Trumpeter 4 Europe

“Senseless agencies and formulated aspirations co-operate in the work of driving mankind from its old anchorage.” A. N. Whitehead.

The Greek government has recently fallen, as has the Italian. The Spanish government will soon be voted out of office, as was the Irish one not long ago. It is a dangerous time to be a government in the Euro-zone. Huge speculative waves come out of financial markets, crash down on governments and economies and wreck them. The resulting flotsam can be counted in millions of unemployed people and the jetsam is all the social services jettisoned to balance the books of governments’ expenditures. (You don’t have to be in the Euro-zone to experience this flotsam and jetsam political economy, as we in England know.)

There is a Bulgarian proverb, “If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water.” Euro-zone governments do not wish to drown in the financial storms engulfing them, but there is no doubt that in the last few days the Euro-zone has left the shallow waters of Greek default for the much deeper waters of the Italian financial crisis. The drowning of the Euro and perhaps of the whole EU voyage becomes a possibility.

The quotation from Whitehead at the head of this essay exactly describes the division of types of forces at conflict in the EU, now and for the foreseeable future. Against the waves of financial speculation, be they senseless or sensible, stand the institutions of formulated aspirations; namely elected governments, and their collective European organisation, the European Union. The EU is the laboriously constructed political instrument for facilitating the aspirations of a whole area of civilisation; it tries to ensure peace, prosperity, freedom and future for its 500 million citizens. In the present conditions it is the largest and strongest political vessel for making head against the financial storms battering the European economy. Its strength is in its size, but big as it is the EU is still just a large raft made by lashing together many different national economies, crewed by some very miscellaneous governments, of very varied abilities. (One need only compare the quality of government in Germany with that Italy has endured for years.)

The EU has a generation of troubles ahead of it. It is caught up in great struggles between senseless agencies and formulated aspirations; between promises made in numbers and promises made in words. Which will win? Will it be senseless agencies in the form of powerful financial waves, surging tsunami-like in violent ebbs and flows of invented credit instruments (of which money is only one) across the economies of Europe and elsewhere? Or will it be mechanisms of formulated social aspirations, expressed via political parties, governments, trade unions and trade associations, and the myriad voluntary organisations essential to civilised life? For the latter to survive as effective powers in public life then the EU is indispensable. It is the biggest vessel we in Europe have for riding out the current and future economic storms and for carrying forward our cargo of social ideals.

If the Euro-zone and EU break up in financial storms the wreckage will be enormous. Over 500 million Europeans will have their future drown in deep economic waters. Therefore, the squabbling crews of national governments must learn to work as one, and must be technically more competent at economic navigation. Else our EU voyage will founder.

Most civilisations have stayed fixed in form for centuries; and have been content to do so. Not so for restless, troubled Europe. Almost always on the move, Europe isn’t a place. Europe is an odyssey. Its voyage dangerous, its struggles epic, its destination unknown.

Kevin Hannon, Chairman West Midlands European Movement. (11.11.2011)