John,

I’ll concede that the future does not look bright for Europe, and that the problem is much deeper than mere demographic trends. Nevertheless, I think you are being overly pessimistic here. What is needed in Europe is a change of attitude, or if you need something bigger than that, a change of world-view. That is a big step, but it is NOT similar to asking them to volunteer in a desperate war to save their country. In fact, the degree of “hardship” that would be required is debatable.

What is needed is for the current generation of Europeans (or possibly the next generation) to conclude that the world-view of their parents and grandparents was fundamentally wrong. You are a student of history and you know that that kind of generational reversal happens.

The “view of the universe” (as Chesterton put it) held by the generation immediately preceding World War One, was very different from that of the generation immediately following it. For good or ill the “view of the universe” held by the Baby Boomers is very different from that held by the World War Two generation. The point is, it happens, and it can happen very fast.

Where do you find courage? In Truth. There is no Truth in the self-loathing socialist world-view now common in Europe. Have some faith in your fellow man. They are going to figure that out.

I'd like to believe you, but I don't see it. Recently France tried to ease very slightly its employment laws, to make it easier to hire young people. (Mainly you'd have to work three years before being almost guaranteed lifetime employment, rather than one!!!!) It was greeted by massive "youth protests," and hastily withdrawn. (Compare that with something like our Welfare Reform.)

One problem is that the people who "figure it out" emigrate. I not long ago read of a whole colony of French entrepreneurs...in Britain.

I'd say you don't get courage from truth. You get (or rather, are willing to face) truth IF you have courage.

Mike,

You hit the nail right on the head. I wish I could write half as cogently as you do.

John,

Mike's right. In the end, it's a matter of attitude, and attitudes can change in a hurry. This is perhaps a superficial example, but look how the isolationism of the '30s vanished like bubbles on the breeze in the wake of Pearl Harbor. There's no good reason why the same "awakening" can't happen to Europe. Yeah, it'll take a pretty loud alarm clock-- the "old" Europeans (the French, especially) are pretty deeply asleep-- but wakefulness eventually comes.

As for the French in particular, did the proposed reforms fail because the French people didn't want them? Or did they fail because a bunch of gutless enarques (graduates of the ENA-- Ecole Nationale d'Administration-- who infest the upper reaches of the French Government) lose their nerve in the face of temper tantrums by some "yobs"? Eventually, the French people will call Terminix, clean house, and get a responsive government again.

Hale, the fact that you had to illustrate the possibility of Europeans changing with an American example tells me a lot.

Isolationism was a traditional, and quite rational, part of American policy---the avoidance of bloody mindless European conflicts. It was not like today's Euro-nihilism. And when Pearl Harbor showed us that the world had become too small to be isolated, we dropped it. A rational decision.

Now the world has become smaller yet--much smaller--and the rational response of Americans, at least some of us, has been to become even less isolationist, with a forward strategy of engaging the enemy around the globe, and even preempting his attacks.

And the rational respnse of Europe has been....what?

So far? Nothing, John.

But that doesn't mean they're incapable of a rational response. Unfortunately, they're probably so deeply asleep that when a response does (finally) come out of them, it'll be irrational-- "fearful doings of the trapped" and so on. They're just as capable (if not more so) of lashing out at "the other" as we are.

Mind you, I have no love for "old Europe". I cackle with malicious glee every time the French establishment "sticks their foot in it". I hold out hope for them only because there have to be at least some French people who don't deserve the oblivion the Fifth Republic so richly deserves.