THE EUROPEAN UNION
(6/12, Spain. This is the second essay in a 2 part series starting with
the essay “The Crisis”)
Being that I am not an Oracle, I cannot discuss
the financial acrobatics that will eventually create an economic system that
functions as the Oracles say it should, one where we can all get back to work
and start buying new cars again, perhaps one that will figure out a way to
police itself so we can avoid these periodic adventures in disaster ---
whatever. This will happen. I predict; the European Union will survive. It is
too late to turn back. It would be more expensive to get rid of it than to save
it. We live in a competitive, market driven world and for Europe to divide
itself back into tiny little competitive parts would destroy its productive-creative
cache. What I can discuss about the European Union is the idea itself. The
European Union is a new art form in socio-political organization. It might even
be called “avant garde”, for its conception could be a forerunner for global organization
in the future. This, I’m sure, would set off some warning signals amongst many
political activists who define themselves as “anti-globalists”. This is a
misnomer. I, like them, am against the current global economic system, but
“globalism” does not have to be a bad thing. Our technology has made the
world’s people an integral entity. There are no more strangers on this Earth.
Some kind of political-economic integration should be a desired goal (for more,
see essay “Post Consumer Man”). Sure, the current form of globalism is a
neo-liberal conspiracy for corporate greed and dominance, but the global
reality we all now live in can be organized in a way that serves rather than
subjugates mankind. The European Union is an idea that could start carving a
path through the jungle of provincialism. It is difficult for most Americans to
understand the ancient lineage of European history. The same people have been
occupying the same places for innumerable generations. For almost all that
time, the accessibility of travel was virtually non-existent. That mountain
range or river or dense forest or large lake or wide estuary was the limit of
your universe and most people lived their lives in close proximity to their
birthplace. People like Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus were the astronauts
of their day. Even now, there are scores of local dialects in Italy that are
unintelligible for other Italians. Even now, you can travel one hour in England
and find an accent totally different from the one you just left behind. Such
great nations as Germany and Italy were not unified until the latter half of
the 19th century. Such division and isolation leads to suspicion and
misunderstanding. And the Europeans have fought it out. They’ve fought their
guts out and are tired of fighting. With the coming of the Industrial
Revolution and the steam engine, people were now able to get about more. The
railroad and the steamboat gave almost everyone the opportunity to go
somewhere, to leave the valley, to cross the river, to see what was on the
other side. Old habits die a very slow death and these ancient
ethnic-linguistic differences continued to ring up an expensive price in death
and destruction. In spite of this still conflictive panorama, a more universal
socialization was beginning to take form. And guess what? This increased flow
of goods and people was beginning to galvanize the continent. There really is
an “Occidental” identity, a cultural umbrella all these old European identities
fall under. You might be German, French or Italian, your skies might be more
sunny than grey, but this Occidental identity has blanketed the European
landscape. Regardless of the political divisions of old; regardless of the
delicious nuances of culture that still exist, Europe is really one place, one
culture, one way of seeing life. Everyone governs themselves similarly and does
politics in much the same way. Everyone’s concept of success or failure is
uniformly defined everywhere. The idea of civil liberties, the rule of law,
opportunity, equality, and other such flights of romantic fancy, make up the
rhetoric of the whole continent. Economic practice, even before the European
Union’s attempt to combine all these separate economies, is near uniform. The
social customs of dress, food, entertainment and artistic creation are similar
everywhere. Sexual mores, that is, feelings about marriage, family, infidelity
and erotic behavior in general, show hardly any serious divergence from one
place in Europe to another. This is not France or England, or Spain or Poland,
it is --- --- Occidente! So the European Union, I repeat, is a whole new art
form. It is a reaction to an archaic way of people identifying themselves, one
that was holding a whole continent back in a world economy that has to react
with more agility to this universal flow of goods and capital. But that is defining
it within the claustrophobic confines of the neo-liberal economic tyranny. The European
Union has another dimension, a more emotional one, one that is difficult to
measure and even more difficult to inculcate --- and one that is even more
important. It is an attempt to pull people away from these tired, provincial
ways of seeing themselves. It is an
initial step towards a global kind of citizenry, to a brotherhood of man that
goes beyond one’s puny little country, or language, or religion, or race and
ethnicity. Although I might object to the economic format of the global
economy”, I applaud “globalism”. The European Union is a step in that
direction. Whenever a new idea with the magnitude of a European Union is
attempted, there will be serious growing pains. The infancy of this
socio-political birth began after WWII with the Benelux agreement between
Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. The focal point of this formation was to
allow goods to fl ow freely between the 3 countries without tariffs and other
attached strings. This was the infant, which soon grew into a healthy child
including most of Western Europe. With the Treaty of Maastricht in the early
90’s, the single currency, the Euro, was created, setting off a pubic reaction
of adolescent growth which now includes almost all of Europe west of Russia.
The idea is now in its adolescence. It has still not matured into a stable,
healthy adult. Its adolescence has been irresponsible, as adolescence so often
is. The car has been driven recklessly, faster and faster, until it finally
could not negotiate a turn and left the road. The driver is now in Intensive
Care but will live. Hopefully, it will learn its lessons and the great
socio-economic experiment known as the European Union can move into its mature
adult life and lead the way for a less fractured, less antagonistic world.
Quite coincidentally, as I write this essay, the soccer tournament known as the
“Eurocopa” (The European Cup) in Spain is underway in Poland and the Ukraine.
It is a big deal, with the 16 countries who have qualified battling it out for
3 weeks. All the hotels and restaurants on my beloved island have extra TV’s
set up to watch the games. I’ve seen the Spaniards, who are currently the best team
in the world (until proven otherwise), singing “We are the Champions” after
pummeling little Ireland 4-0. I’ve seen Germans standing before a television
screen for their National Anthem. I’ve seen Italians, in their picturesque,
“mama mia” way, agonizing with their team’s shortcomings. The French seem less
concerned than the rest, too far immersed in their self proclaimed cultural
superiority to care about something as rudimentary as soccer. The English, so
beaten into pessimism by generations of soccer failure, timidly watch from the
fringes, just in case. Poles and Russians have been fighting in the streets of
Warsaw. An event like the European Cup seems to encourage a retreat into the
dim witted vestiges of tribalism that still holds humanity hostage. And the
Olympics are just a few weeks away! The European Union is a reaction to this
antiquated tribalism --- but it won’t be easy.
Jerome Grapel
Author of the book of essays, “Because You Never
Asked”
Phone: (305) 766-9576 • Email: JerryG@postcman.info •www.postcman.info
