Posted on 09/01/2003 11:10:47 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
In a period of two weeks during August, more than 11,000 elderly French men and women died of heat stroke. It is important to note this is not nearly the scandal in France that it would be in America. In fact, upon hearing the news, French president Jacques Chirac decided to stay on vacation in Quebec, Canada.
Why not? Because, in the words of British historian Paul Johnson, the French – like most Europeans, and like most left-thinking people anywhere – love ideas more than people. The average educated European can intelligently discuss Hegel or Matisse almost as well as the average educated American – who probably never heard of Hegel or Matisse – can discuss real estate or sports.
Europe has given the world Marxism, communism, fascism, Nazism, racism and socialism, all rotten ideas that have caused immeasurable human suffering. But for Europeans and their ideological twins on the American left and at universities, ideas are not judged by their ability to ameliorate human suffering or reduce evil, but by their complexity and apparent profundity. An idea is not good because it produces good – that's unromantic American pragmatism – it is good because it sounds good.
Eleven thousand unnecessary deaths occurred in France largely because socialism inevitably breeds hedonism, selfishness and callousness.
As ironic as it may seem, but the fact is that socialism – i.e., cradle-to-grave state welfare – makes people worse.
First, the socialist mind loathes work. In France, the legal length of the work week is 35 hours. Working hard to make more money is an American value that is held in contempt by the Left. The New York Times recently featured an article describing the death of the Protestant work ethic in secular, socialist Europe and the thriving of that ethic in America – and that this explains the far greater productivity and affluence of America. The Judeo-Christian tradition values work; secularism doesn't. And as we all know from watching our children, people with a lot of time on their hands have character problems.
Second, socialism values equality more than liberty. The Norwegian government recently passed a law that the boards of its largest corporations must be half female. The California left – the Democratic Party – just passed a law that no employer may fire a male employee who wears women's clothing at work. Because the Left holds liberty (except sexual liberty) in lower esteem, Europe has raised a generation that does not value liberty nearly as much Americans do (though we're getting there).
Third, socialism teaches you to avoid taking care of other people. The state will – why should you? If people in France and elsewhere in Europe take less care of their aging parents, it is because they are taught from childhood to allow others – i.e., the state – to take care of everybody. Just as we saw in America when the state stepped in to take care of women who had children without a husband, these women increasingly refused to marry and felt little compunction about having more babies out of wedlock. The bigger the government, the worse the people.
Fourth, as a result of this socialist mindset, people in socialist countries give little charity, while Americans give vast amounts (just as Americans in conservative states give more charity per capita than people in liberal ones).
Fifth, the larger the state, the more callous it becomes. Twentieth-century evil was made possible in large measure by the bureaucratic mentality – the type of person who is merely a cog in huge governmental machine, collectively all-powerful but individually powerless to do anything except take and execute orders. The bigger the state, the colder its heart. (It is also true that the bigger the corporation, the more callous its heart. But unlike the state, corporations have competition and have no police powers.)
As I wrote in a previous column, the future of the world is either European secular socialism, Islamic totalitarianism or the unique American combination of Judeo-Christian religiosity and political and economic liberty.
Few Americans are attracted to the second possibility, but vast numbers look to Europe as a model. One hopes that the next time they do, they will note the 11,000 elderly dead in France. But don't bet on it.
...It takes a village...to raise a child...to take care of the elderly...or to allow 11,000 people to die of heat stroke...
Uh, not to pick nits here, but does the author really think that a European invented racism?
...All good questions...And you are on the 'right track'...France has been a socialist country for quite some time...The term 'socialist' is not always fashionable so I'm sure that other labels are used ['progressive', 'labor', 'third-way' or whatever the French equivalents would be]...
...It is quite obvious to you or me that if we 'blow' our entire paycheck at the Las Vegas card tables...And we can therefore not make our typical monthly payments...That the state/government will not buy you food, pay your rent or make your car payment [assuming for the moment that we are not on welfare, etc.]...That is to say that we understand the relationship between the 'state' and 'civil society'...We know what to expect [and what not to expect] from each...
...One of the dangers with socialism is that the relationship between 'civil society' and the 'state' can get quite confused...Individuals might start to expect the 'state' to provide things such as food, shelter and transportation...And everything is just fine until the 'state' can't [or refuses] to provide one [or all] of these services...This is when individuals end up starving to death...Or die of heat stroke in this case...
...Just remember that the government is the same bunch of guys that runs the I.R.S., D.M.V. and Postal Sevice...Do you really want this bunch to be responsible to make sure that you are clothed, sheltered and fed [or even have air conditioning]?
When state-run hospitals and state-run nursing homes are full of people dying like flies, the head of state shouldn't be blamed?
Asians are, if anything, far more race conscious than Americans or Europeans but to the best of my knowledge they never developed the philosophical and pseudo-scientific support structure which the Europeans did. Racism aside, the writer is correct that all of the great "ism's" that led to more than 100 million dead in the past century originated in the cafes, salons, and beer halls of Europe.
Compare with the opinion expressed in American Beliefs by a professor of American Culture in Spain. His point was that the English Colonies had no gold or silver, and were good for nothing except as farmland if cleared of the old growth of trees and vines. So the British colonies were pretty useless without the input of a lot of labor. And although there were many slaves imported from Africa to the southern colonies, most of the workers were imported from Europe--not only from Britain but from Germany (I'm descended from some Lutheran pastors) and from other European countries.Here the need was for people who would get calluses on their hands--and that need was an opportunity far better than anything available elsewhere, if you didn't have anything but your own labor. Here you could actually earn the title to--gasp!--land!. Title to land was not on the market in any such way in Europe; most of it was tied up in feudal estates.
The upshot is that Americans culturally respect honest work, in a way that the British and other aristocratic countries simply did not. And, Prager is saying here, those same countries still don't.
Which could have been an artifact of the general trend of the time, that is, the search for scientific explainations for all manner of things. I wonder, if Attila's henchman had a kind of scientific method at their disposal, how the Romans would have rated?
Racism aside, the writer is correct that all of the great "ism's" that led to more than 100 million dead in the past century originated in the cafes, salons, and beer halls of Europe.
No argument there. What's the saying about "idle hands"?
Good post. I have a book of accounts from the earliest colonial times and one of the funniest things is that even colonists in the late 1600s began showing "American" traits. The pioneer who was nothing and worth nothing would come over to America and start a successful farm. The guy was lord of his land (and made sure everyone knew it) and it really pissed off the local gentry who were aristorcrats in the old world.
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