Posted from Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Yesterday and the day before, I did a couple of talks in the local high school, with my friend the teacher supplying not so much translation as translatory clarification as and when needed, because my audience had a pretty reasonable understanding�- and this is the whole point of what I’m about to write – of English. I spoke about the British attitude towards the EU, and explained why the Euro-debate has become steadily more fierce.
One of the reasons for�this fierceness is that the Internet has made the idea of participating in the�Anglosphere more appealing, and the idea of a unified Europe corresponding less appealing, to the British. But yesterday morning, before I embarked upon this bit of my talk, I asked how many of my audience had themselves used the Internet during the previous week. Most hands went up. Then I asked: how many of you used only the Slovak language? All hands went down. All of them. Not only that, there was a distinct murmer of disapproval that I should even ask such a question. Only use Slovak internet sites? What a bizarre idea. What this interchange illustrates is that the Internet means something�rather different�to�us language-phobic Anglos compared to how people like these educated young Slovaks experience it. In Britain, physical travel is easy, but learning other languages is an unfamiliar drudgery. We�can travel, physically, but don’t need to travel linguistically, so to speak. Not everyone�speaks our language, but enough do to make our monolinguistic attitude reasonable, if often impolite.
But for Slovaks it’s the other way around. Learning another language is relatively easy, and an obvious thing for any educated person to do, starting with English. Travelling is hard, because so expensive, and because the obvious place to go, to Western Europe, is made so difficult for them. So the Internet is for them, for now, their escape to the big wide world. To use only Slovak on it would be to behave like those idiot British tourists who turn up in Timbuktoo and sulk if they can’t get fish and chips. The Internet, for us Anglos, is a different way to divide the world. For the Slovaks, the Internet is the world. Suddenly I felt like a provincial oik, from a huge but basically non-central kind of place like Yorkshire or Texas, in the presence of the world’s true sophisticates.
I also�sensed a very different attitude here, and especially among these young, bright Slovaks, towards the EU. For them, the EU is indeed a threat to Slovakia. Their worry is that Slovakia will become a small colony in a large empire.��But what the EU means to them personally, or could mean, or they hope could mean -�and asking about this�produced another huge show of hands -�is the chance of people like them to seek their fortunes elsewhere than in little old Slovakia. Instead of making do with crummy au pair jobs, they might soon be able to go West and make real lives for themselves, in Berlin, Paris, Madrid, London. The EU, for them, is the hope of freedom.
Russia, by the way, is absolutely not seen as a problem for these people. The idea that Slovakia might be joining the EU as some kind of long-range defence policy, in case Russia ever gets strong again, was dismissed with contempt.
Slovakia is, I understand, on the latest EU list of countries�who are due to be engulfed in 2006, or some such year. I just hope that things for these young people turn out the way they hope, and that they haven’t been swindled.
You can also see, however, why older Slovaks might rationally dread the EU, as the great vacuum cleaner that will suck the brightest and best of their children out of their country and leave the place a tired old dormitory country for impoverished oldies, visited only by vastly rich tourists, who then proceed to rebuild Slovakia as a tourist country instead of a real country.
I understand what the Slovaks want. But it is never a question of what you want, its a question of what you get.
A few minor points, from someone who lived in Slovakia from 1992-94, and in Central Europe from 1990-98.
1) Slovaks’ first foreign language is Czech. Nearly all have Czech friends and/or relatives. Since there are twice as many Czechs as Slovaks, and since the Czech side dominated culturally during Czechoslovakia, much of their favorite literature & film is actually in a second language. In addition, 10 percent or so are ethnic Hungarians, so speak that language as well. English was behind German when I was there, (Vienna being an hour from Bratislava), but that may have changed.
2) Traveling is not so hard, and Western Europe is not necessarily the obvious place to go (precisely because it *is* comparatively expensive). Budapest is a three-hour train ride, Prague is five, and Krakow isn’t all that far away, either. You’ll find Slovaks at Lake Balaton in Hungary, or on the Adriatic in Croatia. And even Vienna is reasonable for a day trip.
