An Anatomy of European Nonsense
The Silliest Column I Have Ever Read
I rarely comment on the op-eds of others. And I try not to use ad hominem attacks in lieu of argument. Usually I reply forcefully on the principle of retaliation rather than preemption. So I hesitate to devote space to a single essay. But in the case of an article by one Jakob Augstein in the recent issue of Der Spiegel I’ll make an exception, since his asinine views are emblematic of the poverty of thought that now is so evident among the European Left. In what follows I quote the article, “Once Upon a Time in the West,” in italics, with a bracketed commentary following each paragraph.
08/04/2011
Opinion
Once Upon a Time in the West
A Commentary by Jakob Augstein
The word “West” used to have a meaning. It described common goals and values, the dignity of democracy and justice over tyranny and despotism. Now it seems to be a thing of the past. There is no longer a West, and those who would like to use the word — along with Europe and the United States in the same sentence — should just hold their breath. By any definition, America is no longer a Western nation.
[By referencing American democracy as a “thing of the past,” I expect the author now to demonstrate how the United States either does not hold elections or is not governed by its republican Constitution. Somehow, I expect in what follows to learn neither — and anticipate that Mr. Augstein objects not to the lack of democracy, but to the particular election results resulting from a quite vibrant democracy.]
The US is a country where the system of government has fallen firmly into the hands of the elite. An unruly and aggressive militarism set in motion two costly wars in the past 10 years. Society is not only divided socially and politically — in its ideological blindness the nation is moving even farther away from the core of democracy. It is losing its ability to compromise.
[By “elite”, does the author mean that those with certificates from particular Ivy-League universities, or with incomes far above the national average, or with children in prep schools, or with expansive mansions, or with tastes that are characterized by vacations in a Vail or Costa del Sol are inordinately represented in our legislative and executive branches? I would tend to agree. But somehow, I do not think that Mr. Augstein is too worried about the elite circumstances of a John Edwards, Al Gore, a late Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, or Barack Obama, who have occupied or run for our highest offices. Does an “unruly militarism” refer to responses to decades of unanswered terrorism, the 9/11 mass murdering, and violations of UN accords by Saddam Hussein, in which the U.S. took on two wars, both sanctioned by the U.S. Congress, against two mass-murdering regimes? Does the author believe that a Saddam Hussein was preferable to the current elected government in Iraq, or the Taliban to the Kabul government? And did an “unruly militarism” not once remove despots such as Slobodan Milosevic and Manuel Noriega, or force the collapse of the Soviet gulag? And how exactly is the U.S. moving away from its “core of democracy”? Do EU citizens have more say about the conduct of their continental-wide government? In fact, there have never been more active popular movements that have channeled grass roots enthusiasm into political representation. Web sites, talk radio, and cable news have given the public an unprecedented variety of viewpoints that transcend the traditional filters of the old corporate networks and big-city newspapers.]
America has changed. It has drifted away from the West.
[Even this simple assertion is wrong. America is drifting as never before toward Europe—the ostensible model for an Obama administration that has borrowed nearly $5 trillion in three years, federalized health care, assumed control of private companies, blocked new plant openings, is eager to increase taxation, and seeks to subordinate U.S. foreign policy to the United Nations, as we see in the case of Libya, where the Obama administration went to the Arab League, the United Nations, and its European allies, but not to the U.S. Congress for authorization.]
The country’s social disintegration is breathtaking. Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz recently described the phenomenon. The richest 1 percent of Americans claim one-quarter of the country’s total income for themselves — 25 years ago that figure was 12 percent. It also possesses 40 percent of total wealth, up from 33 percent 25 years ago. Stiglitz claims that in many countries in the so-called Third World, the income gap between the poor and rich has been reduced. In the United States, it has grown.
[Most of the extraordinary wealth of America’s richest — a Bill Gates, Jr. or Warren Buffett — is based on the advent of American-style globalization that opened up new markets for products and financial services, or brought in billions in foreign investment. In response, never has the top 1% paid a greater percentage of the aggregate income tax (the top 1% pays almost 40% of all income tax revenues collected; the top 5% pays almost 60%; the bottom 50% of households pays essentially nothing in income tax). But the barometer of national health should be not be found necessarily in income disparity, but rather in the per capita income of Americans. As American companies and financial institutions made unprecedented profits from global commerce and investment, so too did the standard of living of all Americans rise between 1980s and 2008. Per capita GDP reveals that the United States is the wealthiest large nation in the world, whether one uses average pre capita GDP or per capita national income, exceeded mostly by tiny oil rich or tax-exempt nations such as Norway, the United Arab Emirates, or Luxembourg. By measures of access of the poor and middle class to electronic goods, cars, or square footage of living space, the U.S. far exceeds the European mean. Such opportunity explains why some 10-15 million Mexican nationals, without legality, education or English, have flocked to the United States.]
Economist Paul Krugman, also a Nobel laureate, has written that America’s path is leading it down the road to “banana-republic status.” The social cynicism and societal indifference once associated primarily with the Third World has [sic] now become an American hallmark. This accelerates social decay because the greater the disparity grows, the less likely the rich will be willing to contribute to the common good. When a company like Apple, which with €76 billion in the bank has greater reserves at its disposal than the government in Washington, a European can only shake his head over the Republican resistance to tax increases. We see it as self-destructive.
[Paul Krugman also deplored the nearly $5 trillion in recent borrowing by the Obama administration that led to a $16 trillion new debt ceiling and downgrade by the credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s — but on the grounds that such indebtedness was too little and the reckless recent borrowing was too timid! Mr. Augstein has a habit of referencing authority in terms of Nobel Prize awards. I have great respect for the European awarding of medals in the hard sciences and mathematics, but recent Nobel awards in literature, economics, and peace are sadly tainted by overt politics rather than a record of sustained achievement — as evidenced by recent awards to a Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Barack Obama, or Paul Krugman. (In the case of Mr. Carter, a Nobel Laureate judge openly asserted the selection was predicated on the ex president’s then criticism of the Iraq War.) As for the purported social cynicism and indifference, no other country in the world has a better record of private philanthropy. Private giving, as measured as a percentage of overall GDP, is highest in the United States — over three times greater than found in Germany. Quite simply there are no private universities, institutions, or foundations in Europe anywhere comparable to a Ford, Gates, or Rockefeller Foundation, a Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford University, or a Brookings, Heritage, or Hoover Institution. Apple, Inc. — known for its philanthropy, liberal leanings, and ability to bring sophisticated technology into the hands of the poor at affordable prices — is hoarding its cash in fear of uncontrollable federal borrowing, and yet another new tax threat, entitlement obligation, and presidential lecture about inordinate financial success. Its stash of $76 billion in profits is a fraction of the annual U.S. $3.6 trillion budget — and results from the unprecedented and unforeseen worldwide success of its iPhone, iPod, and iPad. Washington takes in far more in a month than Apple — which was nearly insolvent in the 1990s — has hoarded in its heretofore existence. And if one were to calculate the tax burden on many Americans in so-called blue states (federal income taxes, state and local income taxes, payroll taxes, property and sales taxes), they can easily pay between 50% and 60% of their gross incomes to government. Note that the most flagrant example of corporate income-tax evasion on mega-profits is found with GE that paid no income taxes at all on its 2010 multi-billion-dollar profits — run by the Obama administration’s in-house CEO, crony-capitalist Jeffrey Immelt.
The aside, “We see it as self-destructive,” seems odd editorializing from a European who is witnessing the implosion of an entire continent, brought about by massive redistributive policies of high taxation and higher entitlement expenditures. When we witness the latest Greek riot, or the latest machinations by elite German, French, and EU officials to craft yet another bailout that will not be presented to the European public for debate, much less ratification, we Americans see all this as “self destructive” — and assume the European Union will implode well before the United States. In this regard the violent record of the prior European twentieth century is instructive and germane.]
The same applies to America’s broken political culture. The name “United States” seems increasingly less appropriate. Something has become routine in American political culture that has been absent in Germany since Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik policies of rapprochement with East Germany and the Soviet Bloc (in the 1960s and ’70s): hate. At the same time, reason has been replaced by delusion. The notion of tax cuts has taken on a cult-like status, and the limited role of the state a leading ideology. In this new American civil war, respect for the country’s highest office was sacrificed long ago. The fact that Barack Obama is the country’s first African-American president may have played a role there, too.
[With all due respect, I think it is quite unfortunate and unwise to invoke German history and culture as a warning about supposed American “hate,” especially as it pertains to political culture. Too many Americans still have too many family memories about the wages of German hatred, venom, racism, and anti-Americanism. Respect for the highest office in America was indeed questioned between 2001 and 2009, but did Mr. Augstein at that time voice worry that the venom had endangered the sanctity of the presidency?
After all, Alfred A. Knopf published a novel imagining the assassination of President Bush. In Canada, an award-winning film offered a docudramatic version of killing Mr. Bush. In the UK, the Guardian published an op-ed openly expressing a desire for the timely return of another presidential assassin like John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald. The slur of Nazi, brownshirt, and fascist, aimed at the president, easily came off the lips of a wide variety of celebrities and public figures, from an Al Gore and Garrison Keillor to George Soros and former Senator John Glenn. I was waiting for the proverbial race card, and of course it arrived from Mr. Augstein. To the degree race plays a role in animosity toward the president, I can express relief that no major U.S. publisher would ever publish anything so inflammatory as Nicholson Baker’s Checkpoint redirected at President Obama. Nor would major figures openly write or imagine his demise as was true of George Bush’s critics. Again, Mr. Augstein has the unfortunate habit of raising embarrassing issues: the Western problem is not that an America might harbor racial resentment of its African-American president (it does not), but that it is simply impossible to imagine a comparable black prime minister, president, or chancellor in a contemporary France, Germany, Greece, or Italy. Finally, we would call “delusions” Germany’s assumption that Greece is ever going to pay it back.]
The West, C’est nous
There’s no deliverance in sight. One can no longer depend on politics in America. The reliance of Congress members on donations from the rich has become too great. Nor will there be any revolutionary storming of the Bastille in America. Popular anger may boil over, but the elites have succeeded in both controlling the masses and channeling their passions. Take the Tea Party, which has enjoyed godfather-like bankrolling from brothers and billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch and found a mouthpiece in Rupert Murdoch’s populist, hatred-stirring Fox News.
