Complacency of the European Class

After the last post – on identity and political correctness – was it coincidence or serendipity that brought The Strange Death of Europe – immigration, identity, Islam by Douglas Murray (2017) to my attention first in the window of Bucharest’s Humanitas shop) and, mere days later, at the impressive Nautilius stand at the annual Gaudeamus Book Fair - where it was duly bought?

I had been less open 6-7 years ago when I had encountered a similar book - Christopher Caldwell’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe; Immigration, Islam and the West (2010) which (very strangely in my view) Murray fails to mention anywhere in his 2017 book. I had left the Caldwell book lying on the shelf – my antennae telling me that the author was a right-wing “stirrer”.…But 2014/15 had seen the massive waves of immigrants pour into Europe – and Angela Merkel’s astonishing open invitation to immigrants…..if quickly withdrawn and translated into immigration quotas - which were quickly rejected by member States representing both sides of the old East-West border.. And migration – as I pointed out at the time – had played a crucial role in the Brexit vote although I have not subsequently written about it.

A few minutes later – with equal serendipity – I had come across and bought at the Book Fair (for 2 euros) a remaindered book by one Andrew Anthony entitled The Fall-out – how a guilty liberal lost his innocence (2007) which documents one man’s disillusionment with the conventional wisdom of the time. The link gives a sympathetic review to the confessions of someone caught up in his early life in a highly simplistic (what I call a Manichean) labelling of the world  

 Both books are very good reads - and have tempted me to offer foreign readers my take on the confused debate which Europe is now having about immigration….   

At first blush Murray’s bool looks like the latest in a long series of books with “Islam and immigration” figuring in the subtitle. But it is informed by ………a quality of writing that manages to be spritely and elegiac at the same time. Murray’s is also a truly liberal intellect ......and doesn’t betray the slightest hint of atavism or mean-spirited-ness. Yes, Murray is quite good at piling up the numbers that outline the collapse of European populations and the explosion of migration in the past decades and especially over the past two years.
He’s also quite good at batting down the facile arguments for allowing migration on this scale. Why must Germany turn to Eritrea for a work force when youth unemployment around the European Mediterranean is between 25 and 30 percent? 

His opening chapters on “How we got hooked on Immigration” and “The Excuses we told ourselves” present the basic facts and arguments we have all used to make sense of the various phases of migration in the post-war period. In the UK case, net immigration was noticed for the first time only at the end of the 1990s - and I well remember the first research reporting on the economic effects – consistently stressing its positive side. As an ex-pat I had no reason to take sides but did wonder that little mention was made of dependents and remittances abroad…..

The Tyranny of Guilt?

And, as someone who left the UK in 1990, I have little understanding of the “guilt” of the European Imperial past which has apparently been inculcated into younger generations – which both Murray and Caldwell assure us is a powerful factor in the reluctance of the European political class to act in the face of the immigration wave….

Giving up the ghost?

One of Murray’s most interesting chapters is that entitled “Tiredness” – which argues that Europe suffers from “an exhaustion caused by a loss of meaning.... .” Substitute faiths, whether in the high cultural visions of Wagner or the political theories of Marx, have also failed and been discarded. Murray is especially taken with the deconstructed edifice of contemporary academia. He has a section about a conference in which the “full catastrophe of German thought” dawned on him and which powerfully conveys my own feelings about a lot of "post-modernist" writing: 

A group of academics and others had gathered to discuss the history of Europe’s relations with the Middle East and North Africa. It soon became clear that nothing would be learned because nothing could be said. A succession of philosophers and historians spent their time studiously attempting to say nothing as successfully as possible. The less that was successfully said, the greater the relief and acclaim. No attempt to address any idea, history or fact was able to pass without first being put through the pit-stop of the modern academy.

No generality could be attempted and no specific could be uttered. It was not only history and politics that were under suspicion. Philosophy, ideas and language itself had been cordoned off as though around the scene of a crime. 

The job of the academics was to police the cordons – all the while maintaining some distractions in order to at all costs prevent wanderers from stumbling back onto the terrain of ideas….

All relevant words were immediately flagged and disputed – “nation” and “history” had the place in uproar and “culture” brought events to a grinding halt…..

If there remains any overriding idea, it is that ideas are a problem. If there is any common remaining value judgement, it is that value judgements are wrong. If there is any remaining certainty, it is a distrust of certainty.

“The Strange Death of Europe” is one of these rare books about contemporary issues which needs to be read slowly…with a marker…and reread…. I had not realised that it was as long ago as 2010 that Merkel first made her statement that “multiculturalism is dead” and that this refrain was quickly taken up by other political leaders. And yet, how badly they seem to have used those 8 difficult years!

Further Reading

“Strange Death of Europe” (2017)

https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2017/06/02/the-strange-death-of-europe-immigration-identity-islam - the most important review –

https://www.newstatesman.com/2018/07/strange-death-europe-douglas-murray-review

http://hungarianreview.com/article/20180719_douglas_murray_on_the_strange_death_of_europe

https://www.npr.org/2017/06/27/534597202/the-strange-death-of-europe-warns-against-impacts-of-immigration?t=1542262916642

http://www.dartreview.com/a-review-of-the-strange-death-of-europe/

https://vimeo.com/260817325

“Reflections on the Revolution in Europe; Immigration, Islam and the West”; Christopher Caldwell (2010)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/17/christopher-caldwell-immigration-islam

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jun/13/christopher-caldwell-revolution-in-europe

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/christopher-caldwell-on-muslim-integration-it-s-much-better-if-things-are-discussed-openly-a-668750.html

https://fabiusmaximus.com/2018/04/10/tiredness-the-strange-death-of-europe/

http://theorytuesdays.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Strange-Death-of-Europe-Excerpts-Murray.pdf

http://theworthyhouse.com/2017/09/08/book-review-the-strange-death-of-europe-douglas-murray/

https://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Revolution-Europe-Immigration-Islam/dp/0307276759

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/14/afd-german-media-politicians-angela-merkel