Posted on 05/01/2005 7:30:19 AM PDT by quidnunc
America's "Europe problem" and Europe's "America problem" have been debated for years. The debate is usually framed in terms of policy differences: over prosecuting the war on terrorism; over the United Nations' role in world affairs; over the Kyoto Protocol on the global environment; over Iraq. The differences are real. But attempts to understand them in political, strategic and/or economic terms alone will ultimately fail because such explanations don't reflect the human texture of contemporary Europe.
Europe, and especially Western Europe, is suffering from a crisis of civilizational morale. The most dramatic manifestations are not Europe's fondness for governmental bureaucracy or its devotion to fiscally shaky healthcare schemes and pension plans, its lagging productivity or the appeasement mentality that some leaders display toward Islamist terrorism. No, the most dramatic manifestation is the brute fact that Europe is depopulating itself.
Europe's below-replacement-level birthrates have created situations that would have been unimaginable when the European Common Market was being created in the 1950s. As recent demographic studies show, by the middle of the 21st century, 60% of Italians will have no personal experience of a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle or a cousin; Germany will lose the equivalent of the population of the former East Germany; and Spain's population will decline by almost one-quarter.
Europe is depopulating itself in numbers greater than at any time since the Black Death of the 14th century. When an entire continent, healthier, wealthier and more secure than ever before, fails to create the human future in the most elemental sense — by creating the next generation — something serious is afoot.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
They don't need to worry about population. Muslims will make up for the Europeans low birth rate.
Can the same be said for American W.A.S.P.s?
ah...the dirty little secret. Ssssh...mustn't mention that one.
Well, that rag WOULD know al about spiritual malaise. They spend a good deal of their editorial life engaging in it. What they consider news is laughable.
"Righteousness exhalts a nation:.." Proverbs 14:34
Sounds like the author is copying from Pat Buchanan's "Death of the West" w/o proper acknowledgement. Pat's thesis was if the faith dies, the population dies. This is what the author of the article is saying. Nothing new here.
The Green Movement is HUGE in Europe. Isn't this exactly what they are after - both here and in the USA? The only problem is, they (we?) aren't making plans to keep out the prolific Muslims who will turn the continent into an immense garbage dump with soaring empty cathedrals turned into public latrines.
But, one way or the other they'll get their wish. The European population is heading into free fall - first by the birthrate and then by the sword. The only question remaining is, will the aged Europeans all be euthanised painlessly by their Muslim populations or will they simply slit their throats and quickly put an end to their secularized welfare state?
Here's to the day that French, like Latin, becomes a dead language.
-R
The Euros are just making room for the Muslims.
My question is...does it really matter if the European population is going down? I certainly don't think so. It is all a matter of people making their choices not to have as many children as in the past. If it makes them happy, why take the choice away from them? Also, it is clear that the reason why birth rates are lowering is not a matter of the triumph of moral relativism, but the fact that most of Europe is in the first world. There is a lower death rate in well-to-do nations, hence a lower birth rate. The reason why population is booming in developing and third world nations is that people die more often there and more people are needed to make up for that!
Quite honestly, not even the Taliban could stop the undeniable truth that there is no absolute truth, only the one we choose to base our lives on. Not one person has the same exact version of morality to live by. They may claim to be part of a certain religion or creed, but everyone basically takes a line item veto to spots in their holy text which they disagree, and people disregard different things. And anyone who actually attempts to do everything that their holy book calls for would be locked up either in a mental institution or in jail!
Is this an invitation to anarchy? Not really...we must account for individual acts that undermine the individual pursuit of happiness: nonconsensual violence, fraud, and theft. Are there decrees in holy books that decry these things? Of course! Does that fact justify to enforcement of other "moral" laws. Of course not!
Your best bet is for the religious crusaders is to bow out of the public sector. Legislation has not saved one soul and it only makes people you have failed to convince's lives needlessly worse. Stick to spreading the message on the private sector...and in return the liberals should butt out of your private organizations guidelines.
It's a paradox actually..simple as that. And thanks for the welcome.
and yes..if you do choose not to believe it...it isn't true as what you experience is a result of bioelectrical impulses to your brain. Basically truth and consensus reality is a collaborative effort that we all are out of touch with to some degree. What I am basically saying is let an individual decide on what truth is for them...as it appears that the religious right want to enforce their version of truth for them. That is what I am trying to convince. I don't want to take away one's faith for it makes you happy and gives you purpose in this life. I just want you guys to admit that there are people who do not want to be saved and that legislation has never saved a soul.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
"A Europe claimed for the Crescent would have been laughable a millenium ago but thanks to European policies it may come to pass within a generation."
Heck, even 20 years ago this fate didn't even show on the radar. This has to be the quickest self-inflicted demise of a civilization in history.
Unbelievable.
You're ducking DarkSavant's point, which is that you can hardly proclaim relativism as absolute truth and expect to be taken seriously.
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