The Irrationality of Europe

Something has been bugging me for a while now, but I never really took the time to write my thoughts down about the subject that’s bugging me. Every day something comes up - news, controversies, etc. - which diverts the attention from the ‘bigger issues.’ Today, however, I decided to spend less time watching and reading the news and, instead, write down my thoughts on what I consider to be Europe’s irrationality.

With ‘Europe’s irrationality’ I mean the habit of Europeans to verbally attack, insult and work against our closest allies and friends. We say that we’re dedicated to democracy and equality, modernity and enlightenment, yet, when a non-European country basically adopts our views, we oppose it whenever we can.

Let me give you three examples of this awkward behavior:

* America: whenever something bad happens in Europe, Europeans comfort themselves by saying that although it’s bad, it’s not as bad as in America. When our economies are performing badly (read: shrinking), we quickly tell ourselves that although it’s bad that millions of individuals lose their job, we should be happy that we’re not living in America, for there people work, but are all incredibly poor nonetheless. Besides, we all know that the American capitalist system can never work.

The reality is, however, that the American system most certainly does work. Unemployment is always significantly higher in Europe than in America, which should tell us something. Besides that, for all the talk about the working poor in America, we seemingly forget that Americans on average have more to spend than we do, and that we have ‘non-working poor’ (as Revel calls it). I’m not sure how it is better to be non-working poor than working poor.

What’s more, America’s system actually allowed it to become the superpower it is today. Without America’s economical system, it wouldn’t be as powerful and as successful a country as it is. Some would most likely favor something that, but they forget that America hasn’t just used its wealth to its own advantage. After World War II, for instance, America used its wealth to help Western Europe rebuild and reinvent itself. Yet, when Europeans snear at Americans for being overly wealthy, they conveniently forget that America has actually always been Europe’s best friend and that without America we wouldn’t enjoy the freedom and wealth we enjoy today. Without America, most Western European countries would most likely have become communist ‘people republics’ meaning that we would have no basic rights and that we would all live in poverty.

The above should be clear to all those who aren’t completely idiotic. Yet, Europeans seldom seem to understand it.

What’s more, Europeans ofter say that America only uses its power to do ‘evil’ things and to establish an ‘empire.’ The funny thing is, of course, that the ones who truly created empires were European powers, not America. We were the ones who went out and colonized the entire world. We were the ones who plundered entire continents to become richer. America, on the other hand, has never (truly) been a colonial power. What’s more, when America invades a country, it only does so with the idea to stay in that country for a short time, after which it pulls out its troops (army bases aside) and doesn’t mingle in the domestic affairs of the ‘targeted’ country. Europeans, on the other hand, weren’t quite so benovolent. When we invaded countries we usually stayed there until we were kicked out, which sometimes meant hundreds of years, sometimes ‘merely’ decades. What’s more, we considered the countries to have become part of our ‘empire’ and decided to completely overthrow the political structures in those countries; we took over businesses, schools, and - yes - government. We brought our own people / experts to the region and ruled over the local population.

But still we talk about the American Empire, and forget that America usually stays only a couple of years in a country - until the war is won - and wants to give the targeted country its independence back ASAP. In other words: if there ever was country that fought wars in a ‘just’ way, it’s America. Yet, we act as if America is evil and intends to dominate the world.

* Israel: Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has adopted a true ‘Europen’ (modern) system. It’s a liberal democracy and a friend of the West. Yet, European newspapers and news networks go after the Jewish nation-state whenever they can. They blame it for the violence committed by Palestians and, basically, argue that if only Israel would be willing to step back and make peace, the Middle East would be a far more stable place.

This opposition to Israel is ironic, not just because Israel is the only true liberal democracy in the ME, it’s doubly ironic because the trouble in the Mideast is for a large part the result of European colonialism. Perhaps, if we wouldn’t have gone in there with our armies in an attempt to dominate the region, the region would be more stable and Islamism wouldn’t be on the rise.

There’s something interesting to say about Islamic extremism and Europe’s hypocrisy: we happily blame Israel (and the US) for the radicalization of many Muslim countries, but seem to forget that the ones who ignited this process is us. Muslims in the Mideast started radicalizing after Europe invaded and colonized their homelands. Suddenly, Muslims felts oppressed and, instead of doing what was in their own interest and the right thing (modernizing), they fell back on a fundamentalist version of their religion.

Yet, we blame Israel.

Furthermore, when we blame Israel for the instability in the Middle East, perhaps we should remember that if it wasn’t for our murderous behavior towards Jews, they wouldn’t have felt the need to create a nation-state of their own. Jews have been persecuted throughout Europe for ages (ironically, Jews were saver and more welcome in the Ottoman Empire than in Europe). In the end, European anti-Semitism resulted in the holocaust. Now, before people say that solely the Nazis were to blame for the holocaust, I’d like to point out that anti-Semitism was alive and well in Europe before the Nazis did anything. In the Netherlands, for instance, Jews were highly unpopular. They were even hated by many. Same goes for France, and Poland. When the Nazis occupied Poland and started killing the Jewish population, they were celebrated for their ‘work’ by Christian (Catholic) Poles.

Without Europe’s hatred towards Jews, chances are that Jews wouldn’t have considered it necessary to create a state of their own. For them, it was a choice between life and death.

But… Europe conveniently ignores all the above and happily supports regimes that are the opposite of what we say we support and think is right.

*Turkey: Turkey is the only stable liberal Democratic, and secular (and not mentioned above because it’s not really a middle eastern country as such; it’s partially European, partially Asian) Muslim country that supports Israel and looks at Europe for inspiration. Yet, when Turkey wanted to join the EU, Europe only offered a ‘well… we’ll see about that’ and tried to make it as difficult as possible for Turkey to join and treated this ally in a tremendously disrespectful manner.

Europe could actually positively influence Muslim countries if we would work together with Turkey. Yet, we have decided to oppose it whenever we can, and provide shelter for PKK supporters and terrorists. What’s more, whenever Turkey implements a new reform - as we demand of her - we don’t say ‘well done,’ we only says ‘well, you’re still not good enough.’

At the same time, however, we seldom to never complain about rogue regimes like the ones in Iran and Saudi Arabia. We do, however, insult the only Muslim country that wants to work together with us and that wants to become more like us.

And that… that sums up the irrationality of Europe. Instead of working with countries that are our friends and that want to work with us, we choose to attack them, insult them and, instead, choose to talk friendly to countries that are the opposite of them. We blame our allies for everything wrong in the world, but forget that many of the problems of today, aren’t caused by them but by us. Furthermore, we turn our friends into enemies, only because we believe that they’re not perfect (which is handy, since talking about the errors of other countries allows us to ignore our own sins and weaknesses), where we completely forget that, although they’re not perfect, they are ‘good.’ With our enemies, we do the opposite.

It’s time for a radical change in Europe’s culture and foreign policy. We must get our priorities right.

More at Jules Crittenden’s place.

Mark Steyn… sometimes hits the nail on the head, sometimes he just doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about. For instance about Europe’s military power. He does know, I hope, that the Dutch army is adapting to the changing circumstances and even to lead large-scale missions, no?