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| Europe |
| Reawakening Germany's Nationalism: What Could Go Wrong? |
| 2010-05-17 |
| If for some inexplicable reason you wanted to reawaken German nationalism, how would you go about it? I suggest a three-part strategy. First, you would replace the rock-solid German currency by one with very shaky economic foundations, against the wishes of almost the whole German population (which, of course, you would not deign to consult). Second, you would make sure that same population paid for the gross and dishonest profligacy of the Greek government: a profligacy that was rendered possible by the adoption of the very currency that the German population did not want in the first place. Third, you would do everything possible to ensure that the crisis will spread, last for a long time, cost a fortune in failed attempts to solve it, and fall mainly to the Germans to pay for. It goes without saying the second and third parts of the strategy should be against the wishes of the German population whose opinion, however, should be bulldozed aside as being of no account. There are two great advantages to the strategy I have proposed. The first is that it would achieve what many people might otherwise have thought impossible: it will morally justify and render respectable German nationalism in the eyes of all reasonably impartial observers. Why, indeed, should the Germans, who have practiced economic prudence and providence for sixty years, at least relative to everyone else, pay for other people to live above their means and to retire early on high pensions? The second great advantage of the strategy I have proposed is that the hostility it evokes in the Germans would be thoroughly reciprocated in those countries to whose rescue the Germans population, against its will, would supposedly have come. This is because, along with the German rescue, will come hard and even harsh conditions, such as that governments should reduce the number of drones that they employ. The Germans will be seen to have thrown their weight around precisely because they are Germans; and self-pity will not permit the “rescued' to see that they and their own governments are to blame for their sorrows. With a little luck and attention to detail, the situation might evolve into war, first civil and then international. It was interesting to read the French press during the evolution of the crisis. With its habitual Cartesian clarity, the French political class has spoken, all but unanimously, of the need for European solidarity with Greece. What does solidarity mean in this context? Who is supposed to have solidarity with whom, given that four fifths of the German population (and a majority of the French) never wanted the common currency that was imposed on them, and that the majority of the German population sees no reason why it should pay for the ouzo of useless Greek civil servants? The solidarity is that of the political, bureaucratic, and apparatchik class of Europe against everyone else. That class is reacting like someone who, hearing deep and ominous rumbles in the ground below below, tries to paper over the crater of a volcano. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #17 WMF > DECLASSIFIED GERMAN ARCHIVES REVEAL ADOLF HITLER IN 1937 DESIRED TO FORM A GERMAN-BRITISH-CHINESE MIL ALLIANCE ["Far East Plan"] AGZ JAPAN, + TO SEND GERMAN TROOPS TO FIGHT AGZ JAPAN IN CHINA. HITLER'S DESIRE TO USE NEW TRILATERAL ALLIANCE TO RECOVER GERMANY'S LOST FORMER COLONIES IN MICRONESIA/PACIFIC FROM JAPANESE CONTROL, FORCE JAPANESE WITHDRAWAL FROM CHINA, MANCHUKO [Manchuria], + KOREAS. ALLIANCE-LED JOINT MILITARY OCCUPATION OF JAPAN FOR AT LEAST 10 YEARS, CONVERSION OF JAPAN INTO NEW ALLIANCE ALLY-MEMBER. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-05-17 22:22 |
| #16 Dang, you people, as a Californian I get tired of being the Rantburg whipping boy. Then do what I did: leave. By working there and contributing to that society, you are helping to prop up something that should be allowed to collapse. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2010-05-17 21:35 |
| #15 Dang, you people, as a Californian I get tired of being the Rantburg whipping boy Sending Nancy Pelosi to Congress is almost unforgivable. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2010-05-17 21:23 |
| #14 I see the next German PM telling the other Eurozone countries that they are opting out of the Euro and returning to the DM. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2010-05-17 21:19 |
| #13 EU6305 said in #10 "I voted for all five of Arnold's ballot propositions. I read them and they all made sense. I got the feeling that Arnold was making a serious effort to get a grip on California's problems. The unions beat the crap out of him and I think he kind of gave up after that. The worrisome thing is that if Arnold couldn't do it, who can?" I agree completely!! The voters of this state (CA) volunteered to be fu@ked in perpetuity by the unions. The product of our failed educational system, logic is dead. |
| Posted by: Rob06 2010-05-17 19:53 |
| #12 Please, enough of the Pajama-idiocy about the faraway countinent about which they know next to nothing. 'Theodore Dalrymple', the author of this article, is a Brit who has lived and worked in several African countries and who splits his time between the UK and a home in France. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-05-17 19:45 |
