Unlike the Ancient Roman Empire which was officially split into Western and Eastern halves the Western World has not yet been divided into two or three or four. But!!!
Europe's gilded elites, from EU Commissioners to Rutte in NATO to Central Bankers, determine our fate but they do so not in references to us, who finance them through assorted direct and indirect taxes, from personal taxes to Customs Union receipts, but in reference to each other, from within the Commission and in numerous international bodies. They long ago spiralled into a delusional world of their own.
If I had an EU Commissioner's salary, gold plated pension, special low tax regime, and overall lifestyle of chauffer driven limos and other perks, then I too might be tempted to spout the delusional nonsense that passes for thinking in these elites. In fact, give me this now and I will happily repeat progressive, liberal elite mantras while feathering my nest and planning my own cushy hinterland somewhere to escape the damage inflected on everyone else. Much as I deplore the elites let us not succumb to the fantasy that we would behave differently, that we would be completley immune to fallability and self-serving behaviour. That is, the very structures the elites have built are self-perpetuating and corrupt all.
But, were decisions taken by us ordinary people from outside these structures - i.e were democracy real and effective so that EU referendums, for example, were not ignored or repeated until we vote the 'right way' or in the UK our votes for lower immigration respected - then we would not have run down our armed forces, deindustrialised our economies, opened our borders in some fantasy about how cultures can be mixed without consequences to moral cohesion, would not denigrate our past, would not have infected education with ultra progressive unreality, and Europe would be quite different. We would be a collection of proud nation states with bilateral treaties of mutual benefit on a case by case basis only.
The strong, confident and secure can be generous to others, would be generous. But the largesse to the world of our elites is based on a fanatasy. We are not the strong and secure they like to believe and behaving as though we were is undermining any chance of becoming so. The delusional world of our elites and their status in it will be our undoing, is ever more clearly becoming that undoing.
Two great fantasies: that Christendom and Islam are compatible and can mix peacefully, and that debt financed economies - the UK is now spending £116 billion a year on debt servicing - are sustainable. On the latter the elites know that they are not but the radical measures needed are politically unpalatable. On the former, they are running scared. For both tinkering at the edges are all we are getting but those edges are increasingly frayed.
There is an interesting substack released yesterday by Mary Harrington (The Hegemon and the Hegemon) which states "European elites are both reflexively Anti-American and also totally America-brained". She states that there is much more agreement between European elites and Democrat elites e.g. they probably agree we are "a basket of deplorables" though it is useful that Frank reminds us that European elites were excluded from America-Russia discussions in early 2022. Also we must ask ourselves whether the biggest attraction of supporting Ukraine for Biden and Co was the opportunity for grifting it afforded them.
A perceptive article; there seems to be a recurrent theme of the West as being perpetually prone to internal critique and division, the recent US/EU clash illustrate the issues at stake. On a level the EU represents a form of Western Civilization that has willed itself into impotence both domestically and internationally; this cultivation of institutional impotence is the unfolding of the EU’s cultural disdain for all domestic forms of tradition which extends to scientific innovation that lends itself to the extension of human agency. It’s tempting to imagine that the division between the US and EU represents an overlap of cultural and political division akin to the Cold war. However, we know that this division is transnational and lies between those who want to revive the ideals of the West in terms of human freedom, Scientific innovation, and growing material wealth and those in the West who are driven by little more than self-loathing. My hope is that the part of the West that still loves itself can make common cause (across national borders) in fighting against the existential threats that our self-loathing leaders seem all too keen to accommodate or to surrender to.
It is interesting travelling in Eastern Europe. These countries are very nationalistic with very long memories and an ambivalent attitude to Russia and communism. We are travelling with lots of older Americans who have a touching faith in NATO. The Eastern Europeans too seem to want to part of the EU but are fiercely nationalistic. The decay in Western Europe is evident. The lack of safety on the streets is evident. Eastern Europe feels safer and is obviously poorer relying onEU money to help them. I hope these Eastern Europeans can maintain their character and sort of shabby feel.
