Epistle to the Europeans #2: The EU "Superstate"

[Cain]

"People on the whole are very simple-minded in whatever country one finds them. They are so simple as to take literally, more often than not, the things their leaders tell them."
- Pearl Buck, from What America Means to Me

"The game stayed the same: It was always about favors and friends, and who controlled the dough. Party labels were merely a way to keep track of the teams; issues were mostly smoke and vaudeville. Nobody believed in anything except hanging onto power, whatever it took."
- Carl Hiaasen, from Sick Puppy


Who the hell are these deluded fools trying to convince ,Äì us or themselves?  You  know the ones I mean, the ones all over Europe who complain of the ,ÄúEuropean Super State,Äù emanating from Brussels that not only rules with an iron fist by its unelected officials and for half a century has manipulated us into joining and expanding its power, but at the same time is inefficient, caught in red tape and corrupt in the extreme.

I'm no friend of the Brussels shadow Government either, I'll admit.  Its too powerful in certain trade sectors, under reported on its decisions and too open to corruption.  But why is this any different to the governments in Berlin, London or Madrid?  Why aren't these parties so worried about the corrupt nature of the European parliament also pushing investigation into the Cosa Nostra land deals in south France, the CAP corruption in Italy and the ever present menace of rogue Masonic groups such as P2 and Le Grande Orient who use their secrecy as a cloak to defend organized criminals of all sorts?

Easy: because they are either closet racists or rabble rousing populists.  But we already knew that.  The point of this little piece of writing is to say no matter where power is, people who do not represent your interests will be charge.  Why would it suddenly change if the man in charge is English instead of Italian or Portuguese?  

All politicians are cut from the same cloth, no matter if they are French, British or German.  They went to the right schools, attended the right Universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Sorbonne etc), joined the right social clubs and made the necessary social connections.  All of them have the same ideals too ,Äì to loot the national treasury as much as they can for their political backers and then skim some off the top for themselves.  If anyone believes that is a racial trait then they are racist morons of the most stupid sort.

This should be obvious now.  We have some of the best education in the world, plus our parents and grandparents are people who witnessed first hand the evil of governments in the name of the far right and the far left and even the centrists.  We shouldn't trust any government, no matter who won the popular vote.  Hell, if we want some figures to back up this assertion, since the end of World War Two, the UK Government in London has been directly responsible for over 10 million deaths worldwide.  What makes them better than the animals we fought 60 years ago?  The scale, that we did it slower?

So far the European Union has very little blood on its hands, when compared to the individual members who make up its parts, even over the same period of history.  But that makes no difference.  If tomorrow we lived in a Federal European State, nothing would change except the uniforms worn as the crimes are committed.  And as this hasn't happened yet, I would say its safer to concentrate on the national level governments and let the EU hang for a while.  Brussels can wait.  We should be asking these questions not only of the Brussels gravy train but of those much closer at home, often the same ones decrying the current state of affairs while using it to line their pockets.

[LMNO]

[American Dummy]


What shadow gvt in Brussels?


(note the American Dummy tag is open-ended).

[Cain]

I'm not sure what that open ended-ness implies...I can give a potted explanation, if you want...

[LMNO]

Oh, i just meant that I'm pretty sure I'll never write

Code Select Expand

[/American Dummy]
is all.

Please to set us up brief history of Brussels shadow gvt.

[Cain]

Basically, the European Union executive is based in Brussels, with the Parliament in Strasbourg.  The EU President and Executive are basically a bunch of paper-shifters with an ex-political figurehead representing them where needed (Prodi, the current Portguese guy, etc).  Some people, notably the far right wing in the UK and Netherlands have claimed this government is controlling the national ones, taking away self-determination and locking them into an unfair system.  This is particulary ironic as the UK pays only 8 billion in membership and yet half its trade is within the free trade EU zone.  The same in fact can be said of any government and is quite true, its just these xenephobes focus on Europe because of their own manias.  If they really thought what they said they'd be anarchists, throwing bombs and blowing up politicians regardless of their nationality.

[AFK]

Yeah, because if it doesn't happen in Iraq, Iran, North Korea, or Washington D.C. it WILL NOT show up in the news here.

[LMNO]

Oh, you're talking about the EU.

I never really considered that a shadow gvt, seeing as how it's so out in the open.


I also understood it to be fairly ineffetual.  Would that be a fair judgement?

[Cain]

Actually, its almost impossible to get accurate information on what its up to, as it pours out so much paperwork its become a smoke screen.  And yeah, pretty ineffectual, but don't tell the nuts that!  

IT SECRETLY CONTROLS EUROPE AND WE ARE LOCKED INTO AN EVIL IMPERIAL SYSTEM RUN BY FRANCE AND GERMANY WE CAN'T GET OUT OF!  MY GRANDFATHER FOUGHT THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO PREVENT THIS HAPPENING, BACK IN MY DAY WE NEVER HAD THESE DAMN FOREIGNERS BRUTALLY OPRESSING US, OR THESE SMUDY PEOPLE ALL AROUND THE PLACE...

[/UK Independence Party/Veritas Political Statement 101]

[devilinme]

Beautiful piece Cain.

I agree almost entirely with your arguments about the EU, the only thing I could possibly add is my personal view that if we are going to have governments (and for the forseeable future it looks like we are) the bigger and more confused they are the better.

Also as I like saying to all the little englanders I meet's argument that the EU is taking powers away from "our" government: How in the fuck is that a bad thing?

[Cain]

True, look at imperial China.  So big and confused the people in the provinces were basically free to sort out their own problems anyway, at least some of the time.  Of course, the corruption is a huge issue.  But so is that of each individual member government.  Thats the pisser, as far as I'm concerned, that every complaint is legitimate, to a degree...but isnt taken to its logical conclusion, that we should deal with our own problems too.  I dont think many have died as as result of EU policy, but a hell of alot have died because of the UK, France, Spain etc, so we should start there.

[LMNO]

IT SECRETLY CONTROLS EUROPE AND WE ARE LOCKED INTO AN EVIL IMPERIAL SYSTEM RUN BY FRANCE AND GERMANY WE CAN'T GET OUT OF!  MY GRANDFATHER FOUGHT THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO PREVENT THIS HAPPENING, BACK IN MY DAY WE NEVER HAD THESE DAMN FOREIGNERS BRUTALLY OPRESSING US, OR THESE SMUDY PEOPLE ALL AROUND THE PLACE...

[/UK Independence Party/Veritas Political Statement 101]

Hey, considering your other posts on the subject, aren't you kind of agreeing with these the guys, not so much on the racist thing, but on the "separate quabbling nations are better" tip?

[Cain]

Sometimes.  Depends how I feel.  Besides, they're different because they are the sort of people who want to return to the days of the Empire and I just want lots of trouble.