[I agree that money is a pollutant of politics. But in this regard it would be consistent of Mr. Augstein to deplore the electioneering conduct of Barack Obama; no one in the history of American presidential campaigns has raised more overall cash, or more from Wall Street financiers. More disturbing still, Mr. Obama was the first candidate since the establishment of public financing of presidential general elections to renounce such federal involvement —specifically to free himself to raise far more than his publicly financed opponent through special interest donations. I hope there will be no “storming of the Bastille” in the United States; over here the quite different courses of the French and American revolutions explain not only the greater prosperity of the American model, but the far greater degree of freedom, liberty, and opportunity traditionally found in America, and the usual absence of endemic envy and entrenched class warfare. The Tea Party is not the creation of either Fox News or the Koch brothers, but antedated both concerns, and is often at odds with both the conservative and Republican establishments. As is the case with Mr. Augstein’s selective angst, he is not worried about special interest influence per se, but only special interest influence from the conservative side — otherwise he would surely lament the hundreds of millions of dollars that a George Soros, for example, has given to train liberal journalists, set up political-action committees, and establish various websites and institutes to monitor his ideological adversaries. Should we have worried that the second richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, openly campaigned for Barack Obama, or that the president himself was the largest recipient of Goldman Sachs or British Petroleum donations, given the Wall Street meltdown and the Gulf oil spill?]
From a European perspective, it all looks very strange: it’s a different political culture. There are other rules at play, different standards. More and more we view America with the clear notion that we are different.
[I agree. Despite the best efforts of the Obama administration, we remain different. We do not understand the French aristocratic outrage over the arrest of Strauss-Kahn in relation to his seduction of an African immigrant maid in New York; or the French-British inspired preemptory attack on Libya, given their past protestation about oil-driven intervention, the obvious enticing oil wealth of a Gaddafi government, and previous European appeasement of his tyrannical regime; or the rise of conservative movements in Europe, which, unlike those in the U.S.that are geared toward limited government, seem to focus on matters of race and ethnicity — dangerous given that nexus was so prominent in Europe’s past. Indeed, if we were to emulate Augstein’s stereotyping, as Americans watch European bickering, financial insolvency, and elite efforts to stifle democracy, we should sigh, “Here they go again for a third time.”]
Still, America’s fate should serve as a warning: We must protect our political culture, our institutions and our state. The success of Thilo Sarrazin, with his anti-Muslim message, shows that even Germany isn’t free of the kind of cultural coldness that can eventually ossify the vital functions of the political system. Our society has already made significant and deplorable steps on the path towards growing inequality and de-democratization.
[We reach the point of caricature with the phrase “even Germany isn’t free”; most Americans might logically substitute “Germany especially isn’t free.” And given that Slobodan Milosevic butchered thousands in the heart of Europe, out of religious and ethnic hatred to the complete indifference of European governments until the United States air force intervened, lectures on European sensitivity toward race and class are again caricatures, not empirical observations.]
Nevertheless, at least one good opportunity springs from America’s fate: The further the United States distances itself from us, the more we will (have to) think for ourselves, as Europeans. The West? That’s us.
[As we say in America — “promises, promises…” Does that “distance” include rejection of U.S. military subsidies — as in the final departure of the remaining 52,000 American troops in Germany? Given the status of the EU, and what I read in the German papers about Italians and Greeks—and then again in the southern European papers about Germans -- Mr. Augstein should be thinking not of ridding America from the West, but whether the West will still include a united Europe, which is proving as undemocratic as it is unable to continue the basic premises of the welfare state. So the West indeed totters, but the general culprit — whether evidenced in the North-South divide in Europe, the rancor over borrowing an unsustainable $16 trillion in the U.S., or the dichotomy between the financial health of red- and blue-state America — is an unsustainable redistributive state.
The desire for “distance” unfortunately is not just confined to European elites like Mr. Augstein himself, but is voiced more often by a far greater numbers of Americans, who cannot quite fathom the premises of postmodern Europe, much less why in tough financial times we should be subsidizing the security of a system that won’t pay for what it thinks it requires for its own protection — is NATO still the old British formulation, as articulated by Lord Ismay, of keeping Russia out, America in, and Germany down? If the French and British military record in Libya or the German-Greek negotiations are a blueprint for a new definition of European singularity, then God help our trans-Atlantic cousins, since America will soon no longer be willing or able to.]
Yes, the Augstein column is silly. It is also a bit scary.
Never mind the facts, the “narrative” is that Europe is free
to make book with the towelheads in order to bring the criminal
USA under control.
Should this line prove to be the defining element of the EU, then there is much
trouble and even bloodletting ahead. Let us hope such is not the case.
Let’s watch the “towelheads” stuff, that kind of language cheapens the discussion.
In truth, American Muslims have incredible freedom and success in the United States. In Germany and France, they are ghettoized and exploited. Compare Marxloh, Germany and Clichy-sous-Bois in France to vibrant Dearborn, Michigan.
Little Jakob should write about that.
Some of these fine Muslims in America seem to want to kill the people that gave them this opportunity. Attacks at Texas Military posts, Shootings in Arkansas at a recruiter’s office. Muslims leaving Minnesota to to to Somalia to fight. Several American Muslims captured fighting in Afghanistan. The Wahhabi Imams in American prisons recruiting future terrorists. Do you need more examples of their gratitude?
Well now Henry, how about I call them *&^%$)( of good for nothing @&^%$&**??????
When I use a perjorative it is for a reason. Namely to let some people know that their behavior renders them unfit for consideration by any and all of my fellow rednecks. They can either reform or make our day.
“In truth, American Muslims have incredible freedom and success in the United States. In Germany and France, they are ghettoized and exploited. Compare Marxloh, Germany and Clichy-sous-Bois in France to vibrant Dearborn, Michigan.”
Sorry, as a German citizen I can assure: that´s nonsense also…
Muslims in Germany are not exploited…in fact they exploit the German welfare system.
Muslims in Germany are not ghettorized…in fact they choose to create religious clean areas deliberately, where they live in de facto off law communities und terrorize the minority of nonmuslims in this areas.
These are the days for muslims in Germany…
It’s the same for the so-called “vibrant” city of Dearborn, Michigan. They have taken over an entire city in America and they chased out every non-muzz through violence and intimidation. It is a total no-go zone where protestors are jailed by the sharia police force. American law does not function there.
Stuff being the language police, there is no discussion needed. Muslims do NOT belong in western countries – period. They have destroyed every culture they invade – and they are invading us just as surely as the Mexicans are – and both are using population bombs to overwhelm our culture. If nothing is done then in a generation or two our decendants will be their slaves.
“In Germany and France, they are ghettosized and exploided. Compare Marxloh, Germany……to vibrant D,,. Michigan”. No, in Germany, Turkish people are neither ghettoised nor exploided. There are equal opportunities in jobs (same job = same salary)for men regardless of ethnic origin. However, we (all women) still struggle to obtain equal opportunities in jobs. We tend to get a bit less. Marxloh is part of Duisburg and a victim of structural change(loss of steel). It lost approx. half of its inhabitants and only the old and the poor(30 or so per cent Turkish people)have been left behind. Within Germany Marxloh is seen as a sozialer Brennpunkt, that means it is a deep contrast to that vibrant place in Michigan. It cannot be compared.
If this idiot’s viewpoint is shared by even a substantial minority of fellow Europeans, the US should pull all defensive assets out of Europe immediately. That’s one good place to cut spending.
Norway views us as racists,idiots and hates us almost as much as they do Jews.
Sweden sees us as violent,greedy and undereducated.
Netherlands thinks we are uneducated,media controlled and good for a laugh.
Denmark finds us rude and ignorant to world events.
France hates us and everyone else.
That’s from common people i know in those countries.
I must protest ! Many Swedes love the US, I am one of them. I feel strongly for the US, Obama politics has hurt the country but with a new leader there is hope for a new beginning.
Fair enough, but it is more than apparent many in Sweden do have a superiority complex toward Americans. It’s a narrow-minded prejudiced disposition confidently asserting who and what we are supposed to be. By and large western Europeans including many in the UK have an elitist mentality looking down on us. It’s time we do our part at least with money, material and soldiers, pull out of NATO and just, leave.
Yes..Don’t forget that the “hate” that you hear about does not come from the majority of Europeans. Its the same “elite” that lives at the NYT’s and the Whitehouse. Both of them do not just hate the bulk of Americans and American values, they hate the bulk of their own people who are just as likely to drive their Ford to a line-dance with country music sung in French. For them the peasants will always be revolting.
“I must protest ! Many Swedes love the US”
And yet the Swedes I have known personally viewed the United States with condescension, seeing us as moral (and intellectual) inferiors.
After enduring many years of Europeans coming to America to lecture and insult, I have no sympathy for the “educated” elites when I read about riots and worse in London, Malmo, etc. The only sympathy I feel is reserved for the ordinary Europeans who have not drunk the Kool-Aide of leftism and anti-Americanism.
The original sin of the Unites States is that our ancestors left the European elites behind and did well without them. The elites will never forgive us, because our prosperity calls into question the legitimacy of their status. It is foolish to ever expect anything like affection or respect from them.
Were you saying something, Eurocrat? All I heard was the smug, hypocritical grunting of PIIGS.
Maybe if you hadn’t run your Eurozone into the ground you might have a little more credibility. As it stands when the PIIGS are wallowing snout-deep in their own mess it’s hard to take them seriously when they complain how dirty everyone else is.
Yes, azitkal, we should pull our forces out, which would force the Germans to spend a large portion of their budget raising an army to protect themselves from Putin and his neo-Soviet hordes. But then the Germans have a long history of raising armies, don’t they?
But equipping and paying standing armies could mean an end to 30-day vacations, cradle-to-grave social services and government subsidies for immigrants who perform the menial tasks beneath the dignity of ethnic Germans.
So sleep well, my German friends, lest you resort to begging France to protect your sorry, socialist arses…or perhaps Poland, eh?
No, instead the Germans will throw in with Putin’s Magogite hordes.
The perfect Euroweenie.
The hothouse flower demands that we remove the restrictive glass which hampers his view. Hope he likes what’s waiting for him outside…
That is the most succinct and spot-on summary of the Spiegel article yet.
Euro-Left delusions have reached pathological heights.
On both sides of the Atlantic.
His article is not complete – a true Euro-wacko-lefty should have found a way to blame America’s problems on our being controlled by Zionist Neocon Jews and how if we wipe out Israel, all the world’s problems will be solved.
