Writing a draft about what I think is coming, I started digging through old drafts for inspiration, and found a few that I will republish since, apparently, I guessed right in them. This is the second one. It's about Europe. Written in 2014. Perfectly valid today, even more than in 2014.
Europe, what's that?
Sometimes it seems as if nobody cares about good old Europe. Trapped in our simple lives and influenced by the past, we go about our days fighting for jobs without even thinking of her. In truth, that's exactly as it should be.
Europe is too complicated for a single person to ever comprehend her fully. Is it a political or economic beast? Where does it begin and where does it end? Geographically, it won't coincide with a map drawn by the politicians and the economists. What does it mean to be a European? Who wants and who doesn't want to be? Is the European border shared with Iraq in the east or is it at the English Channel in the west? Do we stretch across the Atlantic Ocean, or will tiny Europe end at the Bosnian hills? Are there any European nationalists? Perhaps I'm one, anybody else?
Who can be European?
For me, all that mess is good news. Trust me. We need that confusion so we can fit all that Europe was, is, and everything else that Europe can be or is to be. Because we had wars, then some more of those wars. And diseases like the Black Death that brought even more suffering. With all that misery we went from religious darkness through the Renaissance movement and straight up to state secularism. From mad assassin kings via atheist emperors to the parliaments, democracy and good living for everybody. With low violence, health and social security, Europe had become a safe haven of the world. For a brief moment in history...
We must also include the old Europeans, like the way of thinking from the Greeks and the decadence from the Romans. There are the Vikings and their gods that will fit too. Ah, and the barbarians and the answer to why pigs are prohibited in the Bible and not in Christianity. All that history is a part of modern Europe just like the science we proudly developed and the burning of witches that we are ashamed of.
Inquisition, colonialism, capitalism, communism & fascism are our inventions too. We conquered the world with heavy swords while removing entire civilisations from existence. We were monsters and saviours. Pirates and slave traders.
When the ghost you let returns home...
And then those two big world wars, wow. There is no nation in Europe that doesn't have some kind of geopolitical map with their imaginary great big country drawn bigger than it should be and is, in their mind, worth killing for in the name of nationalism, another of our inventions. From the French Revolution, via fascism to sweet dolce vita and the British wave in the '70s. We seeded the new worlds and populated them with non-native peoples. All that must fit in modern Europe because we have to live with it, for better or worse.
That's why Europe is so broad and confusing. Yes it is, and it's the best we could hope for. That's why Ukrainian citizens are prepared to split a country, risking a war by jiggling Putin's balls. Because they can only fit in a broad, confusing Europe. If we make her more defined, like more french perhaps, and less flexible, fewer Europeans will find it worth fighting for.
What's next for us?
Today, Europe looks a bit bleak. Year 2014. Politically quiet, economically on the brakes. Technologically anxious and socially endangered. Like a car with the engine on, but the car also doesn't move. Many are joking about such Europe. Joke not, Europe is home to probably the most dangerous, violent, savage figures that ever walked on earth. Yes, we look like weak pussies today, fighting for our reduced social benefits and lamenting the jobs we've lost. Yeah. Who cares, we're good.
Remember, this is the first time in history that Europe is almost completely united and prosperous as it is now. We can't miss this opportunity. And it's the biggest sociopolitical experiment ever. Tell me if and when Japan and China will find a way to live together as the Germans and French did. It is hard to do, I mean HARD - TO - DO... It took us some 3000 years to do that!
We have no choice, forward is the only way. And what a road is ahead of us. Well, a bumpy one to begin with...