Translation provided by a long time reader of SDA;
What Broder describes could be applied to the pathologies we see here, especially since we have devolved into a single, ruling-party state, with no opposition worthy of the name or that current circumstance demands.
– Joe
Out of the European idea, a totalitarian idea has emerged with a dangerous inclination toward all-encompassing bullying. There are many reasons for concern and optimism
By Henryk M. Broder
There is something in the air. The wind rustles in the tops of the trees, the ferrets withdraw to their beds, and people look anxiously toward the heavens, even though the meteorologists have issued no warnings. It is the quiet before the storm. The election (ed. September 22, 2013) battles have begun slowly. It is about social justice, about a fair distribution [of wealth], day care facilities for all children, protection of the private sector against data theft.
There is one subject that rarely is discussed: Europe. It is avoided, even though the last Europe-crisis is a few weeks back, and the signs multiply indicating the need for another aid package for Greece of several billion [Euros]. Of course, like the previous aid package, it is intended for the banks, not the suffering Greeks, to whom the banks have extended credit that now appears to be in a precarious position.
All parties avoid the topic of “alternatives for Germany,” although all parties in their various programs profess to support “Europe” with the goal of European integration so that one day, the “United States of Europe” can become the political counterpoint and economic counterweight to the United States
Stand-in place-agreement between the parties
A year ago, the slogan “Dare more for Europe” (ed. in practice, it has meant ceding German sovereignty to Brussels, including paying more to subsidize economically weak member states) was spoken everywhere. Why, then, do we not hear of the future plans that will fundamentally alter our lives? Why does the Chancellor [Angela Merkel] visit a former concentration camp so that she can talk about the horrors of the past? And why do the leading Social Democrats–[Sigmar] Gabriel, [Peer] Steinbrück, [Frank-Walter] Steinmeier–read to children the story of the “Bremen City Musicians” at a street festival (ed. A Grimm fairytale here summarized and adapted from “about.com German Language”: The tale is of …a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, who have all outlived their usefulness to their masters. Each of the animals has discovered he is about to meet a most unpleasant fate. The donkey is the first to set out on the road to Bremen. Along the way he meets his three companions. Although they all agree to start new lives as musicians in Bremen, things turn out differently. As we follow the tale, we discover that things are not always what they seem, and the animals find unexpected opportunities.)? It is because they are so taken by the phrase, “You can find everywhere something better than death,” as though it were a perspective for them for the time after the elections this year?
I do not believe in conspiracy theories, nor in an agreement in the business of politics based on the belief that each is his own closest [friend]. But in this case one can justifiably surmise and assume that there is a stand-in place agreement between the parties: if you say nothing, neither will I. Because he who is the first to say something or moves, will trigger an avalanche.
Finally, in the last months, the Chancellor has repeatedly claimed and declared, “If the Euro fails, Europe fails! ” Was the threat only a tactic in order to have her politics of “no-other-alternative” prevail, or does the survival of Europe really depend on the survival of the Euro? In any case, Europe existed before the Euro was introduced in 2002. Should the Euro be removed one day, because nothing lasts forever, Europe will continue to exist, even if in a form different from one imagined by the Eurocrats.
A EU Parliament without Influence
It is clear to me that I have already been “outed” as a “Europe critic,” a “Europe-skeptic” when not also as an “enemy of Europe” because of such sentences. The belief in Europe has become a secular religion whose first commandment is, “You have to accept and acquiesce to everything that is declared in Brussels!” The individual who does not, is a heretic. Such individual will not be condemned to burn at the stake, as during the Inquisition. But in a manner “hard but also fair,” it will be made clear that should Europe fail, then it is the fault of the critics who had destroyed Europe with their writings.
That is how all totalitarian systems function. They begin with the intent and promise to make all happy; when the individual’s idea of happiness differs from that of those intent on achieving that state, then you have to “help” until the last skeptic grasps that it is better to swim with the flow than against it.
The EU is on the best road to becoming a Soviet Union with a human face. Naturally, without forced labor camps or an absence of consumer goods. However with a separation-of-powers that mocks the very idea. The EU-Parliament has a largely symbolic function: it mainly passes resolutions. Power resides with the Commission which acts as a legislative and executive body, a first in the history of “democratic” institutions which had heretofore been set up to monitor and limit each other’s actions.
