Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Europe’s Endangered Soul (Can the Continent survive the EU’s expansion?)
City Journal ^ | 06/12/10 | Philippe Nemo

Posted on 06/12/2010 10:07:54 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

Europe’s Endangered Soul

Can the Continent survive the EU’s expansion?

The European Union faces a major problem of governance, completely apart from its current difficulties with Greece. The politicians, administrators, and economists who run it, blind to the profound cultural and sociological dimensions of European society, are pushing unwise policies: expanded borders for the EU and continued heavy immigration from non-European countries. This is because the EU’s overseers, like all human beings, tend to be guided by their own interests. The bigger Europe gets, the more power, resources, and jobs flow to the bureaucracy of Brussels, and the more geopolitical prestige the Eurocrats gain. Thus the European machine has become self-propelled. And it has committed itself to a project that the peoples of Europe no longer understand.

This is something new. Until now, Europeans have broadly approved of the actions of the EU. The original idea of the EU’s founders was to establish peace on the Continent after centuries of war. And the construction of a united Europe did bring peace—the first total peace over such a long period since the Pax Romana—and, with it, economic growth. Consequently, people went along with what Brussels decided. No one asked their opinion, to be sure, but they approved of the EU’s overall direction, including stronger treaties and successive enlargements of the union, first to nine members, then 15, then 27.

The situation began to change with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the spread of globalization. A wholly new geopolitical situation required a rethinking of Europe: a redefinition of its purposes, structures, borders, and role alongside North America and the new Asia. But instead of rethinking, the technocrats have unhesitatingly marched forward, seeking to strengthen their bureaucracy as much as possible and to enlarge Europe indefinitely to the east and south.

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: eu; expansion; rulingclass; selfdestruction

1 posted on 06/12/2010 10:07:54 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: TigerLikesRooster; PAR35; AndyJackson; Thane_Banquo; nicksaunt; MadLibDisease; happygrl; ...

P!


2 posted on 06/12/2010 10:08:25 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (The way to crush the bourgeois is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TigerLikesRooster

It will never work.


3 posted on 06/12/2010 10:12:39 PM PDT by americanophile (November can't come fast enough....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TigerLikesRooster

How can a corpse have a soul?


4 posted on 06/12/2010 10:13:16 PM PDT by fwdude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fwdude

More like drones. Don’t have a soul to begin with.


5 posted on 06/12/2010 10:18:56 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (The way to crush the bourgeois is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: TigerLikesRooster

All they need is to copy the American 10th Amd.

That will keep the bloating European federal govt in check, like here in the USA.

/sarcasm


6 posted on 06/12/2010 10:35:35 PM PDT by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TigerLikesRooster

What the EU can’t survive is the fact that that the only ones there who are having babies are unassimilated Muslims.


7 posted on 06/12/2010 10:38:08 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Slings and Arrows

That is the sad truth. Europe is already dead.


8 posted on 06/13/2010 3:35:52 AM PDT by mike-zed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: TigerLikesRooster
More vindication of Thomas Sowell's concept of systemic societal organization versus social and economic engineering.

BTW, I have always disliked the terms social engineering and economic engineering. They very much impart a mistaken impression that there is some sort of precision or credible knowledge at work.

9 posted on 06/13/2010 4:10:01 AM PDT by Red Dog #1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TigerLikesRooster

The sixth paragraph from the top is the key.
I lived for six years in western Europe, all over, and I despair for them. However, in recent years, I have spent much time in Poland, and that country gives me hope.


10 posted on 06/13/2010 5:37:09 AM PDT by Malesherbes (Sauve qui peut)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TigerLikesRooster

......The original idea of the EU’s founders was to establish peace on the Continent ......

That was a selling point but not the real reason. The real and extremely complex reason was to remove the mishmash of laws of various governments that thwarted trade, business ,and the ease of daily life. With uniformity of standards, removal of travel restrictions, removal of restrictive regulation and taxes, business and life could be improved.

Being many nations was a drag on the whole. Having some measures of conformity released that drag.

They tried for too much too soon. Zealots prevailed and the results of being overzealous are surfacing. The original goal is still worthy, but there will be some retrograde action to get back on course.


11 posted on 06/13/2010 5:51:59 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Ostracize Democrats. There can be no Democrat friends.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson