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For some of the leading members of the Democratic Party, the Europeans have it right, and we in America ought to learn a lesson or two from the Germans, French, Scandinavians, Dutch and the other West Europeans that make up the European Union.In an interview with Brian Lamb on C-SPAN Booknotes program following the publication of Hilary Clinton’s book It Takes a Village Clinton stated: “I am a fan of a lot of the social policies you find in Europe, and I know that they, too, are going through a rethinking about how to afford some of their policies. But in my conversations with people like Chancellor Kohl or President Chirac, they are not talking about cutting back on their support for families…That’s because they see raising children as a social obligation, not just a parental obligation…”Perhaps the best way to distinguish between the American and European systems is to take note of their different perceptions of the future. Americans by and large are optimistic about the future, and believe that their children and grandchildren will have a better future. The Europeans on the other hand have a fatalistic/hedonistic view of the future that might be summed up, as “Live for today because tomorrow we’ll all be dead.” When facing the Soviet threat during the Cold War, the Europeans cavalierly said “Better be Red than Dead.” Today it appears that many Europeans are resigning themselves to be, “Rather Green (Islamic) than Dead.” It is a self-fulfilling wish since the Europeans are not having enough children and grandchildren to insure their future replacement.The origin of these attitudes can be traced to the social, economic and political developments on the Continent on one hand, and the legacy of the pilgrims, who came to America in search of freedom, individualism, and God, on the other hand. Europe began to lose its faith in Christianity and God following the French Revolution. The impetus for which was found in the writings of Voltaire, the French Enlightenment essayist, deist and philosopher. Voltaire (1694-1778) rejected organized religion and believed in reason and the natural order. He distrusted democracy, which he considered as a way to propagate the “idiocy of the masses.” He believed instead that an enlightened monarch or an absolutist ruler, advised by philosophers like him, should rule over people.Europe it seems, has bought into Voltaire’s reasoning, and although the Europeans have accepted democracy, they have replaced the notion of the Voltaire’s “absolutist ruler” with the rule of the (welfare) State, and substituted “fundamentalist secularism” for Christianity and God.Today’s Europe is faced with a double-crisis. The welfare system is going broke, and its moral and legal order is falling apart. At the same time, the Continent is going through a terminal case of demographic decline. This decline is occurring while the influence of radical Islam is dramatically increasing due to massive Muslim immigration from North Africa and the Middle East, and their exceedingly high birthrates.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