Most of the talking heads in Germany were programmed during the cold war, when America was protecting them and they were free to fantacize about their cultural and intellectual superiority, having “learned the lessons of WWII.” They are completely out of their depth in understanding today’s world and they do not see the condescension that drips from their every utterance.
Today’s print Spiegel has an interview with Jesse Jackson in which he talks about the banks pushing mortgages on the poor and Obama’s inability to stand up to the rich and the Republicans. Probably no one in Germany is aware of a certain Allen West, who could provide an out of the box look at things in America from a popular black American. Germans don’t want to have their clichees challenged.
Putting aside the democracy problems of the EU, Germany now has problems with its own parliamentary system. In moving from the rather stable 3 parties of the past, German now has Greens and the Left having a major say in coalition building, leading to the incoherence seen in Merkel’s swift move on closing down nuclear power plants shortly after a policy of slower shutdowns was approved. Many Germans don’t know who to vote for because they don’t know who might be the next chancellor or foreign minister or foreign minister even if their preferred party wins the election. I suggest that Herr Augstein start enlightening his own readers on their democracy deficits. Then he could move on to discussions of German condescension, not only toward Americans, but also toward the Polish Putzfrauen and the Turkish operators of doner stands.
The European Left was not programmed just by the Cold War. It has a longer genealogy that I tried to trace here: http://clarespark.com/2011/07/16/disraelis-contribution-to-social-democracy/. They share the hatred of “the money power” that such as Disraeli exemplified to his enemies. Also, I would have mentioned American exceptionalism, rather than conflating America with “the West.” Europeans share an aristocratic bias that is present in the U.S. primarily among patrician progressives and its professoriate allies.
As you might know, we have two basic, but opposing, groups in Germany. One is pro-American and her message is: The Americans are powerful and Germans should do what they want- without hesitation, Americans know better. In recent articles on welt online and zeit online(both pro-American), the authors focused on Angela Merkel’s failure to nod and accept everything the US/Obama wished us to do. The second group, on the other side, is pro-Russian or/and pro multi-culture(Green Party, Die Linke and parts of the SPD).Both groups are pro-EU, but they tend to ignore German interests. Germans in general, have nothing against immigrants as long they respect our laws and learn our language. Yes, we have a democracy deficit, because we cannot very often express our wishes nor our fears.
Well, Victor, I’m awed. You’ve demonstrated that Emperor of the Left Pole Augstein doesn’t even have a bug-eaten fig leaf to cover Little Jakob (hat tip, Elvis). Simply the best fisking ever.
I’ll just ‘second’ your remarks, Fred, as I’m afraid that otherwise I’d have gone so gushy and over-the-top in expressing my admiration for this skewering that I’d have embarrassed myself.
I pray for Victor Hanson’s health and happiness. He is my Washington steadying his men’s resolve as they cross the icy Delaware. No one knows the outcome, but we know why and where we are – and who the enemy is – and what must be done.
(Too gushy? :)
No, just right, if you ask me.
Perfect, indeed, Catherine. Beautiful, succinct writing. Although he may be embarrassed by it, the sober, steadying presence of Washington in times of crisis is the perfect metaphor for the good doctor.
Thank you, Green Mountain Boy.
It is a heady experience to post a comment in this forum of thinkers and patriots.
One is buoyed by the passion, the furrowed brows of reasoned concerned Americans as, together, we look for the shore.
By any definition, America is no longer a Western nation.
Herr Augstein might well be correct—if the following is a “definition” of “Western nation”:
http://www.meforum.org/2822/french-intifada
H/T Barry Rubin
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/
I read the Augstein article before I read this one, and found it equally ridiculous.
One point I would add is that underneath it all, I sensed a far more prosaic discomfort at the current events in the USA, aggravated by a specifically Continental misunderstanding.
The prosaic discomfort I refer to is simply the anger, demands, ultimatums, disparagement, and all the other unpleasantness that accompanies a public debate with enormous natural consequnces. Far from being dangerous, I perceive this to be one of the healthiest manifestations of a functioning democracy. All this conflict is both a sign and a manifestation that the real issues, positions, and especially consequences are finally being thrashed out–at last! (I think it was Churchill who said something about America always doing the right thing after it had exhausted the other possibilities.)
As a result of their discordant, unstable, and quite often violent political history, Europeans mistake all of our tumult as the prelude to a descent into the typical European political solution of pointless violence and destruction.
The intellectual and political vacuum on the right in Germany and so much of mainstream thought in Europe is filled by racist hate groups. The complete lack of discourse is frightening. The suicidal abandonment of Western values makes me cringe (and laugh at this article’s premise).
I would us to abandon Europe, but our national interest still requires a stable democratic Europe. What changes in U.S. policy could sustain this (besides being stronger in voice and action in support of freedom and democracy)?
I am going to northern Europe next week on vacation. I enjoy meeting people from different countries, but I do not enjoy hearing this type of garbage. Too many times, I have had to excuse myself from vitriolic talk that makes the Left in the U.S. seem tame. Any advise?
Vacation in beautiful and conservative Alberta.
Perhaps a refuge from the onset of American despotism? After all, Canada has kicked its Bolshevists to the curb and began to drill its way to economic prosperity.
Dont’ forget to plug the Edmonton Mall. I hear it’s a wonder of commerce and a destination in and of itself!
Just a quick clarification. I think Mr. Niemand meant to say the West Edmonton Mall; Edmonton has several malls but the West Edmonton Mall is rather legendary as malls go.
The last time I was there – close to 20 years ago – it featured a full-sized replica of Columbus’ ship the Santa Maria sharing its space with a mini-submarine which you could apparently book rides on. There was also a full-scale indoor roller coaster, a hockey rink of the size used by professional hockey teams, and a large number of stores. It’s not just a typical mall….
I still don’t understand the income disparity thing. It seems to send shivers up the leftist spine to quote statistics about the richest one percent and their share of the national wealth, as if that explains everything that’s wrong with America. Why? Do we care how much money a rich man has as long as we’re adequately provided for? I don’t. If I need more money, I figure out a way to acquire it. So what’s the point? Appealing to jealousy? Are we not-so-rich citizens supposed to resent the rich? Are we sullen proles, waiting with pitchforks and torches for our chance to smash down their gates and loot their mansions? Like I said, I don’t get it. Again, the Progressives seem not to understand their fellow citizens very well.
The income disparity thing is based on a report from a couple of Frenchmen who came to the United States and investigated “income disparities” as a proxy for wealth disparities. They were leftists with an agenda to prove that America is a captive country of a handful of riche. Since there is no reliable data about wealth (there are no reporting requirements anywhere), they used income tax data. Since they didn’t have a clue about how and why income appears on tax statements, and even fewere clues about how income relates to wealth in this country, their idiot report is filled with so many holes that it can’t begin to leak because it never held anything in the first place.
For example, they concluded that “income” was becoming more and more concentrated because they looked at taxes from the Carter years, when rich people all invested in tax shelters and reported no income, to taxes from the late Clinton years, when the cg tax rate was very low and people were reporting tons of capital gains from the Internet boom. Presto, income (falsely interpreted) appeared much more concentrated in a few hands in the late 90′s than late 70′s. Totally bogus of course.
Another major flaw was that they didn’t count Social Security or the myriad types of welfare payments, as if they aren’t treated as income by the recipients. This makes people who get that income appear desperately poor…exactly as the leftists wanted.
There were many more flaws, but time restricts.
Anyway, the moronic lefties who scream about income disparity base it all on the false report. They couldn’t understand the flaws with the stupid thing if they tried, but they don’t even try. They just repeat the moronic lies.
To summarize your post: Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.
I think that the discomfort with income disparity or inequality stems from the idea that wealth is fixed–that if some men gain then other men must necessarily lose. Once one recognizes that wealth is created, however, then the supposed “problem” of unequal income distribution goes away.
P.S. Remember that income is not the same as wealth. A young man deep in college debt can earn a higher income than his wealthy, retired grandfather. (And yet the relatively-poor young man’s taxes go to the relatively-wealthy grandfather via Social Security etc.)
The “income disparity” obsession is the key sin for most euro elites: envy.
The destructive kind.
A Russian and an American farmer, both had neighbors with prize cows.
The American’s dream was to have better cow.
The Russian’s dream was that his neighbor’s cow, dies.
Envy, the desire that something bad happen to a fortunate neighbor, whether the fortune was based on work, or luck.
Tax the rich, for the “poor”, but really for the middle class and the bureaucrats — that’s the Euro/ Russian/ Bolshevik disastrous idea, and is always under the income disparity issues.
Victor, thanks for noting how the welfare state is unsustainable — I’ve long thought conservatives should support sustainable development, now that (mostly watermelon) greens have pushed the idea of sustainability.
And capitalism has an excellent measure of it: profit. Non-profitable companies are not “sustainable”.
A Russian and an American farmer, both had neighbors with prize cows.
The American’s dream was to have better cow.
The Russian’s dream was that his neighbor’s cow, dies.
Assuming we’re talking about Russia in the Soviet Era, that comparison doesn’t hold water. Stalin collectivized agriculture starting in the late 1920s and from that point on, no Russian owned a cow privately. All livestock and equipment was owned by the entire collective farm, not individual farmers. The Russian’s neighbour did not have a prize cow because no individual had a prize cow.
Yes, well…following Europe as they swirl around and around the economic toilet bowl of their own making…while as exciting a trip as that may sound to the small c communists here, is sheer folly.
And, much of Europe seemed quite content to agree with us that “those two wars” were quite necessary, rather than continuing to allow “the West” to be attacked with impunity…although Europe certainly has “two wars” of its own, that perhaps they disremember inviting us to participate in, on a somewhat larger scale than their involvement in any since.
These days, the Augsteins and their ilk can sniff at our “militarism” because they are not trembling at the thought of it going missing in their time of desperation.
Perhaps Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain are wonderful economic models for the twits who speak of utopia and create hell…but, please pardon us as we decline to accept the invitation to follow the terminally stupid and self-destructive as the fool themselves into believing that by lecturing..they remove ignorance and sloth. Theirs, not ours.
Augstein is a fool. That makes him the perfect voice of the left.
I think a lot of people have read the Telegraph piece, which I beleive reinforces what I said, but also has a lot more great stuff besides, but if you haven’t:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/8685945/If-we-are-to-survive-the-looming-catastrophe-we-need-to-face-the-truth.html
A couple of choice quotes:
“Contrary to what the Obama Democrats claimed, the face-off in Congress did not mean that the nation’s politics were “dysfunctional”. The politics of the US were functioning precisely as the Founding Fathers intended: the legislature was acting as a check on the power of the executive.”