Europe's gilded elites, from EU Commissioners to Rutte in NATO to Central Bankers, determine our fate but they do so not in references to us, who finance them through assorted direct and indirect taxes, from personal taxes to Customs Union receipts, but in reference to each other, from within the Commission and in numerous international bodies. They long ago spiralled into a delusional world of their own.
If I had an EU Commissioner's salary, gold plated pension, special low tax regime, and overall lifestyle of chauffer driven limos and other perks, then I too might be tempted to spout the delusional nonsense that passes for thinking in these elites. In fact, give me this now and I will happily repeat progressive, liberal elite mantras while feathering my nest and planning my own cushy hinterland somewhere to escape the damage inflected on everyone else. Much as I deplore the elites let us not succumb to the fantasy that we would behave differently, that we would be completley immune to fallability and self-serving behaviour. That is, the very structures the elites have built are self-perpetuating and corrupt all.
But, were decisions taken by us ordinary people from outside these structures - i.e were democracy real and effective so that EU referendums, for example, were not ignored or repeated until we vote the 'right way' or in the UK our votes for lower immigration respected - then we would not have run down our armed forces, deindustrialised our economies, opened our borders in some fantasy about how cultures can be mixed without consequences to moral cohesion, would not denigrate our past, would not have infected education with ultra progressive unreality, and Europe would be quite different. We would be a collection of proud nation states with bilateral treaties of mutual benefit on a case by case basis only.
The strong, confident and secure can be generous to others, would be generous. But the largesse to the world of our elites is based on a fanatasy. We are not the strong and secure they like to believe and behaving as though we were is undermining any chance of becoming so. The delusional world of our elites and their status in it will be our undoing, is ever more clearly becoming that undoing.
Two great fantasies: that Christendom and Islam are compatible and can mix peacefully, and that debt financed economies - the UK is now spending £116 billion a year on debt servicing - are sustainable. On the latter the elites know that they are not but the radical measures needed are politically unpalatable. On the former, they are running scared. For both tinkering at the edges are all we are getting but those edges are increasingly frayed.
There is an interesting substack released yesterday by Mary Harrington (The Hegemon and the Hegemon) which states "European elites are both reflexively Anti-American and also totally America-brained". She states that there is much more agreement between European elites and Democrat elites e.g. they probably agree we are "a basket of deplorables" though it is useful that Frank reminds us that European elites were excluded from America-Russia discussions in early 2022. Also we must ask ourselves whether the biggest attraction of supporting Ukraine for Biden and Co was the opportunity for grifting it afforded them.
I think you are correct. Miranda Devine’s book is very informative.
A perceptive article; there seems to be a recurrent theme of the West as being perpetually prone to internal critique and division, the recent US/EU clash illustrate the issues at stake. On a level the EU represents a form of Western Civilization that has willed itself into impotence both domestically and internationally; this cultivation of institutional impotence is the unfolding of the EU’s cultural disdain for all domestic forms of tradition which extends to scientific innovation that lends itself to the extension of human agency. It’s tempting to imagine that the division between the US and EU represents an overlap of cultural and political division akin to the Cold war. However, we know that this division is transnational and lies between those who want to revive the ideals of the West in terms of human freedom, Scientific innovation, and growing material wealth and those in the West who are driven by little more than self-loathing. My hope is that the part of the West that still loves itself can make common cause (across national borders) in fighting against the existential threats that our self-loathing leaders seem all too keen to accommodate or to surrender to.
It is interesting travelling in Eastern Europe. These countries are very nationalistic with very long memories and an ambivalent attitude to Russia and communism. We are travelling with lots of older Americans who have a touching faith in NATO. The Eastern Europeans too seem to want to part of the EU but are fiercely nationalistic. The decay in Western Europe is evident. The lack of safety on the streets is evident. Eastern Europe feels safer and is obviously poorer relying onEU money to help them. I hope these Eastern Europeans can maintain their character and sort of shabby feel.