It has begun
France is burning. The interesting thing is that everybody knows why. But what will happen?
The European social model, as devised by social conservatives and social democrats from Bismarck and onwards, has the unfavorable consequence that it makes societies rigid. The degree of complexity in a society is enormous, and controlling and directing it is beyond the intellectual scope of any man. Instead, control implies narrowing down the degrees of complexity, and thus the the degrees of freedom with which individuals are allowed to act.
This is the efficiency argument for liberal democracy and capitalism. The moral argument, on the other hand, is based on the assumption that in order to respect individuals' desires to pursue their own projects, i.e. to value humans as ends in themselves and not as means for something else, they must be allowed freedom of action.
The (hopefully) uninteded consequence of not heeding the efficiency argument, and instead creating a social democratic welfare state, is that it has consequences for individual morals. If individuals are forced to give up too many degrees of freedom, they also expect others to deliver when it comes to realizing personal projects. Those "others" tend to be the State. The "need" of the masses dictates policy, and the more urgently "needy" you seem, the more can you expect to be rewarded.
The decay of Europe following from the European social model, concrete illustrations of which are e.g. eurosclerosis, the demographic "death" etc, is slowly accelerating. The concrete illustration everybody understands - alienated youth acting out of anger and desperation towards all the wrong targets - demanding that someone gives them what they want, since they are not allowed to get it themselves. The ideas on how to deal with the problem, however, differ.
Let us hope that European left-wing intellectuals side with the rioting crowds in their hate for the establishment. Choosing sides will show exactly what are the concrete consequences of their ideology. And then the real battle for Europe can begin - the fight for a new European morals, not based on paternalism, but on individualism. The intellectual heritage is rich, and the common wisdom of people speaks in its favor. It is a struggle of the first order, but it is necessary. Otherwise there is no future for Europe.
The European social model, as devised by social conservatives and social democrats from Bismarck and onwards, has the unfavorable consequence that it makes societies rigid. The degree of complexity in a society is enormous, and controlling and directing it is beyond the intellectual scope of any man. Instead, control implies narrowing down the degrees of complexity, and thus the the degrees of freedom with which individuals are allowed to act.
This is the efficiency argument for liberal democracy and capitalism. The moral argument, on the other hand, is based on the assumption that in order to respect individuals' desires to pursue their own projects, i.e. to value humans as ends in themselves and not as means for something else, they must be allowed freedom of action.
The (hopefully) uninteded consequence of not heeding the efficiency argument, and instead creating a social democratic welfare state, is that it has consequences for individual morals. If individuals are forced to give up too many degrees of freedom, they also expect others to deliver when it comes to realizing personal projects. Those "others" tend to be the State. The "need" of the masses dictates policy, and the more urgently "needy" you seem, the more can you expect to be rewarded.
The decay of Europe following from the European social model, concrete illustrations of which are e.g. eurosclerosis, the demographic "death" etc, is slowly accelerating. The concrete illustration everybody understands - alienated youth acting out of anger and desperation towards all the wrong targets - demanding that someone gives them what they want, since they are not allowed to get it themselves. The ideas on how to deal with the problem, however, differ.
Let us hope that European left-wing intellectuals side with the rioting crowds in their hate for the establishment. Choosing sides will show exactly what are the concrete consequences of their ideology. And then the real battle for Europe can begin - the fight for a new European morals, not based on paternalism, but on individualism. The intellectual heritage is rich, and the common wisdom of people speaks in its favor. It is a struggle of the first order, but it is necessary. Otherwise there is no future for Europe.
posted by Hugin at 04:30
<< Home