| #11 IIRC "COLBERT REPORT" segment > [paraph]"We Americans like our Germans to be UNHAPPY ...When Germans are HAPPY, THEY START GETTING 'TOUCHY/ GRABBY' E.G. START MARCHING + INVADING POLAND, FRANCE, + SOVIET UNION, WW1 + WW2, ETC". |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-05-17 18:58 |
| #10 I voted for all five of Arnold's ballot propositions. I read them and they all made sense. I got the feeling that Arnold was making a serious effort to get a grip on California's problems. The unions beat the crap out of him and I think he kind of gave up after that. The worrisome thing is that if Arnold couldn't do it, who can? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-05-17 17:44 |
| #9 Ahnuld's predecessor, Gray "Pay for Play" Davis, was unquestionably corrupt. As former CA Assembly Speaker Willie Brown recently admitted in a signed editorial, the California politicians' practice securing union contributions in exchange for allowing these same public sector unions to scam huge pension increases for themselves, while not illegal, has been a massive abuse of the public trust. This is the biggest factor behind CA's fiscal debacle, and it's fair to label it a corrupt practice. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-05-17 17:39 |
| #8 Nothing personal to you. I lived there 25 years. But when the people of Caliphornia voted down Arnold's five proposed referenda at the instruction of the teacher's union, they sealed their fate. The politicians in Caliphornia seem less crooked than the politicians in much of the country, based on what I see. It's the voters who have been rolled by the state employee unions. Once you get to that point, it doesn't make any difference how honest the pols are. That's why Chris Christie is in office in New Jersey but could never be elected in Caliphornia. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-05-17 16:21 |
| #7 PS. I'm not looking for a bailout. I just wanna say I voted against it and it's not my fault. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-05-17 16:08 |
| #6 Greece, the Caliphornia of EUrope. Only proportionately smaller. Dang, you people, as a Californian I get tired of being the Rantburg whipping boy. I understand that California is run by crooked morons who have bankrupted the state. But then, this whole country is run by crooked morons who have bankrupted all of us. And not all of the crooked morons in Congress are from California, either. There is a pretty good representation from all across the country. Not only that but the illegal aliens who have grabbed control of California's legislature are here because of federal government corruption and irresponsibility. That is a problem for all of us, not just those of us who happen to live in California. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-05-17 16:05 |
| #5 We have a lot more in common with the Hanseatic nations than we do with southern Europe. Here's hoping they secede from EMU, in which case we should get cracking on a US-NHU (New Hanseatic Union) Free Trade Agreement. Also, note that expansive government in northern Europe is nowhere near so corrosive and damaging as it is outside of northern Europe. The main reasons are cultural: the Swedes, Germans etc may not believe in God anymore but they retain the old Protestant work ethic, they're frugal, they've resisted the importation of huge numbers of dole-seeking non-Europeans, and perhaps most importantly, their pols and unions have nowhere near the levels of corruption that you see outside of the north. Unlike the UK, they rein in their banksters and focus on producing real stuff they can export rather than living off of serial asset bubbles stoked by their central banks. Sweden and other nordics reformed their banking sectors about 15 years ago, and they've had decent-- and sustainable-- real growth since then, with low inflation. Germany and Sweden are governed better, have less corruption, than CA, NJ, NY, MA, IL or MI. We should strive to make our country more, not less, like northern Europe. Splitting it off from corrupt, incompetent southern Europe and bankster-ridden Britain would make this outcome more likely. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-05-17 14:28 |
| #4 They would have to include the Baltic states if only to keep the Russians from gobbling them up again. With this sort of currency union they could recreate the old Hanseatic League ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-17 12:50 |
| #3 A "volcano"? Please, enough of the Pajama-idiocy about the faraway countinent about which they know next to nothing. There's utterly no risk of political violence or civil strife in Germany. The Germans, the nordics, the Swiss and for that matter the Czechs and the Balts will do fine. Especially if these nations follow the lead of the editorial board of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper and create their own DM-based currency union. (The editorialists specifically mentioned all the Germanic countries + Poland, Czech and Finland). |
| Posted by: lex 2010-05-17 12:44 |
| #2 The socialist impulse seems to be failing them over there. Could we please be next? |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2010-05-17 12:03 |
| #1 Greece, the Caliphornia of EUrope. Only proportionately smaller. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-05-17 11:45 |