The Unoriginal Muse

I’m off to paraguay tomorrow, hopefully managing to pass through the numerous security checks that have sprung up in light of the recent terror alert without loosing my shoes in the process but, before I go, I want to make a quick post.

As is usual with my posts there’s little evidenciary linking and lots of wild assertion. That’s me. I’m not a researcher by nature, so I can’t show research. I’m one of those wild thinker types who comes up with ideas and then generally lets other people figure out how to make them work.

Now, to the post. Over at Gates of Vienna (I read it a lot, so naturally I’ll mention it alot) there’s a debate on what it will take to “militarise” the US and europe, and the assumption amongst the GoV seems to be, generally, that nothing will militarise europe. Or, more accurately, rouse it. I think this is a mistake, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the forces that have shaped this continent. Several commentors at GoV have tried to point this out, but the point seems to be slow to come across.

This is understandable. For years Europeans of all natinalities have put on an affectation of benevelant decadence and civilised passivity. “We”, as a mass, have pretended that we’re special, superior, calmer and quieter than everyone else, and as a consequence we appear, to nations like the US, to be indecisive. In fact we are so, at the national and supranational level, because this affectation paralyses the mind.

But that’s all it is, an affectation. Like the barbarian kings of mythic attempting to appear civilised, we put on airs and graces and pretend to be superior to all comers. It is a fundamental dishonesty on our part, and I belive that this is one root of the rather fundamental flaws found within the leaders of europe, nationally and at the level of the EU. Even those without the EU like to follow the same line.

The US, too, su, or parts of it do. The oh so superior left, so enamoured with “european” values, without really knowing anything about them, like to pretend that they’re civilised, and compare themselves to the brutish redneck republicans they so despise. It’s all a sham, a big lie to make themselves feel superior when they’re nothing of the sort.

Reality is not civilised. Reality is brutish, violent and deadly, and the reality of Europe is that every single nation on the continent was born in bloodshed and conquest. Europe’s history is one of long and bloody wars punctuated by short periods of prosperous peace. War was the norm for as long as history was written, and seems to have been the norm even before then. Even England and the British isles, largely isolated from the constant warfare of the continent, hosted its fair share of war, from the ancient celtic wars over tin (That might have served as the ultimate inspiration for the story of Troy) to the roman invasion, to the wars between the scots and the picts, the scots and the saxons, the scots and the irish, the scots and the english (and, indeed, the scots and the scots, which was always a fallback if nobody else was willing to join in the fun). We British like to pretend that we’re more cultured and peaceful than the ruffians on the continent, but a quick glance through our recent history shows that our only virtue was in the codification of warfare. Britain became the eminent superpower in Europe, and the world, only by marshalling its latent brutality and focusing her ruthlessness through the lense of martial discipline but, make no mistake, that brutality was still there, as it was in all of europe’s armys.

For centuries the kingdoms of europe have fought each other. Our recent attempts to appear civilised are little more than a venner of respectibility, of old money attempting to look good before judgement day perhaps. Beneath this respectable mask runs a violent nature that many americans simply can’t understand, largely because we have hidden it so well, whereas the US, with its sheer honesty, has simply allowed the violent urge to vent in a useful manner.= through the conquest of their continent.

As civilisation sets in, it is easy to believe that putting on the respectable mask is the only course left, and that the appearance of respectibility will nurter a respectable behaviour. With this in mind it becomes very easy to explain the otherwise inexplicable rage that seems to drive so much of the left. Anger ad violence suppressed, hidden behind a mask, quickly builds to an uncontrollable level and then burst forth. Hate must be directed lest insanity sets in. Violence needs an outlet or it becomes uncontrollable.

It’s fortunate that this outlet need not be violent or hateful. The British Empire was built, not on conquest, but trade. Those areas that later became colonies were first trading posts. In this, we British found our outlet, and were able to become civilised without necessarily lying to ourselves about our nature. Though lie we did, and wars were fought. A great many were proxy wars, our allies against those of the French, or the Spanish. In India we moved from mere trade to conquest as a means of securing our trade against the french, who were quite keen on getting their grips on the subcontinent. In India, too, we clashed against Islam and were driven back many times. In Africa the colonies remained independent in a way that the french colonies never were, bcause they were seen as places to trade, where others siply saw places to harvest. The British lost to Ghandi simply because we weren’t storing up our anger, and consequently we did the right thing. Eventually…

Now Britain, as with the rest of Europe, has no outlet. We have no means to release the violent energy that builds up behind the facade of civilisation and as a consequence we are slowly reverting back to the days when violence ruled the continent. It shows in small ways. Increasing violence on the streets, more anger, less self control. Increasing self-deception, best demonstrated by thsoe on the left who run the BBC and our political class. Eventually the facade will crack and our violence will come to the fore as several on GoV have predicted.

Its direction is probably somewhat inevitable. The politicians who havfe deceived us will bear it, and anyone who looks remotely muslim also. It’s ironic that all the jibes and worry about racism and all the multicultural angst will, ultimately, bring about a racial conflict on a scale not seen since… ever, probably, and it’s entirely likely that the blame will be cast in the same place it’s always cast when such things happen. The far right, extremists who don’t want to be respectable, racists Anywhere but those truly responsible. Whether anyone will listen to these excuses, only time will tell, but they will be made. And the will have reason to be made, too.

Europe stands on the cusp of a new era. Not an era of prosperity, or granduer, Not Hitlers new reich, or Lenin’s glorious future, nor even the caliphate of islam. Our era will be a new century of war and bloodshed. War will be the constant in europe, as it always has been, for this continent was forged in war, and shaped by it in a myriad of ways to the extent that, ultimately, war is all we can know. And it is this coming war which will save us, though it won’t seem that way at the time.