Europe is on the verge of collapse, whether violently or just in a disinterested and bitter, but altogether peaceful, breakup of the eurozone and several european institutions, remains to be seen.
Everyone has different opinions on why the European project is failing at heart, even those for whom, the breakup of the EU is unthinkable. Yet this is what happens, poor fiscal policies in member nations and a one continent wide currency that treats its constituent economies unfairly, coupled with unsustainable government entitlement systems as well as the Joe ignorent public, lulled into reliance on the state transfiguring into the much feared unthinking 'mob' pulled straight from the tales of the great ancient republics of Greece and Rome once the state fails to meet unreasonable demands in the face of crippling past failures of the state. The Greek crisis and its second bailout is, in the eyes of nearly every onlooker, delaying the inevitable. Greece will fall and fall hard, and the European Union, utterly unwilling to admit any of its policies or decisions were in err, has not let the Hellenic Republic go to save itself. If it had, it would have been called selfish and cruel, but the European farce would have at least been preserved for longer. As it stands, Greece will fall, as will other struggling states, including, likely, the Irish Republic (give or take our own fiscal and governmental shenanigans with a different party in nearly two decades finally being in power)
The immoral decadence and refusal of self responsibility of the western Liberal dream will be the death knell of Western Europe as a whole as our eastern European cousins will look on as we commit self destruction. They themselves will likely work with Russia, as the west becomes more akin to a horde of roving barbarians then a civilization to be envied in the coming century.
No one can say with certainly when exactly the fall will happen, or what will occur when it does. But I feel it will have these notable characteristics; There will be a great sense of urgency and crisis in Brussels and the overall European Government which the average man and woman will only vaguely take notice of, crisis policies will be enacted calling for harsher taxes and more centralisation, peacekeeping forces will be deployed to various parts of Europe to prevent anarchy and to bolster failing institutions, likely resulting in inflaming the local populace even further by the unexpected, and in many eyes, unjustified deployments, far right and far left political elements will start gaining voice in the public arena across the continent, at least one or two European governments, most likely centre right governments, or centre left ones with a strong patriotic voter base, will voice dissent publicly and rumours of secession will become increasingly common, and pretty soon in either a velvet revolution of otherwise peaceful but bitter acknowledgement the EU will collapse, or frustrated nation states will start removing themselves from the Union by force, and this will all happen within the space of a year or two and nobody will have any clue what has just occurred or why everything is on fire. Behold the fruits of Revolution!
In either case, God help us all for what will occur after the break up will be beyond prediction.
Our Lady, Queen of Ireland, pray for us.
On this side of the pond at least, big government bailing out bloated entitlement programs of states or companies is often done with the mind-numbing mantra of 'too big to fail'. The Keynesians running Western government tell us everything is 'too big to fail' from GM to Greece and so they get bailouts. But isn't failure in fact a wise instructor that corrects destructive behaviour? I wonder, how many students in school would bother studying for a test if they were assured they were 'too big to fail'? My guess is not many. Which is why places like Greece figure they can go on their deficit-spending binge indefinitely and won't have to suffer any consequences for it.
ReplyDeleteGraham,
ReplyDeleteIn regard to your question about students studying, why do you think our education system is such an astounding failure? I had high hopes for Ireland before the vote on the Lisbon treaty. Unfortunately, it appears that too many were duped by the overwhelming "vote yes" campaign that was funded by the EU.
Unfortunately, they didn't see past the scare tactics and promises any better than the average citizen here in the USA. My only hope is that the current financial debacle will prompt them to get out of the Euro and regain some sovereignty before it's too late. After all, just how much sovereignty is maintained by any of the "states" in the United States of America. That name once had a real meaning in this country, now we're nothing more than provinces under an increasingly totalitarian government (regardless of which party dominates it).