“By rights, it should be Europe that is immersed in this debate, but its leaders are so steeped in the sacred texts of social democracy that they cannot admit the force of the contradictions which they are now hopelessly trying to evade.”
I also read Augstein’s tripe a couple of days ago. Yes, there is a split in the West, if the West is defined as a certain cultural continuity. It is Europe that has left it. If I had my druthers, I would replace NATO with a long term lease on the few bases and hospitals we have in mainland Europe, and pull all other personnel [and our POMCUS sets, the full equipment for the divisions of troops we were going to deploy in case the Soviets came west] out and back home. We can’t, and won’t if we have half a lick of sense, try to save them from themselves. I really don’t want our country to get pulled into whatever special form of hell is in store for Europe. We have quite enough on our plate right now.
That said, in the spirit of yanking their chain, I have a question for you, Dr. Hanson. I assume that you have a literary agent who markets your output. I also assume that you have a very cordial relationship with PJM. Would it be possible for you to instruct your agent to contact Der Spiegel and try to pitch the idea of them reprinting this piece from PJM as a point-counterpoint? I grant that there is a very low likelihood of them accepting, given that this [and reality] defies their narrative. But you might catch them on a bad day and they could agree. Consider it your contribution to sorely needed reality therapy. And if they refuse, as rudely as I expect them to, it can be used by you as an item of proof that they are beyond talking to.
Subotai Bahadur
Well said! Let them marinate in their own fetid juices. The “European Union” was the product of a very thin layer of the “Euro-elite” rather than through some groundswell of public opinion. That selfsame European leadership is terrified of robust public debate and, as a result, leads the Western world in speech codes and institutional impediments on public discourse. Naturally they can’t understand the Tea Party because it is so clear (to them) that Tea Party activists “just don’t know their place.”
Kudos to all your suggestions. Lease some bases but bring home army combat troops from Germany and South Korea. Air and sea bases around the world may be vital to national security in the future, but our combat units shouldn’t be used as tripwires to prevent aggression against allies. Wars must only be fought to protect US vital national interests, and only with Congressional approval.
Excellent!!!
Wow! Even the blowhards at Der Spiegel are piling on the Koch brothers. When I read stuff like this I have to think that, at some point, there was some sort of convention of international journo-lefies to nominate the “New Demon” to replace Haliburton. Somehow the Koch brothers won. Well if they didn’t exist it would have been necessary to invent them. Meanwhile George Soros sails on undisturbed.
The dead tree media as stage magician, importuning the audience fixate on the gyrating but empty Koch Brothers hand while the Soros hand surrepetitiously steals their wallets.
The left will most ruthlessly attack in the areas where they are the most vulnerable.
We need a better measure of disparity. In my dreams the important measure is how freely does the government “share the wealth” – and in many cases it’s latent wealth. In the case, say, of the USSR, they should have been as rich as the U.S. in every way yet the disparity of wealth between the governed and the government meant that the people were little more than slaves (with factory outputs often worth less than the inputs). No sharing of the wealth possible because in that system wealth was political power. Social democracies are somewhere in between that and unfettered free enterprise by a free people (and you can’t be free unless you’re largely untaxed, or at least taxed uniformally given an elementary definition of equality – and where democracy is defined by 50K+1 deciding for 50K-1 (for almost all questions), not today’s 50M+1/50M-1).
From 2007 to 2009, 16 trillion dollars were sent from US FEDeral reserve accounts to Europe. This is the result of the first ever Audit of the US FED. The receiving entity was never disclosed publically, but reasonable minds will assume Euro governments and European central banks to keep them afloat.
Wonder where Europe gets funds to pay for its programs..?
The Invasion of Iraq was a Huge mistake, and History will record it as such…it may be the straw that breaks the US dollars back…we don’t know yet.
But it will certainly be taught as a tactical win, while a tremendous strategic loss.
Osama Bin Laden understood American Politics and History very well, and we played his game instead of our own. This was the greatest error on the USA’s part, following a scripted war game ( PNAC ) instead of objectively studying the playing field, and through thoughtful deliberation taking on the Taliban and Al Queda.
Iran Employed double spies within the Pentagon, and the rush to judgement and triggering PNAC Off the shelf wargame plans resulted in feeding false information to willingly ignorant ears in US war rooms.
We are doing the same with the US economy. Nobody is studying the playing field and insisting on accurate objective information. Instead anything the GOP presents has a fascist agenda, anything the DNC presents has a Marxist Agenda.
So we sit paralyzed, feeding the European Social engine(s) with loans based on the Future earnings of our economy.
Enjoy the view,your paying for it
“The Invasion of Iraq was a Huge mistake, and History will record it as such…it may be the straw that breaks the US dollars back…we don’t know yet.
But it will certainly be taught as a tactical win, while a tremendous strategic loss.”
The war in Iraq is a drop in the deficit/debt bucket.
The jury is still out on how successful the Iraq war will be. If a vibrant democracy takes hold, it will be considered a great success. We invaded a country because they were not living up to their agreement from the last war we fought with them.
What we didn’t do was plunder their wealth.
“Instead anything the GOP presents has a fascist agenda, anything the DNC presents has a Marxist Agenda.”
Half right but the GOP has nothing to do with fascism and the DNC is some sort of neo-marxism.
“So we sit paralyzed, feeding the European Social engine(s) with loans based on the Future earnings of our economy.”
If you look at the top ten foreign holders of US treasury securities, there is only one European country on the list.
“Enjoy the view,your paying for it”
The only way we are paying for it is by subsidizing the defense of Europe.
“The jury is still out on how successful the Iraq war will be. If a vibrant democracy takes hold, it will be considered a great success. We invaded a country because they were not living up to their agreement from the last war we fought with them.”
a
After tens and thousands of dead, millions of both physically and psychologically wounded, trillions of dollar (borrowed from the Chinese) what do you get in Iraq? A deeply divided country with no national identity, rampant corruption a country which can’t hold its own. Now, a theocratic Shia (+sectarian Kurd) dominated center with deep relations to Mullahs in Iran has replaced a secular and yet despotic Sunni (+secular Shia) center with deep connections with other Arab Sunni majority nations. Unless you are are an Iranian mullah, you would hardly deem this a successful “democracy.”
The war in Iraq discredited US in all meanings of the word. Look at the Arab spring: Arab youth asking for voice in their own affairs, asking to be counted and respected as individuals. These are the real voices of democracy, not Ahmad Chelebi, or Bush or Cheney the neo-con cabal) Yes, where are all the neo conservative idealists who wished so much for democracy in Arab lands even if that meant bombing these Arabs silly? So, it is either our way or highway.
“Why not here? Why not here?” That was the chant going on in Cairo during the Egyptian Spring. Why not a democracy here in Egypt like in Iraq?
The opposition party in the last two Iranian elections cite the democracy of their neighbor Iraq as an inspiration.
The 90%-plus of the Iraqi electorate that proudly and bravely showed their purple thumbs after they voted.
All signs of a Middle East shaken out of centuries of strongmen and lethargy, by what?
By American intervention in Iraq.
“Why not here? Why not here?” That was the chant going on in Cairo during the Egyptian Spring. Why not a democracy here in Egypt like in Iraq?
They were certainly not referring to Iraq. Iraq has a very little bearing on any other Arab affair. Shias dominate Iraq and their faces are turned towards Iran. What those demonstrators were calling for was a revolution in Egypt just like in Tunusia.
The fiasco in Iraq did have an unintended impact. Given the total failure of the US adventure in Iraq, the despotic pro-US regimes such as Tunusia and Egypt also lost credibility. Without the US support those regimes collapsed.
“Look at the Arab spring”
Are you really unaware that the Bush administration hoped that bringing down Saddam would help lead to this???
Let me see. Iran will soon have nuclear weapons. If Hussein was still in power, what makes you think he would not have some serious WMDs of his own, only to protect himself from Iran. That would have made 2 idiots in the Middle East with nuclear weapons. Anything could have happened. And anything still can.
“Unless you are are an Iranian mullah, you would hardly deem this a successful “democracy.” ”
It is a little to soon to be judging Iraq. You can certainly attack the process but right now the long term outcome is uncertain. Twenty years from now if Iraq is a flourishing society that peacefully transitions power from one leader to another, it will be a success. They are unlikely to have the same political views as Americans but as long as they are not a theocracy and generally get along with the international community, it will be a success. Of course you can always claim it wasn’t worth the price.
“Look at the Arab spring: Arab youth asking for voice in their own affairs, asking to be counted and respected as individuals.”
The arab spring where the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is poised to take over Egypt or the people are being crushed in Yemen, Syria, and Iran? The arab spring is not all unicorn farts and smurfberries.
“Yes, where are all the neo conservative idealists who wished so much for democracy in Arab lands even if that meant bombing these Arabs silly?”
Last seen the head neo-con (Wolfewitz) was speaking out in favor of Obama’s kinetic military outreach in Libya. You know, the one that congress didn’t vote for?
When Kissinger was talking with Mao, they end up talking about the French revolution. Mao talks about the revolution as an event whose historical significance is yet unravel. Now I don’t think Americans are known for their patience or their historic perspective on social events. From my corner I will not wait twenty years to declare US war in Iraq the first strategic blunder of the twenty first century. No matter how you spin it, it always lands on its ass.
I’m afraid alex has gotten high on some spiked cool aid. How many times more and for how many more years will we have to defend the second Irag victory and defend against the rest of the long list of false charges the Left has invented to vilify GWB? The just criticism that they could make of him they will never make: Bush spent too much taxpayers’ money on socialist causes.
Mr. Hanson, you do yourself a disservice responding to this Jakob Augstein kook.
His entire article is a laughably extreme leftist flight of fantasy, but it also contains a major clue that the man is irrational even by leftist standards and unworthy of engaging in any kind of a discussion. It’s the reference to the Koch brothers, the bete noir of basement jackoffs around the world.
“The US is a country where the system of government has fallen firmly into the hands of the elite.”–Some Kraut
Yeah, right. As opposed to other nations, which are usually ruled by carpenters, plumbers and ditch-diggers.
All nations are ruled by political elites. Obviously.
We do have one thing going for us here in America. We might be idiots, but we’ll always look smart, as long as there are Euros around to compare us to.
