"[The Greens are playing] an important role [in Europe's death], one that will grow as the global-warming and anti-globalization cults increase in popularity. The neo-pagan nature-worship of the Greens opposes the foundations of Western civilization and the principles that have given freedom and prosperity to unprecedented numbers of ordinary people. If Green parties ever achieve enough political power to implement its policies, the Greens’ hatred of technology and capitalism, the proven engines of freedom and prosperity, will accelerate Europe’s demise."From an interview with Bruce Thornton, author of Decline and Fall: Europe’s Slow-Motion Suicide, on the National Review Online (You ought to click and read this one, Kids: I've seen some of what he's discussing with my own eyes)
The author of the NRO article is a drama queen. Phrases like "devil's bargain" "slow motion suicide" and "failure of nerve" may sell books, but when you try to quantify any of this, there's no there there.
ReplyDeleteLooking at verifiable data instead - un-sexy stuff like life expectancy, literacy, infant mortality, GDP etc - many European nations are even wealthier, healthier, long-lived and better-educated than the US itself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
Top twenty countries (HDI range from 0.968 down to 0.941)
1. Iceland 0.968 (▲ 1)
2. Norway 0.968 (▼ 1)
3. Australia 0.962 (▬)
4. Canada 0.961 (▲ 2)
5. Ireland 0.959 (▼ 1)
6. Sweden 0.956 (▼ 1)
7. Switzerland 0.955 (▲ 2)
8. Japan 0.954 (▼ 1)
9. Netherlands 0.953 (▲ 1)
10. France 0.952 (▲ 6)
11. Finland 0.952 (▬)
12. United States 0.951 (▼ 4)
13. Spain 0.949 (▲ 6)
14. Denmark 0.949 (▲ 1)
15. Austria 0.948 (▼ 1)
16. United Kingdom 0.946 (▲ 2)
17. Belgium 0.946 (▼ 4)
18. Luxembourg 0.944 (▼ 6)
19. New Zealand 0.943 (▲ 1)
20. Italy 0.941 (▼ 3)
Note also the performance of the Euro as vs. the dollar:
http://www.insidefutures.com/article/57110/Change%20in%20Trend:%20Euro%20Currency%20versus%20the%20US%20Dollar.html
Be of good cheer! Europe is actually very healthy.
Let me see if I have this right:
ReplyDeleteI'm supposed to believe someone who posts anonymously, and your statistics, and not "my own eyes" and experience living in Europe? Yea, that would be just brilliant of me, now wouldn't it?
Tell me, where in those statistics does it mention all those hostile Muslim enclaves that are all over France? Or the bizarre scenes I witnessed where Arabic music started playing and European women would leave their husbands (who would sit meekly and watch) and start bellydancing as though in a trance? Can you explain this phenomena with your statistics?
The difference in longevity between First World nations is so minimal it isn't even worth discussing. And money is boom and bust, so how the Euro is doing, now, is also a weak argument - especially when Europe doesn't have any vibrancy going for it (no new inventions, weak music, various groups of depressed cultures, etc.) to project it's strength into the future. It's just a bunch of statistics and lies. I've lived there and I didn't see shit that was impressive.
Don't believe the hype.
P.S.
Here's something else you don't seem to have - or want - to consider:
Why would anybody want to lie about Europe?