> "Europa, Europa: The mixed-up debate over the new European patriotism"
> http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/201/focus/Europa_Europa+.shtml
> By Jefferson Chase, 7/20/2003
> Habermas and Derrida postpone, or skirt, this issue by treating Europe as an
> ongoing project to be negotiated. They imply that a European identity will
> arise because it has to: ''The political-ethic will, which makes itself felt
> in the hermeneutic of processes of reaching mutual understanding, is not an
> arbitrary phenomenon.'' Clearly, we're a long way from ''When in the course of
> human events....''
The EU charter of fundamental rights, the centerpiece of the new EU constitution, is a beacon of humanity in these barbarous times.
> Such reluctance makes sense, given Europe's economic and military dependence
> on the United States. The European Union, including Britain, spends less than
> half of what the Pentagon does every year on defense, and there is no will to
> increase those expenditures.
What economic dependence? The EU invests more as a % of GDP than the US, runs big trade surpluses with the US, and has no real need for US capital. But the US is very dependent on inflows of Euro/Asian capital.
> Derrida, whose thinking was shaped by the Maoism of 1968 Paris,
Eh? Derrida is a speculative philosopher and post-structuralist, with significant affinities to France's multi-cultural movement. He was never a Maoist, not that May 68 had anything to do with Maoism.
> The largest countries in the EU-Germany, France and Britain-all have
> significant Muslim minorities, many of whom live as poorly integrated resident
> aliens.
Ye gods. Calling these folks Muslim minorities makes about as much sense as labelling all Spanish-speaking immigrants in the US Catholic minorities or all Asian immigrants as Confucian minorities -- namely, none whatsoever. The new immigrant communities are Kurdish and Turkish and Tunisian and Senegalese and Moroccan etc. Chase should know this, he supposedly lives in Berlin, which is something like 30% Turkish. Note the acceptance of multiculturalism on Germany's website, which would've been unimaginable just four or five years ago:
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/culture/life/Urban_underground.html
-- DRR