I went to graduate school in Vienna and saw first hand the cowardly liberalism that has infected Europe. Europeans cower in fear of their Muslim immigrants yet seem powerless to stop their slow colonization because of a twisted political correctness and near worship of multiple-culturalism. Western culture is clearly superior to all other cultures yet Europe is ashamed of itself, its success, its past, its (former) power and glory. Europe is dying because of their politics. It’s only a matter of time.
“yet Europe is ashamed of itself, its success, its past, its (former) power and glory.”
They should be ashamed of themselves. Their “glory” culminated in the Shoah, and they still lieve on their Jew-hatred.
“Europe is dying because of their politics. It’s only a matter of time.”
So long as we get the Jews out safely, all I can say is the Europeans are getting what they deserve.
“I agree that money is a pollutant of politics.”
While the buying of politicians comes across as unseemly, it must be remembered that money, politics, science/engineering, philosophy/religion, energy (whether a horse turning a millers stone or electricity out of the socket), and the military are all just expressions of power.
History is the story of the interplay between these different forms of power. How it’s developed, gained, used and lost. We study Western history because the development of these different forms of power follow a dynamic, evolutionary track leading eventually to greater individual freedom and a higher standard of living, as opposed to the depressing, dead end stories of tribalism, feudalism and tyrannical imperialism common to the rest of the world.
I recall the imperial throne of Rome being auctioned off at one point, and the Templars were wiped out because the king of France didn’t want to pay them back the money he owed. All money is, in a sense, filthy lucre, yet it’s also the root of all civilization.
But what the hell do I know? I never graduated high school.
Columbus’s little jaunt to find the New World is remembered in part,for the tale of Spain’s queen hocking her jewels to pay for the cruise.What they story eliminated was the king and queen borrowed from Jews and instead of repaying them they kicked off the Inquisition and eliminated them.
Btw Columbus is now considered the father of the “Native American Genocide” in Europe and the middle east.Mostly due to Al Jazeera’s stories about our Indian Reservations/history and essays/books by Ward Churchill,a plagiarist,fake Indian,fake Vietnam paratrooper and fake historian from University of Colorado.He also wrote about 9/11 being our fault.
Not to belabor the Columbus voyage, many socialists use the Columbus story as a where-would-he-have-gotten-without-government-support argument? In fact, 50% of the trip was funded by private investors.
Regarding American government attempts to at least put the American Indian on reservations, never mind the actual killings by the military of Indian women and children, such atrocities happened in every culture. One that immediately springs to mind is the Turkish attempt to eradicate the Albanian people, during the early 1900s. The history books are full of such examples. It was the culture of the times, and more acceptable. Things like that are still going on, such as Muslims trying to rid themselves of Christians in their midst, through fear or actual slaughter.
Also, Dr. Hanson, I strongly recommend you read the novel Ilium by Dan Simmons. Should be right up your alley.
You do have to admire the chutzpah of a German sneering at American militarism, though.
That’s pretty funny.
Next thing you know, the Germans will be decrying American anti-semitism.
You do have to admire the chutzpah of a German sneering at American militarism, though.
That’s pretty funny.
Next thing you know, the Germans will be decrying American anti-semitism.
You say that as if today’s Germans are indistinguishable from the Germans of World War II.
That war ended in 1945 and was immediately followed by a process of “de-Nazification” in which all Germans were required to participate and that was in the American, British and French Zones. The new Soviet-backed authorities in the Soviet Zone were even harsher with suspected Nazis.
The German Army was shrunk dramatically and effectively became a self-defense force, not an aggressive formation that was well-suited to invade its neighbours. German forces only fought outside Germany for the first time since WWII during the First Gulf war as a part of the Coalition. The Nazi Party was banned and remains banned to this day, as are all Nazi-like parties.
West Germany gave billions in reparations to Israel from the very beginning of its existence, despite the dire difficulties the West German economy faced in trying to rebuild a country that was mostly rubble and which had lost a very significant portion of its healthy men through war fatalities. West Germany was soon firmly on the path of social-democracy and politicial correctness, for better or worse.
It constantly amazes me that some apparently intelligent Americans still think today’s Germans are mirror images of their grandfathers from World War II, even after the passage of over 60 years.
The Germans’ sneering at the US is intimately related to WW2. It goes like this: “Yes, our fathers or grandfathers may have been genocidal Nazis or enablers of them, but look at the Amis these days. Just as bad as the Nazis. Just as militaristic as the Nazis.”
The poster child for the prime cause of Germans’ sneering at Amis being related to WW2 is Herta Däubler-Gmelin. Remember good old Herta? Back in 2002, Herta Däubler-Gmelin created some controversy when she compared Bush to Hitler/Adolf Nazi and also called the US justice system “lousy.” Her Nazi father, Hans Gmelin , was Standartenführer in German occupied Slovakia, where Herta was born during WW2. In his position as assistant to German “ambassador” Hanns Ludin, Gmelin helped facilitate the Holocaust, and served three years in prison as a consequence. That was a decidedly less onerous consequence than the Jewish citizens of Slovakia suffered when Hans Gmelin facilitated their transport to the camps.
Puts Herta’s gratuitous criticisms of the US in a different context, does it not? Such as: “In an attempt to expiate my guilt feelings over my father’s conduct in WW2, I will attempt to show that the Americans are as bad as the Nazis.” Herta’s father was an attorney for the Nazis, and also a very enthusiastic Nazi. Is there a connection with that fact and Herta’s calling the American justice system “lousy?” I think so.
Herta, I would much prefer that you come to terms with your father’s wartime conduct- you are NOT responsible for how your father behaved when you were an infant- so that you would stop dumping on the Americans.
The reason that we Amis bring up WW2 when the Germans criticize us is that when the Germans criticize us, there is often a Nazi under the bed, as in the case of Herta Däubler-Gmelin.
Germans criticizing us for not having our government spending control is a very valid criticism. Germans are doing much better than we are in that regard.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I had a fair amount of contact in Latin America with Germans as fellow tourists and as co-workers. None of them gratuitously criticized the US the way that many Germans do today.
Little can be added to Dr. Hanson’s cutting and dicing job on an archtypical German Deutschland uber alles journolist, speaking from within a tottering Union which the citizens have flatly refused to accept, in which they have no vote, ruled by a powerless “government” in Brussels which its individual member nations substantially ignore and subvert.
So Herr Augstein is happy to be divorced from the USA. He undoubtedly, like all other Germans and French, would also be delighted e to be divorced from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, those fine examples of the glory of the European anti-West system. I’m sure he could also give us plenty of reasons why the French should be held in contempt and kept at arms length, too.
The dream of the destiny of an imperialist Reich lives on.
Wealth disparity, poverty, war, disease, bed bugs, dropped calls, Europe, phone menus, McDonalds, debt downgrades, congressional shootings, lost luggage, paper cuts, slavery, and soggy cereal are all the fault of the Tea Party.
Especially the soggy cereal.
I think Burger King best captures the essence of social democracy in their latest commercial:
http://www.popisms.com/TelevisionCommercial/38872/Burger-King-Commercial-for-Burger-King-Minis.aspx
— “The further the United States distances itself from us, the more we will (have to) think for ourselves, as Europeans. The West? That’s us.”
Uh, no, YOU are the Euro-trash Northern Near East. WE are well to the West of you on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. So, really, that makes US “The West” — and unlike YOU, we have armies. While YOU have nothing but a field of aging NATO hardware that mostly belongs to US. So spare us your delusions, puddin’ cup. YOU represent the weakest link of the Western World. YOU are of little practical relevance or usefulness to The Free World. In fact, YOU would be the ruin of us all, if we allowed it. Paris burned last year, and the year before that. Now it is London’s turn. Your former slaves OWN you, and your timid bobbies and gendarmes can do nothing to defend ethnic Europeans from the Barbarians who once again gather at your gates. Good bye, and good luck.
My older brother spent 2 years in Berlin, 1968 to 1970. His impression of German men, effeminate. His time in Berlin was spent in the U.S. Army.
It’s in bad taste, I know, but I’ve heard it said that German men now are effeminate because we killed all the fighting ones.
You killed men? You killed boys and and old men and those who got wounded and were sent to the west then, not yet recovered. Your words are very bad taste, really.
I believe Augstein’s article was in RCW. Nice Smack Down. A lot of his personal angst toward the US comes from a deep seated German anger at us over our bombing of their cities during WWII. Even though it was the Brits who blindly carpet bombed their cities they tend to blame us for it.
The Brits flew at night. Do you know how difficult it was to find drop zones back then? Hell, just finding the right damn city was hard enough. Nazi Germany had been specifically targeting Brit civilians for many months prior to Hamburg and Dresden. To say nothing of the many millions of civilians the Germans slaughtered up close and personal. Churchill and his commanders were absolutely correct and justified to give as good as they had got and then some. The Nazi regime was pure evil. No retaliation against Germany was too severe.
“A lot of his personal angst toward the US comes from a deep seated German anger at us over our bombing of their cities during WWII.”
Hey, screw ‘em, if they can’t take a joke.
“Hey, screw ‘em, if they can’t take a joke.”
In that spirit:
The air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They, it is alleged, not only expect one to know one’s gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
Speedbird 206: “Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway.”
Ground: “Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven.” The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: “Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?”
Speedbird 206: “Stand by, Ground, I’m looking up our gate location now.”
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): “Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?”
Speedbird 206 (coolly): “Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark…and I didn’t land.”
Nasty, nothing but nasty. And you think that we should like you? Or even admire you? After having read the last few comments, I am tended to say: Augstein, you are so right.
Marianne, you know how I acquired my attitude? Many, many years of listening to arrogant Europeans–Europeans visiting America or even living here as perhaps permanent residents–loudly treating me and other Americans with condescension and contempt. Really, if they despised America so much, why didn’t they stay home? Why take advantage of our hospitality to berate and insult us? I used to have only affection for Europe, but the endless insults of its so-called elites forced me to change my mind. If you think we should smile and simper when you insult us, then you really do belong to the Axis of Weasels. ;-)
We shall see who laughs last. The EU will soon come unglued by the upcoming sovereign default of Greece which will ripple through Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain in short order. Its not chickens coming home to roost, its the PIIGS about to shat upon the noggins of the EU elite. Germany and France are not immune to the consequences of the collective default of the PIIGS. Next stop, another tribal war in Europe as the utopia of united Europe turns ugly. This time we need to stand back, munch popcorn, and sip on a few cool ones.
the long and the short of it is there is no discussion with the left. they are unable to work for common good of the people they claim to represent.
they are just parasites living on a host. they will go as far as to kill the host so as not to lose one drop of blood they think belongs to them.
