Europe, America, Anglosphere

Did you ever read something that was profound, thorough, enlightening and made you realize what a dolt you were? Well, this lengthy (for the web anyway) discussion about the world's past, present & future during a review of a couple of books is one of those. I loved the read. I also feel appallingly stupid after reading it. The Anglosphere, Euro-Centrists, UN-Centrists, all here and very interestingly compared & contrasted.

Speaking of immigration and integration, specifically in Europe, of Islamic peoples:

To the extent that Rifkin holds up Europe as a model for Americans to emulate, he is in effect urging the purchase of a ticket on the Titanic.

Europe as leading the way:

Rifkin's book is a strange duck. It initially seems to offer a conventional example of the second Europeanist position. And in fact, it does include the standard Euro-critiques of the American socio-economic approach: prisons, McJobs, consumerism and so on. As usual, these arguments are used to fill in the argumentative gaps created by the shortcomings of actual, existing Europe, as opposed to the theoretically ever-more-efficient Europe beloved of the Wall Street Journal and the Economist.

Layered underneath these fairly standard approaches, however, is a deeper and more philosophical level of argument than Europeanists usually present. Rifkin argues that the European approach (The European Dream of his title) is precisely the abnegation of traditional progressivism in its most fundamental sense: the belief in the desirability of material and scientific progress, and the individual identity and freedom that accompany it. Thus, Rifkin's is a two-level critique of America contrasted with virtuous Europe. First, he asserts that Europe is surpassing America on the conventional criteria of prosperity. But he then adds that where economic success is absent in Europe, that's okay too, because progress is bad for you anyway.

Go read the whole thing.