opvoedingsproblemen - gedragsproblemen - jeugdcriminaliteit - orthopedagogiek - politiek voor de 21ste eeuw   

The future of Western civilization does not depend primarily on NATO to defend us against enemy powers, but rather on what happens in our minds. In a controversial interview (The Economist, November 9th), French President Macron says that Europe is extremely fragile and on the brink of collapse. Europe is too much seen as a market and not as a community. According to Macron, Europe must become more a political project, as a community characterized by solidarity and like-mindedness in political thinking. It seems to me that the solutions that Macron proposes can have the opposite effect. In this article, I discuss the main topics of this interview and draw from it some conclusions.

Why has Europe become so fragile? According to Macron, this has several causes. Firstly, Europe does not play a significant role in the polarization between America and China. In addition to the authoritarian Chinese regime, there are also authoritarian leaders in power in the neighboring countries of Europe - Russia, and Turkey. The unrest in the Middle East is ominous and within Europe, there is the threat of religious ideology. After all, there is also an internal crisis in Europe due to the rising nationalism and populism, the impoverishment of the middle class, the contradictions between the countries of Northern Europe and those of the south or between Western Europe and those who belonged to the Eastern bloc. Europe is becoming increasingly difficult to rule. We also see this in the domestic politics of several European countries, where coalition governments are relatively powerless or where insurrections, such as those of the Yellow Vests or the peasants, can hardly be controlled.

How come, the French president wonders, that we were so self-assured in the 90s - the end of history seemed to have been achieved with the victory of Western, democratic values - and we are now in a mess? Democracy is in a deep crisis. The ones seek the solution in more isolationism and protectionism, others long for a more authoritarian regime.

The solutions that Macron proposes are predictable, but not very confidence-inspiring. According to him, Europe must become sovereign. This can be achieved by building a strong European army, because NATO is brain dead, by the emphasis on technological development and by investing in Europa instead of investing all our savings in US government bonds. Europe must not pursue the same policy as Russia, where immigration is prevented by an orthodox conservative policy, but the realpolitik requires that Europe enter into a partnership with Russia.

The key problem is in Macron’s views on Russian politics. The aging population will be fatal to Russia by preventing immigration. This seems logical, but my conviction is that mass immigration will ultimately kill Western civilization. Every sane person knows that economic growth cannot be sustained, but nobody draws the political consequences from it. The new economic model that will have to come will lead to terrible poverty and unemployment in countries that have allowed mass immigration. Europe is already on its way to becoming the new Middle East and there will be nothing left to save. Russia and countries such as Japan and China will escape this and ultimately triumph.

Macron is right in saying that Europe must become more a community based on solidarity. What he proposes, however, will undermine that solidarity. Europe needs a new spirit or rather: the values on which European civilization is founded must again be fully defended. We must first realize what has deeply damaged our values in recent decades. I take as examples the most important values of freedom of expression, critical thinking, and feeling responsible for others. We owe the first two values based to Rome and the last to Jerusalem. Rome stands for democracy and Christianity for love for one’s neighbors. Christianity originated in an empire where Roman law applied, with the result that the Christians have learned " to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God". The separation of Church and State was born here. In the Islamic world that is not the case. Only the divine law is legitimate and man-made laws are haram. As long as the Islamic countries had no power, Europe was not bothered by it. Now that almost a hundred million Muslims have settled in Europe, we have brought in the Trojan horse. The wicked westerners who want to impose their laws on Muslims must be punished and they will know!

Strangely enough, another cause of the undermining of Western values lies in the so-called Human Rights. Freedom of expression, freedom of religion and equal rights for all people place an obligation on the state to monitor those rights. At what cost? For example, there should be no discrimination, because that would be at the expense of the equality of all people. Discrimination has become a crime and the list of possible forms of discrimination is getting longer and longer: discrimination based on gender, race, identity, religion, sexual orientation, and the rest will follow. Social order is being imposed here that affects the sovereignty of the individual. Anyone who does not behave by following that social order is homophobic, islamophobic or is blamed for another form of hatred and aversion. Nobody is safe in this crazy world. The only people who can be discriminated against are white conservatives with right-wing ideas.

Human Rights also affect freedom of expression, because as soon as someone feels insulted or discriminated against, they can file a complaint. The consequence of this is that many censor themselves. This does not only apply to the MSM but unfortunately also to the universities. According to the British philosopher Roger Scruton, it is the universities that should be a bastion of freedom of speech and critical thinking. But woe to the professor who dares to say something on gender, homosexuality or Islam anything that is not consistent with what the respective lobby’s doctrine impose. According to Scruton, the ' Human Rights ' doctrine has led to a culture of intimidation and self-censorship. Without realizing it we live more and more in a totalitarian regime. The European Court of Human Rights has taken the place of the Inquisition.

With the latter, I come to the core of my argument. A new spirit must blow in Europe. The mistake that Macron, most other European government leaders and the technocrats in Brussels make is to think that the free market economy is the key to solving today's problems. From this point of view, mass immigration must resolve the effects of aging populations and investment by the state in major infrastructure works will stimulate economic growth. Traditional economic laws, however, apply less and less. Our planet is exhausted, climate change and new technologies that make billions of people economically useless will define the world of tomorrow. We must dare to think outside the beaten track. It seems paradoxical, but this will only succeed if we revive the traditional values of European civilization. As Europeans, we must cherish our sovereignty and that is only possible in free and independent countries, with citizens who can freely determine how and with whom they want to live. In that Europe, there is no room for Islamic ideology. Our laws must not be imposed on us either from God or from an anonymous authority. Just like the Common Law in England, the legislature must rest with the citizens themselves, with legislation that comes bottom-up. But the essential principle is that we live according to ethical norms, which we owe to Christianity: : this means that each individual is responsible for his fellow men, also for future generations. The current economy is idolatry for the Mammon. The new economy must be a service for humanity.

Macron has not only been an investment banker but has also studied philosophy. Instead of becoming a president for the rich, he should become the philosopher of the people. A philosopher who expresses what the people want and thereby inspires politics.

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