I am perplexed as to how society can make these creatures …so devoid of reality.
I am perplexed as to how society can make these creatures …so devoid of reality.
All you need to do is look at the individual lives of these leftists and it becomes clear why they are out of touch with reality: they’ve never encountered it. I’ll bet that the vast majority of them grew up in very comfortable circumstances where they never had to lift a finger aside, possibly, from some school work. They never had to get dirty, as in do real work, the kind of thing where you would encounter reality. Once they started college, all their efforts were put into learning the memes that their radical professors were spouting; affluence meant they didn’t have to work during school to help finance their educations. After graduation, they took jobs in Ivory Towers in academia or government, places were exposure to reality would be rather unlikely. They shunned anything that looked like it might involve getting dirty, particularly military service where things could get very dirty indeed.
I remember a telling anecdote here at PJM a few months back where two college friends were driving somewhere; the driver was from a privileged background and his friend was “working class”. The car started making funny noises and the driver asked his friend what he should do. The driver’s friend suggested stopping and having a look under the hood. The driver, puzzled, asked how to look under the hood.
That anecdote epitomizes hothouse orchids that the leftists are: they can recite ideological arguments but nary a one of them is likely capable of cooking a meal, sewing a button, changing a tire, or breaking a sweat doing any of the mundane things that actually help them connect with the real world, rather than the imaginary utopias they live in.
The whole lot of them should be required to simply get dirty for a year or two so that they can re-connect with reality.
The idea of Europe as the true flagship for intellectual ideas is more fiction than fact. There is no real point that ancient Greece ends and Western Europe begins. Europe may indeed have adapted some ideas but that does not give it a monopoly on them. Far from it. Anyone with an open mind can achieve the same. Also what Europe considers its intellectual heritage is the work of a few over a fairly long time period. The idea of the “West” was a nice fiction to self-convince Europeans of their right to colonize and that their turn at the plate wasn’t an historical accident but a necessary part of world history. America’s biggest sin to Europe is its rejection of that chimera and its subsequent success.
America sits bestride two great oceans. Our ancestors gladly turned their backs on Europe and crossed the Atlantic for a better life here. It is urgent that our backs remain turned to Europe today. America’s future lies across the Pacific.
As Islam expands and consolidates its gains in Europe, the continent will experience large-scale abandonment. At that inevitable time, Americans must remember the European character and the virulent social and political diseases Europeans carry. Moreover that it was the the Europeans’ own corruption and lack of faith and will that invited their disinheritance.
In order to avoid contagion, Americans must close their hearts and direct the European immigrants fleeing Islam toward Australia and New Zealand and as a last resort, Canada next door. These are the folks our ancestors ran away from.
Remember when Allistair Cook was a pleasant anomaly? How many British news hacks have found employment in American television lately? Can you watch an evening news broadcast on any channel without hearing a British accent? Think these British journalists share your political views? Your faith in the Judeo-Christian ethic? Your commitment to democracy and free enterprise?
This American would welcome a hundred Mexican immigrants and a thousand Chinese or Indians before allowing in one more Brit. Forgive my racism. The Mexicans, Chinese and Indians will make better, more productive American citizens.
Grubby British lefties in the media are the most conspicuous foreshadowing of the European horde yet to come. America needs to bar the doors and point them thataway.
“This American would welcome a hundred Mexican immigrants and a thousand Chinese or Indians before allowing in one more Brit. Forgive my racism. The Mexicans, Chinese and Indians will make better, more productive American citizens.”
The problem is that we are not encouraging the Mexicans to assimilate, and they are becoming our version of Quebec – a distinct culture that, in California at any rate, is slowly becoming separatist.
A failing we could correct with securing our borders. My point is that Mexicans aren’t diseased by royals, class consciousness, socialism, anti-Semitism, and the hidebound conviction that European culture is vastly superior to that of the US.
Europe is a clapped-out dunghill whose inhabitants are drowning in the backwash of empire. Mexicans, Chinese and Indians will make more loyal, patriotic and industrious American citizens.
There’s a Brit named Mark Styn who has his own blog and writes for the National Review, who I’m sure you would agree with 100%. Great sense of humor, too.
No, Mark Steyn was born in Canada, not the UK. He apparently resides in New Hampshire these days.
Mark Steyn may be the best editorial journalist writing in the English language today. Smarter, funnier and more entertaining and informative than just about anyone else out there. My info is that he’s Jewish-Irish-Canadian-American. But who knows? I just glad that, with all that talent, his head is screwed on properly and he’s on the right side.
I’m sorry Dr. Hanson but I just can’t seem to get worked up over the misguided efforts of some elite media brainiac in Germany to describe to his readers what is wrong with the USA. Cast out the beam in your own eye fella.
It does remind me of a correspondence I had with a guy from Canada some years ago on an internet forum. His premise was that Americans were pushy and arrogant. I disagreed with him in as even a tone of words as I could – only to have him begin to lambaste me – slowly at first – then with increasing vigor until the moderator had to suspend the guy for verbal abuse and harassment. He’d follow me to other threads and attempt to browbeat me into accepting his premise. I didn’t report this – someone else reading those words must have. My point is that all too often people from other cultures seem to think they have the USA pigeon-holed and all along they are describing all their own faults and quirks and trying to hang them on us. Sorry – we have enough of our own quirks and faults – we don’t need you to share your’s with us. Try rooting out your own for a while and get back to me – I’d be interested in what you can find in your own eye – maybe that beam – eh?
Reading the Augstein editorial here in Europe is painful. My family and I live in the Netherlands and have traveled widely across Western Europe. I have been traveling back and forth between America and Europe for 30 years. I am afraid Augstein’s opinions are indeed reflective of many, many Europeans. Now, there is a tremendous disconnect between Europeans and Americans on a fundamental level. Most Europeans know very little about the United States. There remain pockets of tremendous respect and reverence across Western Europe for the sacrifice and success of the U.S. in World War II, but it ends there and that reservoir of goodwill continues to evaporate as the War recedes into distant memory.
There is almost NO European acknowledgement and graciousness to the U.S. for its role in the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union. This was and is a tremendous failing of the political and cultural elite in the U.S. and we may all, European and American alike, pay dearly for this oversight. Europeans do not believe the U.S. had anything to do with the end of the Cold War – a fallacy ceaselessly promoted by Democrats and the Leftist intelligentsia in the U.S. The Augstein opinion piece is symptomatic of this gross distortion of history.
So, as VDH implies in his retort and many commenters above promote, the U.S. footprint will get smaller and smaller in Europe. We will withdraw and the Europeans will say good riddance. As this may coincide with the ongoing financial crisis we may face new threats. Europeans primary political value is security and they will eagerly give up individual liberty and freedom for security. As the rot and corruption at the foundation of the Western financial institutions inevitably kills our large “private” banks – we will see two distinct reactions. The American response – the Tea Party. (try explaining the idea of a populist libertarian movement to any European – impossible. Somewhat excusable given that the only populist political movements the Europeans understand are Communism and Fascism – and they think the two are polar opposites). The U.S. one way or another will confront our broken financial system and we will fix it. Right now the Tea Party is defining the debate in the U.S. – God bless them. I am afraid the European response will be more and more government control – making European states more vulnerable to demagogic political movements. Watch out!
Well, Europeans aren’t going to blame the failures of the last 65 years on themselves, are they?
They were handed the most gracious gift in history, the Marshall Plan. Moreover, they were protected from the existential threat of Communism, by the US, which had the side benefit of allowing them to divert the 10% of their economies that they should have been investing in defense toward other purposes.
And they still blew it. Their problems are even more fundamental that the US’s problems. We overspend, but at least much of it until 2009 was justified. They have not only squandered a fortune that was multiplied by us, but continue to nurse their century old anti-semitism. And in recent years, they have succombed to a strangely self-destructive unwillingness to confront the islamic problem.
It’s hard to see how they can pull out of it without a new cataclysm. Never forget that genetically, Europeans are a warrior culture 5,000 years in the making. You don’t breed that out in 3 generations, with words no less, despite the overt limp wrists of their “elite”. A new cataclysm is a built-in function.
“I have been traveling back and forth between America and Europe for 30 years. I am afraid Augstein’s opinions are indeed reflective of many, many Europeans.”
Sadly true.
I read some German blogs, and this anti-American attitude has been growing in recent years. One can also see it in the blogs of certain British papers, the Guardian first and foremost.
It is indicative of the left/socialist ideology which has been propagated in our universities from the late 1060, and which is now permeating the MSM across the continent, and influencing the minds of those too young to remember past times.
What I find so astonishing is that especially Germans have fallen prey to this, seeing that so many of their countrymen were liberated from the communist yoke only a bit over 20 years ago.
Ah well – one the economic reality of a break-up of the Euro-Zone hits them, they may perhaps learn again the lesson about the perniciousness of this ideology. Somehow, I doubt this, though …
WDH makes two mistaken assumptions: the first is that there is such a thing as “the European Left”, and the second is that this entity is contributing some “thought” whose poverty can be assessed.
In reality, there is no European Left because the so-called “left” in Europe (and, apparently, in America) is actually a reincarnation of the Ancien Regime.
As for the “thought” that VDH detects in the Augstein opinion piece, it is blatantly evident that the whole of it comes from America. Augstein cites two, and only two “thinkers”: Stiglitz and Krugman, both American-born Ivy League academics. He throws in the names of the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch as objects of approbation: where does VDH think that Augstein learned these names? from his own research or from the media? if from European media, do you think it more likely that the Europeans did their own research, or that they just parroted the American media?
The plain fact is that at least since the Vietnam War, the USA has taken over from the Soviet Union the intellectual leadership of the “left”, and any European “thinker” who wants to make an impact moves to American universities.
Other than that, VDH is spot on, perhaps even too restrained.
“objects of approbation” or “… of opprobrium”?
Oops! Thank you for the correction. Perhaps I should use fewer long words.
The name Augstein is very exceptional in Germany! Rudolf Augstein, Jakob Augstein`s legal father was the founder of the German magazine “Der Spiegel”. His biological father is Martin Walser, a well-known author and writer. That might suggest that Jakob Augstein needs neither American nor European help in research and writing. Since 2008 he publishes his own weekly Der Freitag. According to Augstein, der Freitag is rather left (red,red,green). I would agree.
” The US has taken over from the Soviet Union the intellictual leadership of the left”. Nothing left to say.
