Published April 30th, 2010 by Future Atlas
Has the EU Made Itself Too Diverse?
Modern Western European societies have had the advantage of social cohesion, cultivated on the basis of relative linguistic, ethnic, and racial homogeneity, and they made that social cohesion self-reinforcing, by pursuing egalitarian economics that ironed out class differences.
As the Greek economic crisis unfolds, it becomes clear that, by forming the European Union, Europeans may have reduced their ability to act in mutual solidarity. This is most evident in the role of Germany, which, as the largest economy, would have to be the biggest source of bailout funds. “The relatively thrifty Germans” simply don’t want to help “their more free-spending Mediterranean neighbors,” as one source put it. Germans may be generous with their fellow Germans, but spending to make up for the low productivity and early retirements of Greeks is too much.
This resembles the source of a lot of American political paralysis: diversity creates the sense of otherness, people who are too different to trust, and not worth taxing oneself for.
Greece is not part of Western Europe — it’s more Balkan and Levantine — but the challenge would grow even greater with, say, Ukraine or (Gott forbid) Turkey.
“The heaviest punishment inflicted upon Greece was the control of the finances imposed at the proposal of Germany, as the Germans had been the chief sufferers of the financial crisis.” Current news? No, an account of an 1897 crisis over Crete.[1] Plus ça change.
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[1] The Book of History, Vol. XII (New York: The Grolier Society, c. 1915), p. 5212.
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