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| Europe |
| Can Europe Become Western Again? |
| 2023-11-23 |
| [AmericanGreatness] For the first time in a millennium, Europe no longer plays a critical role in promoting Western civilization nor in world history at large. Ostensibly it should. Some 750 million people live on the European subcontinent. Europe still remains the most popular tourist spot on earth. Its hallowed architecture, art, infrastructure, and natural beauty still remind millions of visitors of the world’s once most dynamic and grandiose civilization. Even now, European nations, in and out of the Europe Union, still produce a combined gross domestic product of $24 trillion, second only to the United States. Europe’s exports are among the world’s most coveted cars, sophisticated technology, and valued industrial goods. Yet since World War II, Europe has played an increasingly reduced role in world affairs, despite its membership in the NATO alliance and the growth of the European Union. Why? The twentieth-century traumas of World War I and II—in which some 70 million Europeans were killed—saw Europe commit near collective suicide. The ensuing Cold War hinged on protecting a relatively unarmed Europe from an aggressive nuclear Soviet empire on Europe’s borders. But as World War II and the Cold War faded into memory, Europe did not snap back and assume its centuries-old role as a world leader and beacon of Western Civilization. Instead, a weary Europe outsourced its security to the United States. It redefined itself as a postmodern, pacifist, socialist utopian project—most recently predicated on redistributionist entitlements, open borders, and radical green policies that have all inevitably ensured European decline. Europeans grew louder and whinier the less relevant they became. Kinda like what the Web did to teachers. Although Europe has large sources of untapped hydroelectrical, nuclear, coal, and natural gas power, its green religion has all but shut down new nuclear and fossil fuel generation and closed existing plants. The result is that the cost of European energy is prohibitive for both the public and industry. Recent economic growth was essentially zero throughout the Eurozone. The European cradle-to-grave social net, and its hyper government regulations and restrictions on economic activity increasingly are unsustainable. Few European nations spend even a mere two-percent of their GDP on defense. And the result is that both Europe at large and its NATO members cannot defend their continent without the assistance of the United States. Nor can Europe project power beyond its shores to preempt dangerous threats on its own horizon or to its allies. The 10-years-in-space Rosetta mission did touch a comet. Europe is also shrinking and aging. Its collective fertility rate of 1.5 is far below the rate of replacement. Most young people in Europe—the ancient home of Christendom—express neither belief in God nor any faith in organized religions. In many European countries, foreign-born emigrants comprise twenty percent of the population. Most of them have arrived poor, without education, in mass, illegally, with little desire to fully integrate, from inimical countries, and holding political and religious views hostile to Europe. The other half of the West is in little better condition. The United States is reeling under $33 in national debt. While feeding and policing the world of sycophants. After perhaps 'engaging' various bankrupt academic critical legal "theories," major American cities are unsafe, unhealthy, and unsightly. The American southern border is wide open. Eight million illegal aliens have poured in just since January 2021, many of them hostile to the United States. America is increasingly politically, racially, and tribally divided. It has mysteriously determined not to fully utilize its vast natural resources, especially gas, oil, and rare earth metals. In this vacuum, the enemies of the West see only opportunity. Trials and tribulations, or Challenges and opportunity? Russia invaded European Ukraine. Its ongoing aggression still terrifies frontline NATO nations. China threatens periodically to storm Taiwan, as it bullies it neighbors, buzzes U.S. ships and planes, and manipulates currency, markets, and trade. |
| Posted by:Grom the Reflective |
| #5 Oh I think we're past the saving graces of Charles "The Hammer" Martel and must go directly to Vlad the Impaler to save us. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2023-11-23 21:00 |
| #4 In original article: ctrl-f islam nada ctrl-f muslim nada Something coming, they don't see it |
| Posted by: KBK 2023-11-23 12:12 |
| #3 #1 from the 'X' posting the other day (FAFO Paris edition), that might be Charlene Martel. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-11-23 10:53 |
| #2 My only concern is, when the rest of the world swings right, the US tends to swing left. Hopefully that doesn't happen this time. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-11-23 09:16 |
| #1 Paging Charles Martel. Charles Martel to the red phone please. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2023-11-23 08:50 |