#131: Dear Mrs. Merkel, Here’s A Modest Proposal

May 30, 2017

Mrs. Merkel, Mutti as the Germans fondly call her, doesn’t like Mr. Trump. A surprise? I think not, she probably feels much more comfortable with Putin; she is, after all, an East Berliner, an unreconstructed commie finally showing her true colors under stress.

She doesn’t like Trump? Gee, pech, too bad. Europeans have long felt superior to Americans, but only too happy to accept their money. Maybe the time has come when they have to get along on their own.

Europe has not only become a welfare state, it has been America’s own welfare dependent since 1945. It started with the Marshall Plan and it hasn’t stopped for a moment since then, the US tax payer paying for European defense, and by that token, money being fungible, subsidizing Europe’s generous Socialist benefits. Even when France bungled the North African invasion of Libya, it had to beg armaments from the United States. Well, now they’ll have to repurpose their cheese factories into the production of ammo, though, on second thought, they’ll probably prefer Russian occupation to giving up their cheese. Ha! They’ll have to get used to watery borscht with rotting potatoes. No more cheese for Francois!

Mutti is bitter now, doesn’t relish having to pay her own way. Sad, bitter Mutti.

Since Monarchism finally failed and left a governance vacuum in Europe, starting with the French Revolution, through the Russian one, the bloodless German one of 1918, and the Chinese one, Socialisms of one stripe or another have been battling for possession of the continent. Into the Weimar vacuum after WW I swept the Spartacists and the Nazis, both Socialists; they fought in the streets, the Spartacists with Stalin’s backing, the Nazis feeding off a fictional past. The Nazis won that fight, but lost the war they began soon after, leaving the field open in 1945 to their erstwhile losers.

The post-war Socialists were no Stalinists, they chose what they called the “third way”: “Social Democracy”. Make no mistake about it, it was still Socialism (the “Sozis,” as they were called). This Socialism learned from the commies’ mistakes as well as from their insights; on the one hand, they eschewed their heavy handed dictatorships, but on the other, they saw the value of Hitler’s partnerships with giant corporations. They implemented and perfected Crony-Socialism. And it’s worth noting that the first revolution in Russia in 1917 was in fact a democratic one and that it fell very quickly to Lenin and his tactics. Lenin, however, and Stalin after him tried to be doctrinaire Marxists and thoroughly destroyed Russia’s productive capacity (along with millions and millions of lives). Fortunately, there was no Lenin in 1945 Europe and Social Democracy seemed able to take over governance. To some extent this was an illusion, since European reconstruction was being paid for by the United States, which has continued paying and paying ever since.

While it is true that Mutti’s bunch has been doing very well, the rest of Europe has not, particularly the Southern countries. Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and to some extent France, have been flirting with bankruptcy. The Norwegians have North Sea oil, so they’re doing ok, the Swedes’ immigrations policies are bringing the country into deep trouble. I confess that I am not bullish on Europe. If the continent has to start paying its own way, expect tires burning in the streets — that’s how political discontent is expressed in Europe. Unsubsidized Socialism does not do well, even when it has wealth under its feet: witness Venezuela.

And while the US was subsidizing Europe’s recovery, the scribbler positions which had gone empty over the bad years were being rapidly filled with the old commie intellectual hold-overs from the 1920s and 30s. As well, the GI Bill and the reconstruction of Europe created huge numbers of new openings for scribblers. From their various platforms in the Universities and the mass media, they worked away at boring from within, a Socialist/Communist fifth column within the Western world. Their goal was nothing less than the one which had animated Lenin and Stalin and Mao, namely world domination. They worked by directly eroding and undermining the cultural distinctiveness of the Western nations: their values, conventions, and religions, and indirectly by importing populations utterly unable and unwilling to share and support the Western cultures hosting them. They hoped to produce a population-wide anomie into which one-world-Socialism could easily slide.

Hussein Obama thought he had a chance to turn the US into a domesticated Socialist cash cow for an increasingly socialistically unified world: an analogue, in effect, of an imperial colony for Europe. Just as the French sucked North Africa dry without giving anything in return, Hussein thought Europe as a whole could enjoy its sophisticated civilization on the revenue from its wealthy, primitive colony, the United States. He overshot, as did the Europeans, and now they’re just sad, bitter, and frustrated. Poor Mutti. Hussein has indeed managed to increase an anomie that was already present, which is why we’re seeing deranged screaming and violence in the streets. But his grasp of arithmetic was perhaps not up to the task of predicting an election outcome: there just weren’t enough of the crazed available (yet) to turn the trick. Poor sad, bitter Democrats; bitter, sad Europeans.

But really, now, they should be more understanding. They should just reflect on how annoying they themselves find the Greeks’ unwillingness to pay their own way. The Greeks expect the rest of Europe, particularly Mutti and her people, to subsidize their leisurely lives. The Germans are not enthused about this, why should the Americans be any more so? But this would require a level of perspective perhaps too demanding of a commie-manqué like Mutti.

So, Mrs. Merkel, here’s a modest proposal given in the spirit of communal contribution with which you are so familiar: Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen. (“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” — Karl Marx). The EU has become more than a mere economic union, it has evolved into an entity which speaks as if it is the unified voice of the continent on all matters social, moral, and political. I suggest, therefore, that the EU speak also with a single, unified purse on the continent’s financial obligations. Let the EU pay the 2% (or more) annual dues to NATO, rather than having individual nations of differing means struggle to meet their commitments, eh? How about them apples, Mutti?

Now, I know that this might hit Germany a bit hard since it is currently a deadbeat, but give the plan a chance. A quick look at the stats shows where Germany falls: United States, 3.61%. Greece, 2.38%. Britain, 2.21%. Estonia, 2.16%. Poland, 2%. France, 1.78%. Turkey, 1.56%. Norway, 1.54%. Lithuania, 1.49%. Romania, 1.48%. Latvia, 1.45%. Portugal, 1.38%. Bulgaria, 1.35%. Croatia, 1.23%. Albania, 1.21%. Germany, 1.19%. Denmark, 1.17%. Netherlands, 1.17%. Slovakia, 1.16%. Italy, 1.11%. Czech Republic, 1.04%. Hungary, 1.01%. Canada, 0.99%. Slovenia, 0.94%. Spain, 0.91%. Belgium, 0.85%. Luxembourg, 0.44%.

Gee, Mutti, aren’t you just a little embarrassed that Greece of all nations should be paying its bills better than you? But for goodness sake, Mutti, even  Albania is cleaning your  clock, making you look bad!

So consider my solution. Sure, you’re a deadbeat nation, but if you follow my suggestion, that can be nicely obscured. You can bury your non-compliance within the single payment made on the EU behalf. Not only that, but you can probably bully some of your more pathetic members into upping their contributions so that Germany can pay even less! Maybe you can intimidate languishing France into coughing up 2.5% or more. Remind them of the last two Wars, eh? Think it over, Mutti, I’ve got your back.