Europe :-(

In these months one feels ashamed to be European.

Rightwing populist political parties and xenophobic and selfish sentiments in the public opinion are on the rise. And worse, more and more their ideas are infecting mainstream politics. These developments make one doubt whether full democracy under such circumstances and in a such a climate is a good way to govern countries and interstate relations. As said in "Decline of Modernity" democracy is more and more degenerating into mob rule. Also on the level of the EU single states behave like members of a mob.

Presently in Europe we see these developments manifested in a striking and sad way in two areas.

The number of refugees from Syria is rising as people must flee war, persecution, massacres, destruction and famine. People, politicians, political parties, governments and states in Europe guided by egoistic and racist parts of the media and the population just see this as an attempt to come and live on social welfare. Desperate and suffering refugees are not distinguished from unwanted migrants. EU countries reject quotas for a distribution of refugees, and even on a voluntary basis they want as few as possible. Certain countries only a few hundred or none. At the same time small poor non-EU countries like Lebanon have over a million. This is simply an unworthy behavior from the old continent with proud humanistic traditions. It again shows the levels reached by the political decline.

Also concerning Greece we see this. It was probably not wise to let a desperate population decide in a referendum on matters as complicated as economic plans. And the elected ruling populist leftwing party is no doubt behaving irresponsibly. But letting the mob and their press rule the policies toward Greece in North European countries has lead to a directly shameful treatment of a people and a country on their knees. Obviously reforms are necessary in Greece, but equally obviously reforms consisting of only cuts and no investments lead to a downward spiral as Keynes would have predicted. In many countries like Germany, no matter their misery, the Greeks are only seen as lazy and disobedient children, losers who just want our money. The idea of helping them or reducing their debt or just allowing investments is rejected with scorn by the egoistic mob and their politicians.

In conclusion policies from democracies degenerated to mob rule are both unsympathetic and inefficient.