Posted on 02/11/2003 4:19:34 PM PST by LS
EUROPE: SICK (posted 2-11-03)
Larry Schweikart, professor of history, University of Dayton, writing in Conservativenet, a daily electronic newsletter (February 11, 2003):
What we are dealing with in Europe is first of all economic: the Euros have been quasi-socialists for decades and has been drifting hard-core socialist for some 20 years. Between 1970 and 1990, Europe created ZERO net new jobs. This is a sick society. There is a ray of hope---Ireland, whose economy with low taxes is booming and actually placing ads for workers from other places in Europe. The collapse of socialism, both theoretically and practically, has angered these people to no end. Like a terminal cancer patient lashing out at the doctor for showing him the X-rays, the Euros know that their quest for an even more massively-socialized system is in trouble. It is jealousy, pure and simple (not that the U.S. system couldn't return to more of its free-market roots, but we are leagues ahead of the Euros, and at least creeping forward instead of collapsing backward).
Second, as this article and many others point out, there is a jealousy derived from European insignificance after the Cold War. Quite simply, during the Cold War, the Soviet threat to invade Europe made them need us, and they couldn't insult us too much. We needed them---or rather, their bases and territory. Does anyone seriously think that the handful of French sub-based nukes frightened the Kremlin planners even a little? Now that we no longer need their geography, however, but only WANT their friendship, it is a different matter. Mark my words: if they do not straighten up, not only will NATO vanish quickly, but new, individual alliances between the U.S., Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and other former "east" European countries will emerge. These nations looked to OUR free-market economists for advice in restructuring their economies and thus are much closer philosophically on some matters than "Old Europe."
Third, for both France and Germany, there are real ego issues. France has not fought a war on its own, which it won, since 1807. Germany has been on the wrong end of dozens of colonial conflicts leading up to WW I and II. Aside from the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars, the vaunted German military psyche has to go back to Marshal Blucher to take any pride in its actual battlefied accomplishments.
Last, and for me, most important, there is a chasm of spiritual separation between the Continent and the U.S. Pentecostal faiths are viewed as "cults" in France, and more than a few street preachers have been arrested and churches closed. While there are millions of faithful Christians of all denominations still in Europe, a shroud of religious bigotry has descended, and it ain't against Muslims. Remarkably, in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, and other eastern, Orthodox countries, Protestant evangelism is growing.
So in four separate areas---economic, military, psyche/ego, and spiritual---I see Old Europe in decay, and quite aware of its predicament. And they hate us for their decay.
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