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71 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Will Europe Survive?, January 24, 2007
These are not good days for Europe. It has lost its way and seems incapable of recognising the many dangers and threats it is facing. Many Europeans recognise that an ideological, spiritual and cultural malaise has swept over the continent, but they seem unable or unwilling to properly assess it, or to adequately deal with it.
Europe certainly has a major, gaping hole in its soul, with its outright repudiation of its Christian heritage. And into this void has rushed various challenges, such as militant Islam, resurgent nationalism (including a revived Third Reich), and rampant anti-Americanism.
Claire Berlinksi is an American academic and journalist who has lived and worked in Europe for many years, and she does not like what she is seeing there. She argues that Europe is in the midst of a major crisis, and it is a crisis that will impact America and the rest of the free world.
Europe's rejection of its Christian past is only one aspect of this crisis, but it is a significant part. Berlinksi is no religious extremist. She describes herself as a secular Jew. But she is well aware of the consequences of the secularisation of Europe.
Radical Islam's attempt to turn Europe into a Muslim stronghold is another major part of the crisis. Berlinski looks at a number of European nations in detail, including Germany, Italy, France, Holland, as well as Britain, and examines how they are coping with their unassimilated and resentful Muslim populations.
Consider the Netherlands for example. Berlinksi shows that just as the Dutch attempted to appease the Nazis sixty years ago, they are now capitulating to militant Islam. Sure, the assassinations of two prominent Dutchmen has given them a reality check, but the Dutch tradition of tolerance is still working to undermine the nation.
When Bosnian Serbs swept into Srebrenica, pony-tailed Dutch forces didn't fire a shot: they simply stood by and allowed the massacre of 7,000 men and boys. Holland, like the rest of Europe, is "passive, paralysed, and fundamentally in disaccord with American idealism" says Berlinksi. While European diplomats bickered as Yugoslavia burned, it was the Americans who finally intervened.
Nation after nation in Europe has simply capitulated to hostile forces instead of standing up for what is of value. Within days of the 2004 Madrid terrorist train blasts, the newly-elected Spanish government pledged it would pull its troops out of Iraq, handing the al-Qaeda terrorists exactly what they wanted,. Neville Chamberlain-style appeasement is being replayed over and over again in Europe, with very few Europeans learning the lessons of history.
Demographic trends are also a major concern in Europe. If present trends continue, much of Europe will be losing population in the near future. And this is closely tied in with a disillusioned collective psyche. A nation or a continent that has no reason to exist, has no hope for the future, has no firm set of values to cling to, is not going to want to have children. Only people of hope, as well as people with a sense of the past, have children. Nihilistic, centreless Europeans have no hope, have no vision, and therefore, have no future.
Indeed, the only Western nation which is not suffering from population decline is the United States. Americans still have a sense of purpose and destiny, so they are still willing to have children. Europeans, by contrast, have been cast adrift, socially and spiritually, with no anchor and no rudder. Their childless nations offer brute testimony to this fact.
Each nation Berlinksi examines shows ominous signs of moral decay and political paralysis. Europeans have lost their way. They no longer have anything to believe in. Thus they no longer have anything to fight for, or to live for. "Without vision, a people perish," we are told in the book of Proverbs. That truth is being played out before our eyes in Europe. Thus Europe as we know it may not long survive.
For those who are alert and observant, this will come as no surprise. But too many people have been deaf and blind as to the looming fate of Europe. Will Europe arouse from it slumber, shake off its lethargy, and turn things around, or will it simply further decline into oblivion? Whether the warnings sounded in this book will be heeded, and heeded in time, remains to be seen.
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178 of 195 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something old, something new, something evil ..., March 5, 2006
This frequently witty but deadly serious account of Europe today is a type of travelogue in which the author writes from different countries, commenting upon the continental malaise from various perspectives. The compelling narrative blends personal experience and interviews with impressive historical knowledge, psychological insight and political analysis. She reports the opinions of a wide spectrum of individuals, both indigenous Europeans and Muslim immigrants, while interpreting the ominous signs visible everywhere.
With reference to the French philosopher Chantal Delsol, Berlinski explains the root of Europe's political and spiritual crisis as the collapse of faith that has led Post-Christian Europe into destructive nihilism. The delusions of postmodernism, relativism and multiculturalism are paving the continent's path towards collapse. The mindset expresses itself in the self-loathing of European elites, the strange passivity of the people and Europe's willingness to bargain with depravity which she calls a "self-extinguishing tolerance." I highly recommend Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks to understand the mental dynamic at work.
The high European suicide rate reflects its cultural, spiritual and ideological emptiness. Anti-Americanism, coupled with antisemitism & antimodernism, is just another pseudo-religious substitute serving as the glue holding the sorry mess together in the absence of anything meaningful. She has noticed its messianic & orgiastic aspects, as did Christopher Hitchens and Julie Burchill. The idea of the European Union has undermined national identity but lacks emotional appeal and is thus no match for the expansionist force of Jihad that has led to riots, the Danish cartoon uproar and the murders of artists and politicians.
