America’s global orientation. With American immigration dominated by Latin Americans and Asians, the US feels its European heritage less. Similarly, domestic US politics is gravitating to the country’s south and west, regions that look towards Latin America and Asia, not Europe. The fall of the Soviet empire, naturally, reduced Americans’ security interest in Europe.
Is this American-eye view of Europe unfair? Perhaps. It is, however, no more unfair than how America is regularly portrayed in Europe’s media these days. But if Americans are critical of Europe, they are also self-critical, far more so than most Europeans.
As a European editor wrote apropos the flow of scientists from Europe to America: “What’s most sad is that Europeans still believe that their society represents the epitome of civilisation, while the US is on its way to downfall. What if the reality is the reverse?” Every European should contemplate that possibility, at least for a moment, before resuming their current aversion to all things American. —DT-PS
Hans Bergström, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, was formerly Editor-in-chief of “Dagens Nyheter,” Sweden’s leading newspaper
The few Europeans who have touched base with reality had better get the hell out before it's too late.
We must assume them to be a minority who have not succumbed to the rampant and massive brain-washing of Euro-trash left.
Can't you envision an oblivious Pierre and his friend Sven laughing, smoking and drinking at some outdoor cafe while Gay Par-ee is a smoldering hell-hole?
The ONLY "rebels" the Frogs have been able to deal with in the last 100 years is 'GreenPeace.'
The European plan for dealing with Islamism is the same plan the Middle Eastern despots use.
Distract them with the situation in Israel.
Why do you think the Euros are allowing anti-Semitism to grow in their countries?
Might the growing anti-semitism be the result of the Euro-balls already being severed by the overwhelming over-breeding, immigration, and political clout of the Islamic horde?
Communism didn't die when the wall went down, it started spreading more. It's all part of the NWO plan. Just look at the results of the end of the cold war, the UN membership is now 40% dicatatorship. It's a power grab by the oligopolists (multinational corps) and liberals are the stooges.
Yes there will...but it'll be called Eurabia.
Nah, I think the French have always been anti-Semitic!
No one will want to hear this but the only thing that will save us is to go back to our religious roots. If we don't start putting the family first again society is doomed.
Who don't the French hate? (exceptions: the PLO and whores)
Anti-semitism is as old as the world. That's why there so few Jews. Jealousy is the most powerful negative force in the world.
I have a few European friends, and and as individuals my friends are really nice people. In general though, I've pondered what Americans, specifically American conservatives, admire about Europeans.
Not much, of substance anyway. There is good beer there, and terrific cheese, great bread, and of course lovely wine....the alps are gorgeous. All in all a lovely climate. Some great castles there--Germany builds great cars, and the French and Italians have lots of cutting edge style.
However of continental Europeans themselves, since WWI and II, I really can't say there's anything particular in character to admire. I do admire generally (though not as much as earlier) the work ethic of the Germans...but really, honestly, other than that, I can't say what, in terms of inner points of character to admire about Europeans.
I'm not sure the Euros know the fact that we as Americans by and large, other than consumables and cars, simply respect and admire them very little.
I'm tired of hearing liberals tell us that the world hates us and we should be worried. It's the world that should be worried if Americans start hating them back.
You are 100% correct. The USA needs Europe like we need France to help us in Iraq.
We have the best military the EU can offer, the Britts, evertime I hear Kerry talk about our allies, I am wondering who the hell he is talking about. The Mullahs ?
It's a point of view that seems odd to many Americans, who are neither cognizant of the power nor care a great deal for it. I think it is better for the world that we are remarkably inefficient administrators of an empire we don't really want - the world, by now, has had its fill of empires and imperial councils and is ready for something else. The problem is that we have no idea what that is; that we're feeling our way through this and making it up as we go along, and worst of all, we admit it. That offends certain European sensibilities, and perhaps it should, for it gives them the impression that their fate is in the hands of fools. I understand a certain resentment there.
But here we are - Europe will either succeed in forming an extranational entity or it will not, it will either solve its chronic demographic, economic, and military problems, or it will not, and it really is up to them. Freedom to succeed is also the freedom to starve - it's a scary old world out there.
The EU is on a suicide mission, they are inviiting a culture into their country that is diametrically opposed to their lifestyle. It's not like Muslims in Europe are adopting Western culture, for all the talk about their intellectual superiority they lack the most basic necessity for their own survial, common sense.
That's an awful thing to say about whores.
Dont worry. Its quite obvious to most people.
Most Americans I have met are quite open about their opinions of Europe. At least it is hard to believe that they were holding anything back
I was talking about German press coverage earlier this AM over on another thread. I may link answers to that post to your posts over here. I would never have thought of your expalnation, and they do fit the situation well.
longjack
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