What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom? What has happened to you, Europe, the home of poets, philosophers, artists, musicians, and men and women of letters?
---Pope Francis.
I'm a big fan of this Pope and there are some good things in this speech (the need for a social economy) but parts of it really did seem hollow. Many of the comments answered the Pope's question with one simple word: immigration (this is a theme the Australian woman will no doubt warm to).
Well, yes, who can deny that the influx of large numbers of people from different backgrounds hasn't had an impact.
Er..ahem. Europe 1, Muslims 0.
But seriously. Can one still talk about Europe after the concentration camps? A modern history that consists of colonialism, followed by two brutal "world" wars, support for autocrats and dictators everywhere under the name of "national interest" and an economic system that has resulted in an imminent environmental crisis and you still want to talk about poets and men and women of letters? Really?
What if we put immigration to one side and ask the more difficult question: could it be that the economic system is subverting democracy and freedom? Is it possible that the endless pursuit of useless commodities, an emphasis on instant gratification and a shallow materialism results in the decline of culture?
Will Hutton, writing about the anxiety epidemic, gets closer to the mark:
"But there must also be an effort to get at the roots of what is happening-and that lies in more social interaction, and stronger social and public institutions that don't make individual choice the alpha and omega of everything."
Only problem is, Will, that under the market system it is the alpha and omega. And you can't turn back two centuries of thought or the practices built on that thought. The liberal heritage is central to European/Western identity. Liberty: yes! Fraternity? Come again?
It goes without saying that there's no point looking to the "mystical" East because it is backward, stagnant and decadent. What humanism there was is rapidly dissipating under the forces of a crass consumer capitalism and/or ethnic and religious hatreds. Where does one look, then? Superficiality or the pretentiousness of the pious?
A dear uncle, someone who was as at home reading textual interpretations of the Qur'an as he was reading Mario Puzo, once said to me, many years ago: there are no more collective solutions. Find what you can.
I think that's about right. It's too late in the day to ask "what has happened". A question that serves no purpose to my mind and can only be asked someone who is desperate to keep a creaking institution from falling apart (understandable, really, but in the circumstances might one not venture a more radical approach?). A question asked by someone whose nostalgia is misplaced (to continue on the Joseph Cornell theme from yesterday).
What has happened is that no-one quite knows and no-one is willing to ask that question- for all the wrong reasons.
---Pope Francis.
I'm a big fan of this Pope and there are some good things in this speech (the need for a social economy) but parts of it really did seem hollow. Many of the comments answered the Pope's question with one simple word: immigration (this is a theme the Australian woman will no doubt warm to).
Well, yes, who can deny that the influx of large numbers of people from different backgrounds hasn't had an impact.
Er..ahem. Europe 1, Muslims 0.
But seriously. Can one still talk about Europe after the concentration camps? A modern history that consists of colonialism, followed by two brutal "world" wars, support for autocrats and dictators everywhere under the name of "national interest" and an economic system that has resulted in an imminent environmental crisis and you still want to talk about poets and men and women of letters? Really?
What if we put immigration to one side and ask the more difficult question: could it be that the economic system is subverting democracy and freedom? Is it possible that the endless pursuit of useless commodities, an emphasis on instant gratification and a shallow materialism results in the decline of culture?
Will Hutton, writing about the anxiety epidemic, gets closer to the mark:
"But there must also be an effort to get at the roots of what is happening-and that lies in more social interaction, and stronger social and public institutions that don't make individual choice the alpha and omega of everything."
Only problem is, Will, that under the market system it is the alpha and omega. And you can't turn back two centuries of thought or the practices built on that thought. The liberal heritage is central to European/Western identity. Liberty: yes! Fraternity? Come again?
It goes without saying that there's no point looking to the "mystical" East because it is backward, stagnant and decadent. What humanism there was is rapidly dissipating under the forces of a crass consumer capitalism and/or ethnic and religious hatreds. Where does one look, then? Superficiality or the pretentiousness of the pious?
A dear uncle, someone who was as at home reading textual interpretations of the Qur'an as he was reading Mario Puzo, once said to me, many years ago: there are no more collective solutions. Find what you can.
I think that's about right. It's too late in the day to ask "what has happened". A question that serves no purpose to my mind and can only be asked someone who is desperate to keep a creaking institution from falling apart (understandable, really, but in the circumstances might one not venture a more radical approach?). A question asked by someone whose nostalgia is misplaced (to continue on the Joseph Cornell theme from yesterday).
What has happened is that no-one quite knows and no-one is willing to ask that question- for all the wrong reasons.
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