Thank you for the info on Augstein. If we agree on your last line, then we are in fundamental agreement; but for the sake of clarity: I did not mean that Augstein is not capable of doing his own research. What I meant is that in this particular op-ed, he does not have much to say that has not been said before by Stiglitz, Krugman, and countless American op-eds.
Augstein adds a German perspective by mentioning Willy Brandt and Thilo Sarrazin, but the only hint of original “thought” (if that is the right word) that I can detect is that it is America that has drifted away from the “essence” of Western civilization.
BTW it is interesting that Augstein agrees with Sarrazin on the superiority of Western civilization: their only disagreement is who is threatening it right now.
“The same applies to America’s broken political culture. The name “United States” seems increasingly less appropriate.”
Scotland is once again talking seriously about independence from Great Britain. Does Belgium have a governemtn yet? Seems the Flemish and the Walloons still cannot get along after centuries of trying. Spain has at least two secessionist movements, teh Basque and the Catalonians. And try talking about Macedoia in Greece and get their reaction. That’s off the top of my head without going deeply into anything.
Kudos.
I’m rather certain the author was aiming for a farcical irony of the nature of Kafka’s America, with the Statue of Liberty holding up her sword and other remarkably humorous descriptions and depictions that were remarkably funny but incorrect, given Kafka’s “recollection from the memory of never actually visiting there nor really paying much attention to reality.”
I’d have to believe, as such, that this author is paying great tribute to both Kafka and to the tea party through his creative mastery. Additionally, one could almost sense a willful demand for deconstruction throughout the text, with such tensions and potentialities for interplay on many of the conceptual constructions. “There’s no deliverance…” had me laughing heartily, with such a coy “tell” that allows us to grasp the insanity of the stereotype of tea party conservatives as back country, toothless, “squeal like a pig boy!” hillbillies, contrasted with these conflicting claims of their crafty elitist status, with sharp intelligence honed to outdo all that a modest and humble progressive could attempt through their best intention, but moral ability.
I’d finally comment that we have much to respect in this author’s work. The emergence of these schizophrenic stereotypes, combined with the daily behavior and tightly controlled messaging of what should be likened to a Global Socialist Progressive Workers Party of the neo-fascist Left, should alarm intelligent citizens. We’ve seen the party-directed messaging of the “crafty, sneaky and ultra intelligent cheating financial Jew” with the “not even human, disgusting, dirty, rat-like Jew” before and know where these representations, combined with the immediacy of the threat otherization we encountered this week with the “TEA PARTY TERRORISTS!” Democratic Party propaganda. However, the author correctly senses that the West’s inability to openly mock, shun, laugh at and utterly destroy fascism, instead, concealing it and protecting it from scorn by declaring it unspeakable and demanding no contemporary practice be compared to it, has saved fascism for a progressive return to its will-to-power.
Bravo and kudos to Herr Jakob Augstein and Der Spiegel for sounding the alarm of the fascism arising within the Democratic party and the progressive left.
Liberalism is obsessed with dollar signs- because they define who has more. The poorest could sleep on feather beds and never want for anything and they are worse off if the richest are richer then now, because its all relative to their minds. Hence this boobs obsession with spending and relative wealth.
Sanity requires that we return to RESULTS oriented government. A federal government that spends 50% more is not a 50% more effective government, and certainly not a 50% more caring government. Liberals believe that it is, that we measure our compassion and goodness by how much money passes through washington, not by how many mouths are fed or children educated.
That is their achilles heel and that is where conservatives must launch all their criticisms. The government spending is intolerable not because it is huge, but because it is incompetent. A government this large cannot function and fulfill its obligations. Real leadership means doing the dirty work of making government work and brutally chopping out the parts that don’t. Neither party is interested in doing that kind of work.
The increasing virulence of European anti-Americanism is disturbing, but it is actually not new: The European elites have hated and feared America since its birth, both as a subversive example of freedom and as a threat to their global power.
I think it’s about time we Americans abandon any illusion that the elites of Europe are anything other than our enemies.
Augstein writes in the grand Orwellian language of “newspeak.” His writings are bereft of fact and full of wishful thinking.
Complaints about the “top 1%” or “top 5%” of income earners is simply specious progressive propagandizing for several reasons.
First, this simple statistic is the only percentile that is open ended. The income necessary to reach the “top 5%” may be around $1 million or so, but the sky is the limit. Every other percentile bracket is bounded. If you are in the bottom 1%, that percentile includes people with zero income.
Second: most people in this bracket are there for a single event in their life. When I sold a business that took me 15 years to build, I hit it once. Two years later when the stock market tanked, my annual income for that year was a net loss.
Third: Just who are these people? Do we complain when a pro football player signs a multi-million dollar contract? Or a movie star has a it? Do we complain that a Rolling Stones concert brings them over $100 million, or that writing the Harry Potter series has brought author J.K. Rowling an estimated $1 billion? No, we hate greedy CEOs and hedge fund managers, except we give a pass when George Soros is rumored to have earned $10 billion on this week’s downgrade of US debt.
Lastly, having such a large amount of wealth in the “top 1%” is proof of the power of our wealth creating tools. One particularly gifted person with a computer can write a billion dollar software program or create a billion dollar media property. When in human history has it been possible for a single person to earn that much wealth? Never! These “super-producers” should be made national economic heroes instead of being treated as evil and greedy. What would life be like today without a George Lucas, a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates? Certainly much less prosperous for all of us.
Actually, Mr. Hanson, I’m pretty sure we will see more and more of this criticism as world economies continue to deteriorate. The modern welfare state practiced in Western Europe is now coming to an end. Someone must be blamed, and the US is going to be the scapegoat for the Leftists in Europe. I’m not sure where all this will go, but I believe the Eurozone will fall apart mainly because the Germans will refuse to bail out the southern flank of Europe.
And truly, the Germans have no cause for complaint, as their little foray in Libya has done two things. It’s shown them to be weak militarily, and it has pealed back the character of many Europeans, and shown them to be cowards and hypocrites. I’m pretty sure the riots in London, now spreading to other cities, are a symptom of this weakness and lack of character. The people in Britain, Germany and the rest of Europe are helpless to defend themselves. Anarchists, thugs and criminals do as they please. We have these rumblings in US cities as well, where Democratic mayors turn the city over to a criminal/racist element. But we have the advantage of personal arms and the courage to use them, so its not the force for destruction we see in Europe.
I have friends in the UK, decent people who love the US just as many of us love the UK, and I fear for their safety. I don’t want to abandon them to the totalitarianism of the Left, nor to an Islamic/Leftist alliance, so I urge all Americans to show restraint, and make an attempt to engage the decent people of Europe. There are many, and they hate what is going on just as much as we hate what is going on with our government. And I don’t see any point in throwing all the people of Germany into some anti-American pot together. Some people in Germany have this view, but not the majority. Many in America hold the same view as these German Leftists, and much of their thought comes straight from the American Left. Think about that.
For all the stupid commentaries being posted that you could easily comment on, I would think this one wouldnt be high on the list. While it is given from a snobby European perspective, it is essentially on the mark.
We dont want to recognize what we have become.
A wonderful review by Dr. Hanson.
I am glad to see that more Americans are seeing Europe for what it has always been and still is. That is what I have been trying to cry out loud for years which is that Western Europe is and has NEVER been True ally of US, not exactly enemy but definitely adversaries and especially in the case of Britain. In order to have a better deeper knowledge and understanding of this phenomena just review history of Europe and its meddling and expansions throughout middle east, South Asia, Africa and the Caribbeans, etc.
It is time to wake up and stop playing god mother to this unfaithful child.
A great book to read:
” A Peace to end all Peace” written by David Fromkin.
A true friend, ally is one who shares our most fundamental belief which is Freedom in all its manifestations individual and collective. Just because US and Europe share the same religion or language in good number of regions, does not cut it. How can it? It is like having an arranged marriage.
Our true friends and allies are those nations who are fighting for their individual and collective freedom, breaking chains of economical political and social slavery from their ruling elites, be it in South Asia, middle east, South America, Africa..
Those are our true allies, those are the ones we should reach out to and promote relationships with.
Europe will always be old..that is “Old Europe”.
“The richest 1 percent of Americans claim one-quarter of the country’s total income for themselves — 25 years ago that figure was 12 percent. It also possesses 40 percent of total wealth, up from 33 percent 25 years ago. Stiglitz claims that in many countries in the so-called Third World, the income gap between the poor and rich has been reduced. In the United States, it has grown.”
—
This bit here is the most illustrative of what we’re dealing with in terms of the Left: 1) blatant lies, coupled with 2) useful idiocy. The blatant lies spew forth from the sources of this sort of dishonest propaganda: the behind-the-scenes, Leftist “politburo” represented by those like Stiglitz and Krugman who seek the dismantling of Western culture in order to bring about their Marxist utopia. The useful idiocy is encapsulated in the vacuous, intellectually incurious fools of which Augstein is a perfect example, gulping down the indoctrination by the bucket. The real explanation for increasing income disparity in the US over the past 25 years is the increase in the unproductive consumer/breeder population in the US over the past 25 years.
It isn’t difficult to understand. Since the 1960′s, Democrats and Leftists have created a socio-economic system that 1) transfers wealth from the middle-class to the dependent-class and 2) rewards procreation amongst net consumers and punishes procreation amongst net producers.
Think about that for a minute…really think about it. The system that we have in place now is purposefully designed to reward the people who are the least productive. Don’t want to work? Then don’t. All you need to do is have a kid and all of your material needs will be paid for out of someone else’s pocket. Your housing…your utilities…your food…your health care…all of it will be paid for with money stolen from the productive class. And the really insane part of it? If you want more money, just have another kid!. Presto! A bigger check comes in the mail. And that additional money is a net positive, considering that your other expenses are already being paid for! Meanwhile, if you actually work for a living, every child that you have is a net negative on your balance sheet…negatives that increase with each birth. But what’s even more devious?…you’re also paying for the children of the dependent-class consumers!
So what happens over a quarter-century with this dynamic in place?
1) You have a dependent class that breeds like cockroaches. And 90% of the kids they have grow up to be dependent-class breeder/consumers themselves. And they pay for none of it…ever.
2) You have a middle-class that struggles to stay afloat because they’re paying for their own children, as well as the children of the dependent-class. As a result, they have far fewer children than the dependents, and many of them are eventually sunk by the double-burden and fall into the dependent-class themselves.
3) Finally, you have the rich who provide the products and services that both the middle- and dependent-class still need.
