Europe

One would, apparently, think that the European Union is in dire straits, if one reads the July 12 issue of Time, or Newsweek of the same date, or The American Interest of July and August, although I have not read them myself. I am also told that eight eminent essayists, four American and four European, none of them Europhobic, believe that the decline of the European Union, in political and economic terms, is probably irreversible. I don't agree.

Europeans have struggled, ever since the storming of the Bastille, to bring social justice into their lives, and they are stiill trying. I know we all complain about how unequal our lives are, but, in Europe, we subordinate ourselves to a standard which requires that the needs of the unfortunate have a priority. That is not the case in America. President Obama, some would say, has squandered his ability for further change, by devoting too much of his resources to pass legislation which will provide some form of health insurance for every American, while vested interests fought, with hundreds of millions of dollars, to defeat his proposed legislation, just as they did with his plans to restrain Wall Street. These vested interests were shared by many successful Americans who are distressed at the erosion of their privileges, and the increases in their taxes.

It is suggested that Europeans do not even believe in the model that they are trying to build, and I can understand why outsiders should say what they do. Who can forget the recent demonstrations about the new unfair financial burdens, and the threats to withhold labour. Where are they now? The Spanish premier has converted to the need for sackclth and ashes, and Greece is, I understand, buckling down to the financial concessions which we must all make. These are not the actions of people who have lost their way. We may have wandered, but we are coming back to what has been our purpose as Europeans for many years; a process which is particularly difficult for us, because we all started from different levels of wealth and maturity, of language and tradition, of antagonisms which have spanned the centuries.

Some say we should be more, because we have given so much in the past, but we were never expected to give it as a continental force. People have to be patient with us, but, if I am right, then I think Europe's capacity to demonstrate to the rest of the world how people can learn to live with each other's idiosyncracies and weaknesses, will make it all worthwhile.