According to the Finnish-language version of the Helsingin Sanomat, the Bimbo Of Finland has used the occasion of a state visit to Chirac yesterday to opine that she and Chirac are of the same opinion that Russia hasn't "really taken to our (EU's) way of thinking".
Hmm? Quite bold of her, do you think? Not really: it's just easier to say that now after Bush blazed the trail for her last week by confronting Putin in Bratislava on his lapses in democratic values.
Finns really are such cowards, - always catching a freeride, after the US takes on the bolder task.
And that goes for all of Europe, too, doesn't it?
Hmm? Quite bold of her, do you think? Not really: it's just easier to say that now after Bush blazed the trail for her last week by confronting Putin in Bratislava on his lapses in democratic values.
Finns really are such cowards, - always catching a freeride, after the US takes on the bolder task.
And that goes for all of Europe, too, doesn't it?
posted by Finnpundit at 10:51 PM
4 Comments:
Well, I have thought about starting a blog, but you steal the words out of my mouth.
It is the theoretical approach to everything that leads to Euro policies being heavy on rhetoric, but rarely is there any substantive action. The US has to come in and make things happen - Bosnia, various African situations, Iraq. Come on already.
I recently exchanged emails with Tuomioja (he was kind enough to respond) and he is hopelessly stuck in the Soviet era. It like the Marxist economists I have run into (what exactly do they have to say) or the French sociologists (Bourdieu and likes) - somehow they don't see that their structuralism and emphasis on the collective takes away from the true source of ingenuity and entrepreneurship - the individual.
So - cowards indeed. Given blogs etc. I am hopeful of a European conservative/liberatarian movement which supplants the pervasive socialism that binds many countries.
By all means, you should start a blog! Go for it! The blogosphere is strong because there are so many individuals observing and commenting on current events, and then sharing these observations with links to each other through the efficiency of the internet.
As to socialists in Europe... my gut feeling during the nineties was that when the Soviet Union collapsed it would only be a matter of time for the social democratic welfare states to come under pressure, since they were (and still are) artificially sustained by exports to a non-welfare state: the US. Thus this strange antipathy and bigotry to Americans and the US, even though it is the American worker-consumer that feeds the welfare states: everyone knows (at least those that are honest) that America has the edge, because America motivates people more than welfare states could ever do.
Never underestimate the ability of a free-market, capitalist society to outperform a welfare state. If Europe doesn't reform itself, Europe will be left trailing behind... and most likely racked with all kinds of social upheavals from unassimilated immigants...
You emailed Tuomioja! Fantastic! You should publish that email, and his reply.
This is truly a valuable blog. It's heartening to see anybody trying to hammer a crack into the facade of elitist European opinion.
Do you truly think that blogs could make a difference in Europe, as they have in the U.S.? You're probably aware of the way blogs took down a prominent newscaster -- Dan Rather -- and his attempt to tar Bush with false acccusations. This is the kind of concrete result I'd love to see European blogs enjoy, in bringing down the European media a peg or two. Do you think it could happen?
Cato: I don't think Europe has evolved enough to reach that point.
Keep in mind that private universities are pretty much non-existent in Europe. All of Europe's MSM are educated in state-sponsored universities, which basically toe the statist line. Consequently, - and broadly speaking - there is no competition for ideas on such a scale as in the US.
The blogosphere, - as it exists in the US - is basically a competitive "free market" of ideas. For statist Europe, such a free market is simply anathema.
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