3) The EU is not a defense policy against Russia, NATO is. I’d guess attitudes about those two organizations differ somewhat (as they certainly do in the Czech Republic and Poland).
NATO was terminal and “ReichChancellor” Schroeder drove a stake into its heart for domestic political advantage. Which leaves the EU. Blah! These youth of Slovakia, indeed all youth must be offered a higher aspiration than membership in an economic cartel which is doomed by the very nature and policies of its founding members.
A recent study by the Institute for International Studies (author, Surjit S. Bhalla) makes clear that the economic model for advancement of humanity is that followed by those nations of English heritage; i.e., America, Australia, Britian, Canada and New Zealand. Their success is not based upon tribe or nationality but on the radical concept of individual freedom. For subversive samizdata, read the Federalist Papers!
Is it a coincidence, do you think, that this collection of brothers and cousins of english heritage is both the largest economic and military power in this world? One begets the other. Quality always is successful.
9 – 11 has forced America to engage the world, something it has always wished to avoid. Our ancestors came here to leave behind the old ways of clan and tribe to find a new begining, a place where the individual was more important than class or clan or religion. Where an individual was judged upon his ability and honor, not his ancestors. For several hundreds of years, our progress has been an example which much of the world has sought to ignore. And this was fine with us. This is our way and others are free to take our path if they wish but that we should or would impose our way on others is anathama to a nation of individuals such as we.
We have been attacked in our home by those who seek to destroy our individual way of life and this simply will not stand. To understand what will come, you must understand a basic element of American character: Americans hate a “bully”, that big one who pushes little people around. So as a people, we are more the gentle giant – the big person who tries to be gentle and delicate, who never takes offense and always turns the other cheek. But when attacked in our home, when our women and children are killed, well then we cease to be gentle. The World is about to witness what occurs when you wake a sleeping giant.
Military action alone will not be sufficient, that is becoming clear. To insure that our homes, our women and children are safe and that our way of life is preserved, either we must change or the world must change. Guess what, world!
The Bhalla Study verifies the way of success. The youth of the world must have opportunity to seek what we have found. Success based upon their individual ability and honor.
The first step will be a Free Trade Association among those english speaking brothers and cousins to multiply the advantages of their various economies. And it will stand as an example of the successful alternative to the multicultural ‘elite’ model of the EU. Unlike the EU, this way requires no surrender of Nationality; the Pound will remain as will Aussies, Kiwis and Loonies. Adoption of the Dollar Standard is the last refuge of bankrupt nations, the last attempt to place a bandaid on a fatal wound to preserve corrupt politicians. It is not necessary in the economic union which will drive the future. Will there be politics involved; well, of course, so long as we have politicians there will be politics. Like rats, they breed in dark places and it seems beyond our ability to stamp them out. But no politician can hide the criteria for membership in this future economic union or supress the information on why they fail to qualify: they are self evident from study of the Bhalla Report and more explicit details are available thru internet Access. The austrian economics available via the Misses Reports, a fantastic variety of data on economic indicators and most importantly “Spotting the Losers: Seven Signs of Non-Competitive States” by Ralph Peters. The internet is Samizdata!
This new economic model is necessary for our survival and it will prove that everyone can indeed have more, that success of one person does not equate to failure of another. It will begin among these english speaking people not because of their common language (althou it does make it easier) but because of their common belief in individual freedom.
I suspect that one of the first non-english speaking members will be Turkey which might strike some of you as odd and others as being a reward for assistance in our current military efforts. That is part of it but it is both more complex and also quite simple: Turks have been our brothers-in-arms from foxholes in Korea to the present. They have proven themselves to be friends and people of honor over many many years. When times are tough, the Turks have always been there together with our english speaking cousins! Examine the actions of others of our so called “allies” for yourself and make your own decision.
Individual freedom and success has been the formula for America and while we are the first to point out our faults, we believe in our imperfect way we have achieved much in our revolution. Who else has done as much or offers so much for the future?