Victor Davis Hanson: A Letter to the Europeans. Cry the beloved continent

NRO ^ | January 06, 2006 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tenacious 1]

I recommend that you print it out and anonymously put it in all the mail boxes around you.

[Tax-chick]

bttt

[OKIEDOC]

Good observation.

Europe has chosen French cowardice.

That is price countries pay when they no longer have a moral basis to fall back on.

[OKIEDOC]

Right now if Iran declares war on your Germany they like the French would have to surrender immediately.

Most Middle Eastern Islamic countries have bigger and stronger armies than any country I can think of in Europe.

If it wasn't for pissing off the US, the Arabs would be marching down main street Europe.

The Jewish extermination by Hitler would seem like a picnic compared to what these Arabs would do to the general population.

How many ways can you say extermination to all non Muslims.

Pull your head out and think about what it is your supporting.

[absalom01]

I think you missed VDH's point. He's saying that radical Islam poses an urgent threat to Europa, and that the current intellectual climate is such that it is impossible to consider the nature and extent of that challenge in polite company. He's not slamming Europe, just pointing out that you might want to consider manning the watch.

Your situation in Germany is different than France and the low countries, but is troubling nonetheless. Hop on the train to Rotterdam and take a trolly down to the stadium, and you'll get the idea of what VDH is talking about more directly.

There was one other article by Mark Steyn posted a couple of days ago on this topic that was more blunt. (link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550710/posts )

Here's the salient point from Steyn : "The challenge for those who reckon western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the west."

For what it's worth, I think that Steyn's more pessimistic view is correct. Sure hope I'm wrong, though.

[oldbrowser]

European Union diplomats, who themselves operate as Greek philosophers in the agora only on the condition that Americans will once more play the role of Roman legionaries in the shadows.

I think this time around we should start "taxing" countries for liberating them or providing security for their lame governments.

[Billthedrill]

We wish you well in your faith that war has become obsolete and that outlaw nations will comply with international jurisprudence that was born and is nurtured in Europe.

That was the sad and false dream of the entire post-WWII world, not just Europe. The idea, as I remember it, was that WWII was so horrible that war in general was an unthinkable alternative in international relations.

People forget, but more to the point, young people do not believe, and to a new generation that did not experience the horrors of the camps and the trenches war seems, as it has always seemed, a viable alternative. I have yet to find in history a time when people so convinced have been talked out of the notion. And it doesn't take very many of them, either, in an age where technology offers a huge destructive force to relatively few.

There is an underlying pacifist assumption that only conquerors and would-be conquerors possess swords, and that universal disarmament will result in a rejection of force as a policy tool. That is a lesson people must un-learn as often as the "war is a first resort" lesson.

Beat the plowshares back into swords. The other was a maiden aunt's dream. - Robert Heinlein.

[King Prout]

too good to not megaping

[Grampa Dave]

Mark Stein addressed the dying Euro nations yesterday with his insight. Between the two articles, we can see the coming demise of Europe as it has been and their impact on Blue America, aka, our disloyal Rat party.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550710/posts

It's the demography, stupid ..... Mark Steyn
The New Criterion ^ | 2 Jan 2006 | Mark Steyn


Posted on 01/02/2006 12:04:17 PM PST by Rummyfan

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550710/posts

[Travis McGee]

Demography is destiny.

In 50 years, the muezzin will call Allahuh Akbar from the minarets of the mosque which was once Notre Dame.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Carry_Okie]

In 50 years, the muezzin will call Allahuh Akbar from the minarets of the mosque which was once Notre Dame.

Given the degree to which France is nulear, methinks we have an interest in precluding that event.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

A decent read.

Typically, I admire the writing of VDH. But there are some points in the article I disagree with. First, I don't like the hyper-humility with which he presents America. We are not the intellectual, aesthetic, artistic and moral inferiors of Europe. We need not apologize or beg acceptance by them. Yes, we grew out of them, but as much in resistance and in contrariety to what they became as from our shared values.

That contrariety has led to the second great divide between a once powerful unity. From the beginning of our shared socio-political foundations in the soil of Attic Greece, there has been a divide between the State and the Individual. Most of what VDH refers to can be reduced to adhering to either of these principles. Much of the ills he cites are from adhering to the former. That which distinguishes American history and that is at the root of much of European and Islamofascist loathing of us (part of the ideology that unites Leftists with terrorists) is our adherence to the latter principle.

