Doomed!

We, Europeans, are doomed. It’s written. Here. By Walter Laqueur. A rather long article meant to be a critical analysis of his latest book The last days of Europe.

The conclusion leaves no doubt: Europe not only is in decline, it is also a lost case on the world stage. Ouch!

We could object to each and every one of the arguments that are presented, but that wouldn’t get us very far. You’ll notice how the article is written in such general terms that there aren’t really any noticeable mistakes that could easily be made salient. Of course, the author was cautious enough to make it difficult to be refuted in terms of precise data. For example, he often writes “many” (immigrants) etc. What is many? How many? 

Rather, it’s all about concepts, feelings, and general ideas. You can have fun challenging some of the arguments Laqueur uses in order to make his point. There are many of them…

 

Now, let’s see. Who is Walter Laqueur? Born 89 years ago in Poland to a Jewish family who died in the Holocaust, he spent 15 years in Israel before moving to the UK and then the US. Am I being too suspicious to suspect he may bear some grudge vis-à-vis Europe in general? And that the overall tone of his book reeks very much of wishful thinking?

The main issue which is being dealt with in this article is how migration trends are changing forever (and for worse) the Europe he was used to. Now, here seems to emerge a recurring obsession among certain American circles, that of Muslim Islamism. Coming from a Jewish writer who’s spent 15 years in Israel, am I wrong in questioning the neutrality of the writer and suspecting he may have some axe to grind here?

At the end of the day, my conclusion after reading this text is that it’s nothing more than wishful thinking, expressing the underlying desire to see Europe as a model to be discarded in order to leave the place to America. According to him, the Europe that has long been considered a model and a paragon of sophistication will eventually cease to be an everlasting object of envy and fascination to America. 

Note: The painting is “Persistence of memory” by Salvador Dali.