We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day History and ordinary prudence dictated that the union might be broad and shallow (a free-trade area, with embellishments, capable of taking in all-comers) or else narrow and deep (an evolving political union, confined to countries willing to be led there). Of the two, I always believed that the first was better. But the architects did not even have the brains to choose the second. They recognized no limits to their ambitions. They set about creating a union that was both broad and deep. A federal constitution, a parliament, a powerful central executive, one central bank, one currency – all with no binding sense of European identity. As for scale, well, the bigger the better. Today Greece, tomorrow Turkey. And why stop there? Madness.
– Clive Crook ponders the excessive ambitions behind the EUropean project.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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From the article: “Europe could have the most beautiful cities, the best food and wine, the richest cultural history, and the longest holidays …. The admirable goal of leading the world in quality of life …”
Those wacky guys at the Atlantic! Pretending they have never seen those photographs of Saturday night in Cardiff. Pretending they have never seen the body count after English soccer fans celebrate a victory abroad. Pretending they have not heard of Paris car burnings or seen the Amsterdam red light district.
The European quality of life. It’s great — for the European elites! But then, the Brazilian quality of life is pretty good too — for the elites.
The FT quote quoted is interesting by its language-
Note how the word “Europeans” refers to the Oligarchs, while the actual european population(s) are merely “residents”.
I don’t think it’s reading to much into it; this is how they really see the continent. The oligarchs and their institutions are “Europe”; the people are just like tenants in an apartment block, who live here at the landlord’s choosing.
Indeed, Ian. What must always be borne in mind about the EU is that, contrary to popular belief, Crook’s first option of a loose free-trade zone “with embellishments” was never even considered. At least, to the extent that it was, the Architects were – and their successors continue to be – actively hostile to it. The FT’s language betrays the reality of their preferred Europe: a “benevolent” dictatorship of wise bureaucrats and academics managing a neutered, de-clawed simulacrum of democracy and nationhood. It’s an idea of the 1920s whose time had passed even when the first tentative steps towards its construction were started over 50 years ago.
It was always going to end in a mess. While I suspect the end may be some way off yet, the mess is beginning to show.
After the way America has been treated over the last 8 years, it is my hope to see Europe burn, and for us to do nothing to help them.
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Unfortunately, Europe may burn but America and their political elite will do their best to cause America to burn with them.
If Europe does fascist, we’ll give asylum to the “persecuted” jihadis.
If Europe does bankrupt, we’ll pour our borrowed money into a bailout for them.
sdoesgoesg
sorry a bout the repeated typo.
I believe the EU was created to try to stop the collapse of European democracies under the impossible weight of their socialism. The theory was by revamping (and grossly overvaluing) currency and spreading the weight of cost around between various nations, and by equalizing international taxes and making it cheaper to trade between nations, they could make it a bit longer.
It is a failure, as many on the right knew it would be. Because the system of economics in Western Europe is utterly unsustainable.
Indeed Sam.
One of the things about our situation that frustrates me the most is that the ideas and movements we are now up against are almost universally very old ideas whose time has long since come and gone, like the craze for benevolent technocratic dictatorship which dates to between the war. The most remarkable perhaps is Greenism, the most literally “paleoconservative” ideology imaginable. And yet it has become effectively hegemonic, as “radical” and “progressive”.
I am eternally impressed by the ability of our Enemy to keep rebranding old, worn ideas as radical and new. If only we could forge a marriage of genuinely radical and progressive liberalism (ironically now burdened with the pastist perjorative “classical”) with the marketing talents of our Enemies.
*between the wars, plural 🙂
sdoesgoesg
s/\///g
Sorry 😉
Ian B “very old ideas whose time has long since come and gone”
As far as I am concerned, those ideas never had a “time”. They were wrong before, during and after. Perpetually wrong. Never “right” nor “timely”. The only merit they might have had would have been if they were not quite so appallingly wrong as that which existed before, and at the very moment that it may have been the case, in Russia, they not so much dropped the ball, rather it was drop kicked out of the field even before the echoes of the starting whistle had finished reverberating.
Personally, I am glad that the European Project has such massive scale and such depth. The more it tries to do, the more likely it is to fail. Then when it does, we can pick up the pieces and them assemble them as they should have been assembled in the first place – as a Free Trade area all of the associated collectivist baggage.
If the Euro goes first, fragmented and scattered to the four winds then nothing could make me happier – or more assured about a return to form of the UK.
Imagine, Europe unleashed from the anti-democratic tyranny of the EU. It would be like the Berlin Wall coming down all over again, however this time we’re on the inside.
Equally, the more fiat currency that is printed by the EU to support their unsustainable politically motivated currency, the more I like it.
It’s just such a shame that gold is so expensive at the moment – but that is the problem with things of real value.
Note how the word “Europeans” refers to the Oligarchs, while the actual european population(s) are merely “residents”
Dude. Nice catch.
We all get the problems, but what are the solutions. The U.K on its own will be buffeted by the power the EU, U.S, China etc. Unable to influence events both externally and internally and thus potentially powerless to protect our citizens individual liberties. We do need to be part of non-national organisations that all individuals in this country can directly influence. At present the EU is are only option. Eurosceptics need to face reality and act not just criticise. Either actively work to evolve the EU or try to form a proper democratic english speaking union.
“The U.K on its own will be buffeted by the power the EU, U.S, China etc.”
Interesting phrasing. There is only one country which currently sends nuclear-capable bombers on probing fly-bys of the UK. That would be “etc” –oops! Russia.
The solution starts with being realistic about the world in which we live. History did not come to an end. Alleged Anthropogenic Global Warming is not the major challenge facing Europe.
The central critique of European elites might be that they are incapable of being realistic about the world in which they so tenuously sit. Consequently, those elites, and the populations which permit them, are doomed to suffer the predictable consequences.
“Unable to influence events both externally and internally and thus potentially powerless to protect our citizens individual liberties.”
I’m sorry, but that makes no sense whatsoever. The “externally” part I get (even if I don’t agree with it; the UK is still a significant power in the world, economically and militarily, even if it’s not the Empire it once was), but “internally”? If relieved of the heavy hand of Brussels eurocrats the nation wouldn’t be able to protect its own citizens’ civil liberties? WTF? Barring military invasion (an unlikely scenario, especially from a collapsing EU), why not? Assuming, of course, that its citizens demand them. And if its citizens don’t demand their civil liberties, membership in the EU makes no difference anyway.
“Personally, I am glad that the European Project has such massive scale and such depth. The more it tries to do, the more likely it is to fail.”
Which is why I’ve been rooting for continued geographic expansion. And praying the reality clock runs out before they cause too much damage.
In the U.S.:
” . . . our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
In Europe:
“. . . our bretheren brought forth a new Nation [?] conceived in Economic Cooperation, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are not equal, and some few men are capable of directing [all?] the affairs of all others.”
As an intolerant and harsh person I have not normally excepted Mr Clive Crook from my general hatred of Financial Times people and Economist magazine people (not that the hatred of powerless person like me need bother Mr Crook).
And it is true (as the above comments show) that his articles carry some of the same signs of nasty doctrines as the rest of the Financial Times.
However, Brian is also correct – there is some truth in this article by Mr Crook, and even intolernant and harsh people like me, must admit that.