Next Wednesday evening, the 23rd of October, I shall be delivering The Inaugural Europe Lecture of the University of Western Sydney at the State Library of New South Wales. (Please note that till then postings will be rudimentary.) The talk itself will be entitled “The Dirty War for Europe’s Integrity and Soul” (For details click here). I plan to give an angry but, at once, nuanced and temperate talk. A talk by an ardent European who is livid that Europe is unravelling.
My intention is to begin with the re-statement of commonly accepted, and accurate, ideas. E.g. that Europe has been a beacon on humanity’s proverbial hill since the end of the 2nd Wolrd War. Unifying hitherto warring nations on the basis of popular mandates founded on the promise of shared prosperity, the erection of common institutions, the tearing down of ludicrous borders that previously scarred the land – this was always both a tall order and an enchanting dream. The EU, if successful, could even pose as a blueprint that the Rest of World could draw courage and inspiration from so as to move closer together.
This romantic dream seemed to be turning gradually into reality. Over the past decades, a European Union mirroring this vision seemed to be on the verge of coming into being. Step-by-step. Crisis-by-crisis.
Alas, since the Crash of 2008, the GFC as Australians have branded that major discontinuity, Europe has entered a phase that poses a clear and present existentialist threat to its institutions and, primarily, to the legitimacy it draws from the (now challenged) promise of shared prosperity. It is in grave danger of collapsing like a house of cards, just like the Soviet Union once did.
Since 2008, I shall argue,
- Europe is disintegrating
- The disintegration was triggered by the Euro Crisis
- But it was caused by the faulty architectural design whose origins must be traced both to the early 1950s (when a United Europe was envisaged, by American New Dealers, as part of their Global Plan – which included Bretton Woods) and, crucially, to the 1970s when Europe became ‘unhinged’ as a result of the Global Plan’s demise, and its replacement by what I call The Global Minotaur
- The formation of the Eurozone was, at the same time, the logical conclusion of the model of integration followed after 1971, and a move that guaranteed an inevtiable crisis whose predictably inane handling would begin the process of deconstruction
- It is the duty of civilised Europeans to reverse the disintegration. The question is: How?
- First, we need to confront some of the myths on which the powers-that-be rely in their pursuit of the illogical, misanthropic policies that are now responsible for the process of European Decontruction. In short, we need a revisionist history of the European integration process. One that is never taught at the EU sponsored Centres for European Studies around the world
- Secondly, we must escape the false trilemma between (A) continuing on the present path, (B) moving in a Federal direction, and (C) dismantling the truly awful Eurozone .
- My proposal? Decentralised Europeanisation
These are my intentions for the Sydney talk. Watch this space for how it evolves over the next few days (since I have not written it yet!)
