This article by young Freddie Sayers in the latest Spectator can be simply summarised. The EU is boring, and it is especially boring to Youth.
The youthfulness of Freddie Sayers is not something I am pointing out gratuitously. He makes much of it himself, when he writes things like this:
Sooner or later, the EU institutions will realise that they cannot shape trends, but are in fact subject to them. I believe the European Union will gradually become less relevant: the lack of interest in my generation practically guarantees it. The passion that the romantic vision of a united Europe once provoked was the result of a world-view which we cannot understand. When Michael Howard spoke in Berlin in February, he recalled how in 1963 he had been ‘one of the half million people who thronged in front of the Rathaus Schoneberg to hear President Kennedy give his famous address’; Sìle de Valera also told me how influenced she had been by General de Gaulle’s vision of Europe.
But these memories mean nothing to us. The old view of Europe, formed by a memory of intra-European war and the prospect of a new power block to counterbalance the US and Soviet Russia, is simply no longer relevant. I can’t remember the Berlin Wall falling down; the second world war seems ancient history. Sìle de Valera pondered why it is that young people feel ‘active and engaged in global politics, but it is harder to engage them at a more local level’. Perhaps we feel more like citizens of the world than citizens of Europe? The European Union has had useful and constructive results — freer travel and trade, cultural exchange programmes — but there is no reason for young people to get excited about it. We see these as the quite normal modern activities of any friendly civilised states, whether America or Italy. The whole idea of a particularly European vision is out of date, passé.
The trouble with Sayers saying all this, but not saying any more than this, is that however much the EUropean Union becomes less “relevant” in the eyes of its younger victims, it is still in fact in business. The EU boring? Well, so is a steamroller. But if the steamroller is steamrolling all over you, merely calling it boring is hardly the response that will actually stop it, now is it?
What is needed is a generation who have become sufficiently excited about the EUropean Union, to the point where they choose to stop it, and perhaps even reverse it.
Of course the EUro-enthusiasts would rather that the youth of EUrope shared their EUro-enthusiasm. But in the absence of support, they can proceed with their project in the absence of enthusiastic opposition.
I am not accusing Freddie Sayers of having foolish feelings, still less of reporting on the feelings of others inaccurately. On the contrary, that he is interested enough in the EU to write this piece about it, even – as he most entertainingly reports – travelling to a fatuous EUro-junket in Ireland that nobody else gave the slightest attention to, suggests that he at least is not indifferent to the progress of the steamroller.
So on the contrary, I think we should keep our eyes open for what else this young man writes.
And I wonder, is he the same Freddie Sayers as the one in this?
I can’t remember the Berlin Wall falling down; the second world war seems ancient history
I can believe the first bit and I can believe that not having grown up with the Cold War would change your perception of the world but WWII as ancient history? I am 37. WWII is hugely relevant to me. It seems recent in a way that WWI does not.
If he’s right. If a whole generation really do consider WWII to be ancient history then that matters – though Lord knows what the implications are likely to be.
Patrick;
Agreed. I was 17 when the wall fell. I remember it well and remember how significant it was. I remember the knock-on effects over the Christmas, when Romania tore itself apart. At the time I was writing an article for History class on the creation of the Eastern Block and the genesis of the Cold War. Perhaps if Freddie Sayers could actually be bothered to *know* anything about his history, he might see the importance.
It seems to me Freddie Sayers is simply putting nice words to the old excuse that the youth simply can’t be bothered. After all, didn’t one member of Westlife just quit? What could be more important that than, eh?
James…
Ye Gods. Now I feel old. Not being able to remember the Berlin Wall coming down? That was only fifteen years ago. I can remember Jimmy Carter winning the ’76 election and my Dad being pissed off about it. Hell, I can remember Princess Anne marrying Capt. Mark Phillips (dimly: we went over the road to our neighbours who had – gasp – a colour television). And I’m 34. I was born thirty years to the day after Germany invaded Poland. Both my parents were alive during WWII: my mother was Blitzed and my father was in the Army. WWII was a constant factor in my childhood. I can’t imagine not feeling an intimate connection with the 39-45 generation.
I was born in ’76, I do remember communism before the wall fell, but anybody younger than me probably does not. And WW2 has always been for me past and somewhat mythical, existing largely as a setting for cheesy movies.
I was born in ’78 and so remember communism before the wall. I was an odd kid, though: I have distinct memories of watching the Reagan-Mondale debates in the 1984 presidential election, and I distinctly remember watching Thatcher give an address on American TV, although I can’t remember the circumstances.
– Josh, Thatcherite by birth, ancap by the grace of Cthulhu
Yes that is the same Freddie. Personally I don’t agree with him, and I’m the same age. He likes to go against the grain, cause a bit of a stir.
I’m 29 and I have to say that the sad part of my memory of the berlin wall coming down is I heard it on Mtv first. But that would sum up my generation.
Nintendo DS is the shiznight
Yes its the same Freddie. And when one attacks what he says, here – one attacks cerebrally, but about what a lot of people think. He was very good in Cabaret – i see it as a rather cheap slight to sneer at what someone might have done at university as a way to belittle what they might think now – as if a more authoritative, student-upstart job title or Union presidency would have leant any further weight to what he is saying??