After this shameful European election 2009, emptied of any ambition and monopolized by national self absorption, the important question is: What happened to the European ideal?
The exhibition ‘Dreams of Progress’ held in July at the Westminster Reference Library is looking at our past ideals. I’m curating the exhibition and I am reading a lot of books related to the subject of Progress. We don’t fully realize today how the idea of a European Union was one of the most important ideal of the 20th century. People suffered of centuries of wars in Europe, tried so many times to stop what seemed an inexorable repetition of bloody confrontations. Not long after the First and the Second World wars, what has probably been the lowest point of history, came the most ambitious project, the only one that could cure Europe for good, the European Union. We take now for granted peace in Europe. It appears so fundamental and natural. The project of the European Union has not been built by romantic people bored in their bourgeois living rooms. It has been made by necessity. The real ideal behind the euro is not to make international corporations richer, it is that commerce between nations prevent them from going to war. Democracy and freedom is not so much about individualistic rhetoric, but is an effective way to prevent a country’s elite to declare war without a real necessity for its population. The point is that all of this is working! After centuries of blood, we have now found a way to prevent war. It has not been easy to force nations to cooperate, especially the nations, or should I say the past Empires, of Europe. So, after generations of people painfully building this great project, what is our vision?
In his book “The Divided West”, Jürgen Habermas defines the following identity founding characteristics of Europe:
- Commitment to peace as a result of the historical experience of loss
- Social privatization of faith: The only way for Europe to escape war is the strict separation between nations and religions. For those who don’t understand why, look at the history.
- The priority of the state to the market: free market is perceived more as a mean for social wealth than as an end by itself. States embody the more important concepts of citizenship, justice and freedom.
- The primacy of social solidarity over “merit”, inherited from labour movement and Christian social thought.
- Sensitivity for violations of personal and bodily integrity (e.g. rejection of death penalty)
- Reflexive distance toward nationalism, resulting from the growing distance from imperial domination and colonialism
- Awareness of the paradoxes of progress. Europe has a rich history of traditions. ‘Progress’ resulted in the extinction of many traditions, some being more beneficial than what they have been replaced with. There is thus this awareness among Europeans that technological progress doesn’t always mean better living.
As it is explained in this article from Le Monde (in French), the young French generation is naturally European. I assume it is also the case for all young generations in Europe. It’s culture is European, it constantly travels across Europe and makes connections way beyond the borders of nations. The identity characteristics listed above are I think shared by most European citizens. I believe in them. But what I saw this weekend is a lazy, spoiled, old and selfish continent. What is your opinion?