Brussel’s Mania to Regulate
There are 28 commissars whose competence and responsibilities are not clearly defined, who, in part overlap and contradict each other–the one commissar subsidizes growing of tobacco, the other finances campaigns to warn about the dangers of consuming tobacco products–and are busy regulating the lives of 500 million Europeans. From Lapland to Calabria (at the tip of Italy), from Masuria (in northeast Poland) to Algarve (the south of Portugal), all people are to use the same light bulbs. Regardless of the situation or circumstance in a particular country, all are to save electric power and water, to have their cars inspected at the same frequency, and, before a purchase, learn by heart the established product categories.
The Eurocrat-mania to regulate does not serve to improve the quality of life [of the individual]; it sustains and maintains only one “apparat,” an institution that has developed into a-state-above-the-states: 28 commissars, 754 deputies, and almost 50,000 officials and employees who constantly invent something new in order to justify their existence: a new regulation. For example, there is a regulation applicable to sugar-free chewing gum which is to “aid and maintain tooth mineralization” but in such a way that “the positive effect ceases after a minimum chewing lasting for 20-minutes after eating or drinking.”
While the conditions of life are to be homogenized, Europeans themselves would rather diversify. The Eurocrats are stirring a stew, while Europe transforms itself into something akin to a quilt, composed of disparate parts stitched together. Even small ethnic groups, like the Kosovars, Macedonians, and Montenegrins, are striving for independence. In 1988, not long before the turn of the century, 33 national soccer teams competed for the European championship. By 2012, there were 53, including Moldavia and the Faroe Islands (northwest of Scotland in the Gulf Stream).
And there is nothing that would speak against such. The attempt to level or eliminate differences inevitably leads to the exact opposite. There is no such entity as the “Nation of Europe,” no “European identity,” no “European narrative.” There is no “European foreign policy” and no “European-sentiment” good for aught else than keeping itself separate from the USA. At best, Europe is a free market region, a single market with open borders. That should suffice.
Henryk Broder’s new book, The Last Days of Europe, how we are sinking a good idea, will be available in book stores, beginning August 26, 2013
I would concur. The camps will come later.
That was the plan from the beginning. Of course the human face won’t last very long. You can’t keep slaves in line without stomping on them regularly.
But of course, feign surprise.
As has been pointed out for years, the plan goes far far back and you have to understand that bit and the type of people that envisaged and set up its structure, once understood it comes as no surprise, international socialism in all its guises is ultimately a self destruct culture.
For those that seek to understand the EU. I recommend reading the excellent Richard North articles on the EU at or via his blog EU referendum, someone who has done the leg work and does understand how it works, its history and how the beast can’t be killed.
Ultimately that is the sad fact, so all thats left is observing the collapse of centuries of western civilisation and trying your level best to avoid the fall out for your meagre “strut across the stage of life”.
It’s the Eurotopian mindset. They’ve been moving in that direction for centuries with ever increasing body counts “You want peace, security and prosperity? Let us rule and we’ll give it to you.”
As Christopher Monkton has stated may times, when the soviet system collapsed, it put thousands of career soviet bureaucrats and social engineers on the street – many of them used the rising EU regime as a life raft in the rising waters of anti-sovietism which swept out the old soviet regime/oligarchs in Russia. Obviously it was an easy transition for them.
It seems though that the various productive EU states are as opposed to soviet style collectivism/control as Russians were and this is fueling an organic anti-EU movement in Euro grass roots politics.
Please tell me again why we wasted so many young lives saving these fools and idiots from Germany?
The Austrians, Hungarians, Croats, and Czechs (among others who experienced the tender mercies of the USSR) have learned that any government or political party that dissents from what is expected from the satellite states will pay a heavy price.
The Euro-topian experiment out of Brussels has no army.
It depends on intimidation, on submission by the citizens of European nation states, on a “folie a deux”.
Whenever, one or more countries simply ignore Brussels in favour of national interest, it will collapse.
The bureaucrats will panic and run through the looking glass into their natural habitat, Wonderland.
In the meantime there will be much smoke and mirrors.
The Euros are really no different than North Americans who fought in Europe in the ’40’s. Horrific loss of life and untold suffering by millions. That generation, survivors of the Great Depression and WW II were determined to build safety nets that would withstand economic and military threats.
The false promises of communism and socialism were repeated until they were embraced both in Euroland and North America. Affordability was never a serious concern as economies grew and those that warned against were ignored. The forces of conservatism and free markets did a poor job of explaining their philosophy and thusly we end where we are.
The next economic collapse will be in Europe but possibly Japan. The only thing holding the EU together is the EU Central Bank which has promised to buy member debt to solidify financing in all the southern EU members. That works only as long as Germany supports them. We will see how Merkel fairs in up coming elections. At what point does Germany cut their losses and realize it will be cheaper to compete internationally with their own currency.