Berlinski reveals the hidden room in the house of Europe: Bleak lawless ghettos where decidedly non-Western practices like female circumcision are tolerated because of Multiculturalism; Radical preachers inciting their followers against the society that gave them refuge; Alienation amongst even 3d generation immigrants whose grandparents arrived in the 1950s; Violence and the murder of Theo van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn in Holland. This confirms the observations of Bruce Bawer in While Europe Slept.
In chapter three where Berlinski discusses the popular novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith, she remarks upon the petty, ignorant and uncritical anti-Americanism of people like Harold Pinter and Margaret Drabble. The projection of the rage and self-hatred of the elites on Israel and the United States will not solve the continent's problems.
An exception is the city of Marseille where she finds hope. The local approach directly contradicts the French ideal of republicanism but it works. Ethnicity and religion are recognized and community leaders hold regular meetings where they get to know & respect one another. The city has shown strong resistance to antisemitism and the vandalism rampant in the rest of France.
Her verdict on the Spanish election that followed the Madrid bombings confirms Chantal Delsol's diagnosis: for Europeans no cause is worth a fight. In Italy she thinks of Oriana Fallaci's The Rage and the Pride, expresses regret about the ugly housing projects & shopping malls of cement on the outskirts of the cities and reflects on a young woman's lack of interest in having a family. A fascinating fact emerges: the birthrate in the former Axis powers, including their ally Spain, is dropping faster than anywhere else. People who have lost a vision of eternity and immortality would of course avoid breeding.
She provides a side-splittingly funny analysis of the antiglobalist José Bové & his ideological predecessors, identifying him as a perennial European personality predisposed to vandalism & violence, amongst which earlier incarnations were Tanchelm of Antwerp, Joachim of Flora, Hans Böheim and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They were all false messiahs whose millennial utopianism included the demonization of Jews. In this regard, I found William Nicholls's Christian Antisemitism of great value for understanding the bigger picture.
The chapter on the German band Rammstein is my favorite by far. She shows how their act is a particularly grotesque example of what Delsol terms "black market nationalism" - a result of the repression of profound instincts. This brilliant analysis, simultaneously hilarious and horrifying, encompasses translations of their lyrics, their use of Leni Riefenstahl footage in promotional clips, the imagery on their album covers, the videos of their songs Mein Teil & Links and the nature of their live performances.
Her account of the first interview with the band made me laugh: Her penetrating questions & their clumsy responses that reveal at best unclear thinking but more likely stupidity. Prototypically German, they have the bombast of Wagner and employ the now familiar eerie hypnotism of the German language, martial music, crass vulgarity & images of extreme violence in their shows.
There is also a follow-up interview. It becomes quite clear that the band's phony pacifism masks a resentment of American power. Gnawing guilt leads to peevish disgruntlement, she observes in describing the opinions of band members. Intelligent they are not and they've certainly not learnt from history. On one page she prints quotes and asks the reader to guess whether they are by Goebbels or Rammstein, proving that the only difference is that Goebbels was more articulate.
The Rammstein phenomenon shows up the farce of Europe - their music is emphatically German. It is also preoccupied with the smell of burning flesh, blood, fear, sadism, doomsday & destruction. The manner of their delivery in concert reveals much but they do not realize they are the living embodiment of the vocabulary, dramaturgy, occultism, ferocity & nihilism of the Third Reich. When confronted, they react with hurt surprise.
Christianity may be senescent in Europe - for now - but nationalism lives. Berlinski's brilliant read concludes with bibliographic notes and an index. Other informative books that deal with the crisis in Europe and the forces behind it include The Unlearned Lessons of the Twentieth Century by Chantal Delsol, Sinisterism by Bruce Walker, The Last Days of Europe by Walter Laqueur, The Dragons Of Expectation by Robert Conquest, Decline and Fall by Bruce Thornton and Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
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156 of 174 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book, March 15, 2006
I have only finished the first few chapters of this book, but those were enough to make me recommend this book without hesitation. Perhaps the most gloomy thought arising from the reading was: "Oh no, the Europeans are doing it again." And when I say "doing it again," I mean starting a World War. After all, ever since 9/11 we have known that the majority of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. A much more disturbing question is how many of them came via EUROPE. Muhammad Atta, the ringleader, for sure. In this century, more than 350,000 Americans have laid down their lives in EUROPE, trying to keep Europe alive and free. How then can it possibly be true that EUROPE is alive with anti-Americanism, and tolerating large communities of Islamic radicals who have sworn, over and over again, to destroy America?
I will single out two items which absolutely defy belief.
First, after the murder of Theo Van Gogh, someone painted a large mural in Holland proclaiming "Thou shalt not kill." A local Muslim, incredibly, objected to the mural on the grounds that it was "racist." Even more incredibly, the Dutch authorities capitulated to him and ordered the mural painted over. Even MORE incredibly, someone filming the destruction of the mural had his videotape confiscated and destroyed.
Are we in full surrender mode yet, or not??
Second: a top Dutch politician now spends every night in a high-security prison because his security guards cannot vouch for his safety otherwise! He is "allowed" weekly visits with his wife! On the other hand, a man who murdered a top Dutch politician was fined 34,000 Euros and will be out of prison within a few years -- he did not get life imprisonment!
So Dutch politicians are forced to spend their lives in prison, while their murderers are fined and released!!
Are we in full surrender mode yet, or not?!
Buy this book and read it.
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