Europe's Cultural Future

For my Omnilore class in Great Decisions 2006 I need to prepare a lecture on the future of Europe. Now I don’t pretend to be a seer or a wise man and my prognostications are generally tempered by hope. For example, I’m convinced that the next US President will be another Republican because the American people will not trust the Democratic Party with the nation's defense. At least, that is my fervent hope. When considering Europe’s future I am similarly influenced by our European family ancestry to spice my predictions with a soupcon of optimism.

When thinking about the future it is foolhardy to ignore the past and the historical intersection of America and Europe has been a complex and rich tapestry. Since 1900, hundreds of thousands of Americans have bled and died for the sake of European freedom. We spent a fortune on the Marshall Plan and on continuous military protection of the Continent that allowed European countries to transfer military spending to social areas. We tore down the Berlin Wall freeing Eastern Europe and enabling the Eastern countries to enter the European Union. We have been robust trading partners. For these and many other reasons it is important that Europe regain its economic vitality and renew its commitment to the spread of democracy.

Europe’s future has many dimensions, cultural, political, economic, war fighting and so on. And every dimension has an impact on America, for good or for bad. Indeed many Americans, mostly Democrats, wish that America would become more like Europe. They favor liberal social policies, increased government controls, higher taxes, libertarian cultural mores, global organizations and appeasement over war. Thus it pays to look at Europe as a precursor of what America could be like if it becomes substantially more liberal.

I’ll look first at the cultural dimension which includes religion. It is the most troubling of the European dimensions. Paul Belien wrote in the Brussels Journal that Europe’s current problems are entirely self-inflicted. This does not mean, however, that the result will be less catastrophic. By subverting the roots of its own Judeo-Christian culture – a process that started with the French Enlightenment (as opposed to the Scottish Enlightenment, which was not anti-religious) – a religious and cultural vacuum was created at the heart of European civilization. The collapse of faith in its own values has, not surprisingly, led to a demographic collapse because a civilization that no longer believes in its own future also rejects procreation. Today, a new religion and culture is supplanting the old one. There is little one can do about it, but hope for a miracle.

Now that does indeed sound catastrophic. But what are the consequences? Perhaps the article from Reuters today provides an indication of the collapse of faith in its own values. Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child pornography and sex with animals. The "Charity, Freedom and Diversity" party said on its Web site: We are going to shake The Hague awake! The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether.

The Netherlands already has liberal policies on drugs, prostitution and gay marriage but was shocked by the plan. Indeed an opinion poll published Tuesday showed that 67 percent said promoting pedophilia should be illegal. But a third of the population thinks it’s just fine. Ad Van den Berg, one of the party's founders, told Reuters, We want to get into parliament so we have a voice. Other politicians only talk about us in a negative sense, as if we were criminals. The party wants private possession of child pornography to be allowed and also supports allowing pornography to be broadcast on daytime television, with only violent pornography limited to the late evening.

Paul Belien contrasts the collapse of European culture with America’s conservative reserves or, as the German sociologist Arnold Gehlen explained, “the reserves in national energy and self-confidence, primitiveness and generosity, wealth and potential of every kind.” Belien writes: Every so often I travel to the U.S. to recharge my batteries, and I am not the only European Conservative to do so. From time to time one needs to breathe the air of freedom before submerging again in the stifling atmosphere of Europe.

America’s “conservative reserves” are far stronger than Europe’s, because America, unlike secular Europe, has remained rooted to a larger extent in traditional Christian values. I do not doubt that if these values continue to decline in the U.S., American culture will collapse as European culture and civilisation have collapsed. However, America can learn from the impending European catastrophe, and avoid a similar fate. The old European civilization – the pre-secular or the pre-post-Christian one – will live on in the U.S. If it perishes there too, mankind will relapse into the dark ages that are now taking hold of Europe, the cradle of Western civilization.

Will we learn the European lesson? The fate of Western Civilization hangs in the balance.