Reading Mauldin this weekend and he is convinced that France will fall into crisis either this fall or next spring. That could easily be the tipping point.
Friedrich Hayek warned about this in “The Road to Serfdom”.
“Angie, Angie, when will those clouds all disappear?
Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here?
With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats
You can’t say were satisfied
But Angie, Angie, you can’t say we never tried.” rolling stones
“If the Euro fails Europe fails.” Angela Markel
Well Babe stick a fork in it your done.
As I was saying to Kathy Shaidle earlier today, modern Europe and every other socialist enterprise these days can be summed in two pithy phrases.
1) One size fits all.
2) People are stupid, they must be controlled.
That’s the whole philosophical thrust of socialism/fascism/Greenie-ism or what have you in a nutshell. That’s their goal. Uniformity and regulation of all things, including thought and feeling.
But don’t worry. Its all for the children.
Ah, Justthinkin is thinking.
In recent years I’ve become more or less anti-military and am inching toward pacifism.
Über anarcho-capitalist libertarian Murray Rothbard thought we should eschew conventional warfare and take out conquerors via guerrilla warfare. It seems to have worked well for the Taliban!
But yeah, I find myself getting further and further away from support our troops conventional conservative thinking and now pretty well consider our entrance into BOTH world wars ill advised.
Remember, as Elaine taught us, Tolstoy’s original title was War: What’s it Good For (ab-so-lute-ly nothing).
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRUIAlwYG4oc
“In recent years I’ve become more or less anti-military and am inching toward pacifism.”
Its not so much you leaving them, its more them leaving you, am I right?
Because they are leaving us. Check this:
http://www.infowars.com/dod-training-manual-suggests-extremist-founding-fathers-would-not-be-welcome-in-todays-military/
The infowars web site is the home of fruitcakes, but the article comes from Judicial Watch which is deadly serious. Training manual in question comes from https://www.deomi.org/ “Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute”.
“Founding Fathers of the USA would now be terrorists” is what they’re teaching at ROTC in certain places, apparently. Ever wonder where camp guards come from, this is where.
So yeah, kinda feeling a little anti-military too, given that. I was never super pro-military myself, the Canadian peacetime army always seemed like a really easy place to get killed by somebody else’s screwup. The American army (with certain glaring exceptions) seems more like a meals-on-wheels program run by goofs who can’t get a job anywhere else.
The EU is on the best road to becoming a Soviet Union with a human face. Naturally, without forced labor camps or an absence of consumer goods.
No absence of consumer goods? I suspect the Greeks would like to have a word with you about that one, and they lining up for food parcels paid for by emigres and distributed by the Golden Dawn in this, the fourth year of Romanianization, with no end in sight. They might tell you as well about they have to bribe a doctor to so much as look at their sick children. Prescription drugs? Forget it, unless you have relatives abroad willing to pay German prices for the pills, or a way of getting yourself to FYROMacedonia or Bulgaria—Greece’s pharmacies are empty, thanks to the drug companies’ denying them credit.
I was going to say they’re not quite at the stage where they have only two hours of telly a day. Then, of course, I remembered that the Greek government had done the Romanians one better—they shut down the TV station completely for months after the station’s journalists made the mistake of reporting actual news.
(ERT only came back up last week, renamed EDT, reduced to showing old movies and “news” consisting of re-written wire reports from foreign agencies that could be trusted to follow the bankster line.)
The biggest difference between what the Greeks are forced to endure and communism is that under communism, the leaders at least pretended to pay the people, and the people pretended to work. In Greece, even the pretense of the distribution of purchasing power has been dispensed with.
No labour camps? I’ll give you that. Doing the work that actually needs doing is what African and Asian immigrants will be for in whatever replaces Greece, and the Greeks aren’t so far along the road to extinction (yet) that a reserve could be found big enough to fit them all.
More likely the land itself will be converted into an open-air prison, with only those Greeks lucky enough to have rich relatives abroad willing to pay hard cash for the freedom of their flesh and blood permitted an exit visa. Ceausescu’s sales of Transylvanian Saxons to Germany and Jews to Israel went a fair distance towards paying off Romania’s debts. Sounds like a more promising racket than selling oil and gas fields the Turks won’t let anyone develop, and the money’ll come in quicker.
That was good Dick!
The ONLY thing that kept all of Europe from going over to the Stalinists after WWII was AMERICA.
Now what?
Who is surprised?
Know your frikin enemies!