Are we finally going to understand, in Europe, what infers the risk of
walking out of History? Everyone should now realize that the threat is
there, very tangible. And many events in recent weeks (excluding Europeans
from the final negotiation of the Copenhagen Summit, the repurchase of Volvo
by a Chinese firm, the first public market infrastructure in Europe (a
highway portion in Poland) won by a Chinese company, the market for nuclear
power plants in Abu Dhabi won by the Koreans) confirm the materialization of
what some had predicted for more than 30 years: the center of the world
switching from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Despite these obvious facts, European leaders seem not to worry; they
indulge in this situation, without being alarmed, while concentrating on
interminable arguments of procedures and protocols, unstoppable signs of
decline, as lived up to ridicule, by the last dynasties from Egypt,
Babylon, Persia, Greece, China, the western Roman Empire and the Oriental,
then our Ancien Régime.
But do we really realize, in Europe, what infers walking out of History
this way?
For many, we should not worry about it, because, they think, it is a happy
destiny: a promise to live outside the tragedies of time, shielded from the
responsibilities, conflicts, military obligations. In fact, walking out of
History is often, for a nation, a brief moment of artistic flamboyance, whom
industrious nations have no time to worry about.
But in reality, walking out of History, is quite another thing: it is
foremost losing major markets; seeing the most competitive companies
becoming targets of repurchase or being copied and brutally competed
against, witnessing the departure of decisions-making centers and their elite;
it is being no more a major player in the greats events of the world, even
those who determine your own future; it is finally not being able to
maintain the standard of living of the middle-classes, except, for a while,
and on credit. From time immemorial, anywhere, walking out of History comes
even with terrible political upheavals: search for scapegoats, denunciation
of the elite, returns to simplistic and reassuring ideologies, separatist
and civil wars.
Europe has already experienced this. On eight occasions, during the last
millennium, a dominant European power went out of History, replaced at the
top by another, and then, when, in the 20th century, the direction of world
history has become American, Europe has, after 50 years of ultimate
murderous rivalries, joined forces, and still hold its rank. Today, Europe
is again threatened, this time altogether. If Europe does not take the lead, if
Europe does not realize the danger, if not united around a common commitment
to work, and invent a new way of producing and living together, this will be
the end. Forever.
Still we would need stateman and woman to stand, lucid, courageous,
competent, and persuasive, prophets of doom and guides at the same time to
show the narrow path.