China Daily, the newspaper of the Chinese communist party, published a letter by all 27 EU ambassadors calling for greater cooperation with Beijing, in what appeared to be a European response to Donald Trump's attacks on China in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. China responded by insisting the letter was rewritten to delete references to the coronavirus originating in China and spreading worldwide from there, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung. The EU meekly complied.
Gone are the days when the European powers gave orders to the Chinese Emperor.
My idea as a young boy, at the time of the first British referendum, that it was better to be part of a European superpower than be a satellite of America is risible, though that is what still attracts many to the EU.
Europe can never be any sort of power and even if it acquires an army will never use it in defence of common European interests. In fact its existence is a hindrance to European interests. Europe's relative economic decline is connected to the existence of the EU, though it has many other causes, first among them being the lack of European babies. (I am guilty here.)
The EU will trundle along for a very long time, siphoning off Europe's energy, while the relative decline of Europe continues. The result a materialistic, post-Christian, feminist Nirvana with lots of drugs and an increasingly powerful Muslim minority.
As my friend Bunny said, those who do not believe in their religion are destined to be conquered by people who believe in theirs. But that's another story.
Gone are the days when the European powers gave orders to the Chinese Emperor.
My idea as a young boy, at the time of the first British referendum, that it was better to be part of a European superpower than be a satellite of America is risible, though that is what still attracts many to the EU.
Europe can never be any sort of power and even if it acquires an army will never use it in defence of common European interests. In fact its existence is a hindrance to European interests. Europe's relative economic decline is connected to the existence of the EU, though it has many other causes, first among them being the lack of European babies. (I am guilty here.)
The EU will trundle along for a very long time, siphoning off Europe's energy, while the relative decline of Europe continues. The result a materialistic, post-Christian, feminist Nirvana with lots of drugs and an increasingly powerful Muslim minority.
As my friend Bunny said, those who do not believe in their religion are destined to be conquered by people who believe in theirs. But that's another story.
I'm no fan of the EU but it's a bit of a "the devil you know" situation. Would Europe actually be better off without the EU? How different would things have been had the EU never existed?
ReplyDeleteThe decline of Europe was well underway long before the EU was even thought of. By the 1920s it was obvious that the United States was going to be the dominant global power and that Europe's days of greatness were over. And the rise of China to economic superpower status would have happened whether the EU existed or not.
As for the lack of babies, you're correct but the decline in European birth rates started in the 19th century. At this point I think it's almost certainly irreversible. You only have to look at the terrifyingly low birth rates in countries like Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan to see that the collapse in birth rates is not a European problem - it's an inevitable result of modernity. Industrialisation plus urbanisation plus capitalism plus consumerism plus the technology to limit fertility (cheap easy contraception) will always lead to very very low fertility rates. I don't think there's anything at all that can reverse that.
And immigration won't help in the long term because second and third generation immigrants end up with the same low fertility rates.
Somehow we have to find a way to deal with declining populations.
I think Europe will also have to deal with the reality that Europe really doesn't count for anything in today's world.
I'm not saying that any of this is good, but it seems inevitable.