Mad Rant: The More Things Change, The More the EU Stinks

Recently, yours truly went on a tear about how, when it comes to Russia, a great many people seemed to have missed the memo about the Soviet Union collapsing under the weight of its own stupidity. The Cold War is supposed to be over; right? Yet, the U.S. is giving war guarantees to the Baltic states, Poland, maybe even Georgia for seemingly no other reason than to antagonize Russia. After all, if Putin got a wild hair and decided to invade any of these countries, does anyone really believe the U.S. would be able or willing to go to war with a nuclear-armed country over it? That would be against the rules after all; the U.S. only goes to war with countries that do NOT have nuclear weapons. On the other hand, while I would salute the Putin regime in Russia for efforts taken to defend Christianity, in Russia, and to combat the plummeting Russian birthrate, when it comes to foreign policy, it seems that there are so few good ideas that the boys in Moscow have to raid the files of the old Soviet Union. This also means making nice with some countries that have pretty abysmal records when it comes to Christianity; something which flies in the face of the portrayal of Russia as the last bastion of Christendom, particularly made during the Syrian fiasco.

After all, Russia is still besties with Castro’s Cuba, the terrorist regime in Iran and the Viet Cong government in Hanoi. About the only thing different from the foreign policy of the Soviet days is that Russia seems to be trying to make nice with Communist China which even the Soviets had better sense than to do. That was mostly because both wanted to be in the driver’s seat of such an alliance and, as far as the bandits in Peking are concerned, that has not changed. If this is real, watch out for Moscow taking orders from Peking (a good indication being if the arms sales to Vietnam suddenly stop) and if not, we will know it was all just a charade undertaken in the hopes of making the idiots in Washington soil themselves. It seems odd from both sides of the world. The Cold War supposedly ended and yet even those governments which most professed their willingness to make amends with Russia (Bush inviting Putin to the ranch and calling him a good guy then Obama sending Hillary Clinton over with that ridiculous “reset” button) have each gone out of their way to needlessly antagonize Russia. How this helps America in any way no one has ever explained to me. On the other hand, Russia seems stuck in the foreign policy ruts of the Soviet Union. So much has changed (for the better) in Russia since the USSR collapsed and yet, on the world stage, it’s like they have no new ideas at all and can only instinctively repeat every policy of the Soviets.

Now, I told you that story in order to tell you another one. After that tirade, this person asked me why yours truly, living in the west, should be so opinionated on matters concerning Russia, East Asia and Southeast Asia instead of the “western world” such as Europe? Of course, as anyone who has been around me can attest, I can blather on at length on almost any political subject but I was told, and it may be true, that I seemed more “animated” when talking about the situation in monarchies like Japan or Thailand than the continent with the most monarchies: Europe. True, I have ties of family and friendship with Japan and Indochina but the same could be said for Europe. Then, of course, there is Russia which I have no personal ties with at all but which I have a great cultural and spiritual fondness for, viewing Imperial Russia as sort of the “last outpost” of traditional, Christian monarchy before the flood of revolution came crashing in. I was, needless to say, a little astonished by this line of questioning because I am deeply concerned about Europe and the remaining European monarchies in particular. However, the response I came up with was the European Union. I think it embodies all of the problems I have with modern Europe and why it sometimes can be hard to really care about the continent.

Say what you will about Russia, for example, but it is a country and a nation and proudly so. They have an illegitimate government and I sometimes stand aghast at their stupidity but one thing no one could ever say about Russia is that they let others boss them around (again, this might be changing as it concerns China but we will have to wait and see). Russia will do what it thinks is best, whether it really is or is not, and does not really care what the rest of the world thinks about it. Since the European Union has really started to spread its tentacles and take on the trappings of being the “United States of Europe”, quite unlike Russia, they seem to be drowning in a sea of blandness. Individual countries become less prominent, less important and, as such, so do their national leaders, ten of which are monarchs. Whether you like him or not, there is certainly no equivalent of Mr. Putin in Europe. There are few to no bits of news that rise to the level of national drama because the EU keeps a tight lid on all that stuff, everyone is supposed to be on the same team. The most harsh thing to say would be to ask an admittedly hurtful question. Why should anyone else care about your country when you do not care about it yourself? That sounds harsh, I know, but just consider the facts. The United Kingdom is probably the most EU-skeptic country in Europe and yet, as far as I know, the most prominent anti-EU party, UKIP, has not been able to gain a single seat in Westminster. That is troubling. At least, if you think countries and nations are not interchangeable and everyone is just like every other.

The European Union, as I believe the rather colorful leader of UKIP has said, is in fact out to destroy nation-states entirely, which means destroying nations and they are doing it. They and the whole liberal, leftist, globalist elite clique that they run with. And it really isn’t even that difficult and we have a perfect object lesson in the case of Kosovo. The only difference between Kosovo and other places is that the Albanian population was already there. However, think about it: think about all of the immigration laws, refugee laws, asylum seeker laws. People can basically come from anywhere to any country in the European Union because enforcing national borders somehow violates “human dignity” and the “free movement of peoples”. So, there is nothing you can do to stop people from another nation moving into your own and once they are there, you must give them the same privileges as the natives and allow them to live as they lived in whatever their country of origin was because to do otherwise will get you a trip to the European Court of Human Rights. So, nothing to stop foreigners from coming in and since we are all good democrats in Europe these days, once enough have come in they can vote to change the laws to be just like the homeland they left behind and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. And if the thought even crosses your mind that you wish you could do something about it then you are probably an evil person who needs sensitivity training. The EU has set up a system which practically guarantees the total destruction of its member nations.

This is a uniquely European problem. It exists in some other western countries as well but still nowhere near to the degree it does in Europe. This mentality does not exist in Russia or almost anywhere in Asia. That is partly why there seems to be more tension in other parts of the world. There are tensions between, for example, China and Vietnam because the Chinese still want their country to “win” and the Vietnamese think their nation is not the same as China and they do not want their nation to be dominated by another. And these are both officially communist states! Yet, the hundreds of years of struggle between the two has not been forgotten. Even with an internationalist ideology officially in power, their attachment to their own people and their own country remains. Why does Europe seem to be different? Again, my only explanation is the European Union. There are, of course, other roots to this mentality, reasons for this and for that, but the EU really sums it all it up quite nicely. It is a union of nation-states that seems driven to destroy its member nations completely and has set up the perfect economic and political system to make that happen. And it is because I do care about Europe that this makes me a very, very … Mad Monarchist.