And that right there is why you have growing income disparity…because you have an ever-expanding population of breeder/consumers who create NO wealth and consume the wealth of the middle-class. Contrary to the Left’s lies, the middle-class isn’t being bled dry by the rich…it’s being bled dry by the Left, via wealth redistribution from the middle-class to the consumer/breeder class.
Under Pax Americana, many small countries have become vastly wealthy by selling raw materials to the West.
Under Pax Sinica, the materials would be taken from them without commensurate compensation.
If you believe otherwise, reread the history of the 20th century.
>>> The richest 1 percent of Americans claim one-quarter of the country’s total income for themselves
Claim, earn, whatever. The left continues to believe that wealth simply falls from the sky and can be “claimed” by anyone lucky enough to be standing nearby when it lands.
A remarkable fisking of Mr. Augstein’s European “superiority”. If Europe is all that’s left of the West, then why is London burning?
VDH is too kind. I wouldn’t have suffered this barbarian yokel with such nicety.
The conversation between Europe and America is looking more and more like that of the Eastern and Western Empires just before the collapse of Rome. What remains to be seen in this case is which parts of the Empire these two will end up looking like in another fifty years.
When Oswald Spengler wrote his epic Decline of the West, he missed a serious contemporary trend – the shift in the primary nexus of Western civilization and economic power (i.e., “The West”) from Europe (by which Spengler almost certainly meant Germany) to the US. This skewed his thesis badly, because the various disasters which were consuming Europe in those days were just sideshows in the history of civilization, and really had little to do with the main developmental line of “The West”. But Spengler had an excuse; the shift was then new. Now, nearly a century later, some, like Herr Augstein, still don’t seem to have gotten the memo. Europe, for all its conceit, is an intellectual and social backwater. Sorry, but there it is. Any positive developments for The West will originate in the New World. The Old World may or may not be able to follow, but it won’t much matter to anyone else if it does or not.
“The word ‘West’ used to have a meaning. It described common goals and values, the dignity of democracy and justice over tyranny and despotism.”
One wise sentence in an editorial of trash. There is no ‘west.’ No EUropean favors democracy, liberty, and prosperity. Instead they are governed by unelected and unaccountable EU ministers of feminism and culture and socialism. Now only the USA is opposed to tyranny and despotism.
The EUSSR has gone total EAST.
I wonder when Europeans are going to wake up to the fact that this “income inequality” meme they are subjected to is a construct of the left intended to keep everyone down, and that they have been systematically lied to. I came across some data about German income distribution:
22% of households are in $12000/yr and under.
60% are in the $12000-30000 bracket
18% are in the over $30,000
The dollar ranges are approxinate, but close enough. Also that is net income, which I’m going to assume is pretax, from all sources, although that could be wrong.
For the US, from IRS data on tax returns, keeping in mind that there may be more than one return per household, and that this is taxable income, not all income. (all this info is so much easier to come by here, but not in Europe. I wonder why?)
6% under $12000
26% 12-30
23% 30-50
29% 50-100
13% 100-200
3% 200-500
1% 500+
Sure, the top 1% have 22%, but of you look at the IRS data for the top 400, over the last 16 years, 40% of those appearing on that list appear only once. My guess is they are one-time payments for selling a business they built up over the years. That doesn’t make me poor.
Thanks, but I’ll take a country where a relatively small number can become very rich while almost half make far more than most Europeans make any day. The existence of Bill Gates or the Facebook kid doesn’t make everyone else poor.
Euros have a mentality driven by envy and jealousy of those who have more than they do, so they keep everyone down to appease it. We generally don’t, as much as the leftists would like to stoke it up.
Oops, forgot to add my name to the first one. Of course, a Euro will look at this and probably start babbling about the cost of insurance, and how you have to subtract that from income. Except….this is taxable income, and the employee contributions to insurance (as well as 401k) has already been subtracted from their income to get to taxable income-so there is no cost of insurance to be subtracted from these numbers. Euros are no doubt repeatedly lied to about this, always being told that you have to subtract the cost of insurance from US income numbers when in fact, all income numbers in the US that are reported already have the cost of insurance (from employer group plans, at least, which is most) subtracted from them. I doubt a single person in Europe even knows this.
This is exactly right. I like the documentation you present. Good job. Socialism is about equality, not prosperity. Everybody being equally poor is the result of socialism. And socialists prefer that over everybody being unequally rich. Socialist are just small minded and envious to their own financial detriment.
Awesome article, Dr. Hanson!!!
Jakob
Augsteingot PWNED!Across Europe, hundreds of thousands of outraged people are very pointedly refusing to read this article, and then discussing how bad it is.
I eagerly await Mr. Augstein’s reply to Professor Hansen, but will understand if he remembers that discretion truly is the better part of valor.
(Actually, what’s more likely is that right now, Mr. Augstein is eagerly showing around this article to his circle of friends, exclaiming over and over “omigawd, Victor Davis Hanson responded to my article!! omigawd! . . . !” – in English, of course, as he and his friends fancy themselves intellectuals.)
I come late to the commentary here and what I have to say is truly unimportant compared to the proper dressing down that Prof. Hanson has applied to Augstein.
While Mr. Augstein deserved every bit of criticism he received, I believe with all my heart that VDH wasted his precious time. Mr. Augstein is a pedant by way of his overblown exaggerations and an inability to respond accurately to anything happening in America. As exemplified by Mr. Augustein’s constructions, I remain constantly in awe at how poorly our advanced language abilities serves the cause of truth. (Can anyone define what he means by “no deliverance in sight” or “We must protect our political culture.”) We can make Mobius strips in such an such erudite manner that it is no wonder that we make so little progress on social matters. In this category as well, I place Mr. Obama’s utterances that lack any underpinning in intellectual analysis, with today’s call for “more jobs” being key among his words without depth of meaning.
As a German I wholeheartedly agree with Victor’s rebuttal of Augstein’s silly, uninformed, simplistic and cliche-riddled essay (which I had read before). Particularly the part where Augstein insinuates that Obama’s race must play a role in how he is treated by his political enemies was rather embarrassing and idiotic given that Germany has no experience whatsoever with non-caucasian chancellors. It is yet another display of the silly ‘inverse racism’ that is so common among the Left, in which someone from an ethnic minority must by default be of a higher moral standing and integrity no matter what he does (Incidentally, shortly after the horrible shooting in Norway happened and it became clear that the perpetrator was not one of the usual suspects, one of the first headlines in SPIEGEL read: “Blond, blue-eyed and unscrupulous” – imagine the outrage if SPIEGEL would title “Dark-haired, bearded and murderous” after an islamist attack).
For a little perspective: Augstein is the adopted son of DER SPIEGEL’s founder Rudolf Augstein who used to be one of the most emblematic figure within Germany’s publishing industry. Many people suspect that Jakob uses his famous last name to achieve some journalistic leverage especially since his own publishing endeavors outside of SPIEGEL have so far been rather unsuccessful. So, Augstein is more or less ‘intellectual elite’ through an acquired last name.
To be fair though he is also only one of a handful of SPIEGEL op-ed columnists who write contributions on a weekly basis. His own are filed under the umbrella term ‘Im Zweifel links’ – loosely translated: “When in doubt, take a left (turn)” and are usually filled with the predictable commonplaces that you get from the loony left. There are others, though, who come from the opposite end of the political spectrum (most notably Jan Fleischhauer) who get an equal voice. This is something to keep in mind before anyone wants to project the irreverent utterances of one columnist onto the whole of the German public.
Jakob is not uncontroversial even though I would agree that his views – particularly those on the US – are currently held by the majority of my countrymen. But there ARE many Germans who disagree with him and consider his journalistic outpour to be utter drivel. So, please, bear with us…
You made me read the silliest article. As a german native speaker I received an overdose of educated nonsense here. The language of Augstein’s writing is highly ideological propaganda talk. Constructs like “almost catastrophe” ( Beinahekatastrophe) ,the “american fate” (das amerikanische Schicksal). It is hard to agree or disagree with Augstein on anything here for it is not even understandable what he means. Understanding is not Augstein’s concern when he writes “We observe America more and more with a feeling that says: we are different” (Wir beobachten Amerika mehr und mehr mit dem deutlichen Gefühl: Wir sind anders.) Obviously even on his part it a some emotional repulsion rather than rational rejection wins the argument. He concludes America is different from Europe. America was designed with that difference in mind. Nothing new here. Augstein prefers to quote authourities rather than referring to facts. What an old fashioned word to use, facts. Augstein is in line with the credo I grew up with: this is the best place to live, there is no alternative, if there is, it would be worse, if you don’t like it, go to East-Germany. Today the USA has taken the place of East-Germany, the credo stays the same. The consequences are easy to live with. If one is against the USA there is nothing one can do. Being against the Saddam Husseins of the world leads to a harder choice of actions. The lowpoint of the article comes early when Augstein calls the US a “failed state”. This should get himself thinking why he was using English language to say this. Since when do people use the language of a failed state to communicate around the globe?
Why do papers like Der Spiegel publish articles of such low quality? I have no answer to that question.
Why do papers like Der Spiegel publish articles of such low quality? I have no answer to that question.
Because anti-Americanism sells magazines in Germany.
“Because anti-Americanism sells magazines in Germany.”
And why is that?
Because a lot of Germans are fools or worse.
Using income disparity as a barometer for social health is akin to using a thermometer to check your blood pressure. Or using life expectancy instead of cancer survivability as a gauge for health care quality. It is scary how many people are so easily fooled when their “envy” buttons get pushed.
Bill Whittle provides an excellent illustration:
http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=56&load=5851
“The consequences are easy to live with. If one is against the USA….”
There will be consequences, however: Americans today are far less interested in bailing Old Europe out of whatever mess it gets itself into. After all, why help self-declared enemies? In the future we will help–when we do–only on grounds of Realpolitik, rather like why we aided Saddam when he was at war with Iran–not because we were under any illusions that either side was less than evil, but in the cold calculation that it was important to prevent an Iranian victory.
#54 Jerry
Godd commentary.
A lot of good points, Professor, although it does seem kind of wasteful to give much attention to a silly, basically content-free lament like Augstein’s. It seems to be nothing but a string of unparsable far-left talking points.
And honestly, it isn’t that different from much of what MSM opinion journalism has been belching out in the US.
The whole spectacle — and isn’t that a great Euro-vernacular word — is like a soccer game. Nothing much happens on the field, and the bystanders shout formulaic taunts at each other.
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