His cry for the EU to save Europe is misguided. The EU was developed by Socialists as a last-ditch effort to unify the economies of Europe in order to compete with and suffocate the free-market economy of America. It is another nail in their coffin, not a breaking-free of their shackles.

While I join him in hoping Europe pulls together to protect the foundational precepts that are the core of Western civilization, at this point we are calling for Europe to save herself from herself. That is, they need to return to the liberal (in the classical sense) principles that began when they shed the yoke of monarchy and of economic systems ruled by the central management of monarchies and other undemocratic governments. As usual, this will probably happen, if it happens, only after the cultural climate gets far more tyrannical and the bloodshed far more gruesome. In the meantime, the EU may well aid the Islamofascists in their goal of surrounding and isolating America as the last bastion of freedom to be conquered. Thus the great campaign of the State against the Individual rages on. And we Americans find ourselves, again, sacrificing much and risking all in order to preserve liberty. Cry the beloved continent.

[x]

He's actually right this time -- the European system isn't sustainable -- but he's way too hectoring. Imagine how we'd react if a European wrote in such a condescending tone to Americans. It's not the way you treat people you want to win over. Of course, VD's not really writing to them, but to Americans who already accept his point of view.

This I have to wonder about, though:

In the multiracial society of the United States, an American black, Asian, or Latino finds natural affinity in London and Brussels in a way not true in Lagos, Ho Chi Minh City, or Lima. For millions of Americans "Eurocentric" is no slur — for it is an appellation of shared values and ideas not of race.

It was certainly true twenty or fifty years ago that Americans felt closer to Europe than to those other parts of the world. Europe was "home" even to those who weren't of predominantly European ancestry -- though of course, our relationship to Europe, whatever our race or ancestry, has been a complicated and conflicted one.

Is it still true now that Americans, White or Black or Asian or Latino feel closer to Europe than to Asia or Latin America or Australia or Africa? As different as other parts of the world may be, widespread American popular culture has a way of smoothing the way for us, at least in the cities.

Our schooling doesn't make us feel closer to Europe as it once did. If things continue in the same way for 20 more years, we'll feel as much in or out of place in Lima or Tokyo or Lagos as in Paris or Rome or Copenhagen. Of course, as other countries develop their own popular culture and make their own particular adaptations to modernity, this may all change, and make the outside world more alien.

[Tolik]

And it doesn't take very many of them, either, in an age where technology offers a huge destructive force to relatively few.

There is an underlying pacifist assumption that only conquerors and would-be conquerors possess swords, and that universal disarmament will result in a rejection of force as a policy tool. That is a lesson people must un-learn as often as the "war is a first resort" lesson.

This is exactly what scares me the most. We in the West (and I think we can include large parts of Asia too) perfectly understand the benefits of peace.

But there were, there are now and probably always will be ruthless people who get instant advantage acting uncivilized way inside of the pacifist crowd. When such ruthless people are not just opportunist who can be bought off (at least in theory) but adherents of an irreconcilable religious fanaticism; and when technological advances allow small numbers of people to create chaos in the society that only huge armies of the past were capable of doing; all this in the open and accessible world -- it is scary. Especially so that large part of the population (half here and most abroad) deny that such threat exists at all.

The only solution is (like VDH and others noted) is for adults to quietly do their business and try to educate "teenagers" if it all possible.

[Eaker]

And if somebody has won the cold war then it's germany - now sited in the center of a new europe.

Are you talking about the cold war with the former Soviet Union?

Please let me know how Germany won the cold war.

Some folks around here were thinking that Ronald Reagan had a hand in that.

[goldstategop]

I don't mind the demise of Europe. The loss of a model for our Democrats would be a blessing in disguise. If the welfare state can't be sustained over there in another generation, the odds are a European-type welfare state would die aborning in America. The Europeans act like immature children ignorant of the world's real troubles. Whether they grow up is up to them. We are quite simply tired of their anti-Americanism and refusal to shoulder their share of responsibility for the defense of the civilized world. I'm probably the last American alive whose parents were born in the old European heartlands. And if the Continent is in a predicament, it is one of its own making. For following in the footpath of the socialist philosophies is a sure and swift descent to the grave. Europe deserves better than what its present leaders have given it.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[bruin66]

Brilliant! Sign me up. Thanks

[A'elian' nation]

"Hanson and Steyn double ping "

Speaking of Steyn, I am surprised I haven't seen this Mark Steyn piece (It's the Demography, Stupid!) posted on FR.
It is the perfect complement to this Hanson article and should also be saved on everyone's hard drive.
It is a bit long, but you will be richly rewarded by reading it:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760