This post takes me back. I briefly wrote about this debate in a retrospective on my time in the US back in 2016: https://akarlin.com/american-decade/
> Perhaps the most quintessential case for this was made by T.R. Reid’s book The United States of Europe. He argued that the EU was emerging as a superpower rivaling the US, held together by an emerging “Generation E” of yuppies from Paris to Berlin (soundtrack) that saw themselves as Europeans first and were rapidly integrating through the trifecta of Eurovision, Erasmus scholarships, and Eurail (much more eco-friendly than the American Canyonero!).
That said, terminally premature as the Eurotriumphalism was, it might not have been all wrong - I do think we have something like the ethnogenesis of a European nation occurring amongst the yuppies of the big European cities, and now spreading outwards.
Even if this is true, it’s mostly irrelevant. Intra-European migration will do nothing for the fertility crisis, save possibly for benefiting the U.K. (English being the lingua franca).
Perhaps - but while those areas are marginally more productive than the rest of Europe, those areas will just need to subsidize the other parts of Europe that much more, no?
A small net positive in the richer areas, granted, but does nothing to solve/address the longer term European problems nor the shorter term political ones, yes?
That said, I’m not trying to argue that free movement of labor within a cultural bloc is a bad thing, and in fact free movement of high-skill labor is indeed a very good thing. It just seems to me to both pale in comparison to, and not come anywhere close to addressing, the challenges Europe faces that you laid out well.
The meme reminds me a common trope (or maybe a "cope") among European intellectuals critics to American world dominance, something like "Americans conflate bigness with greatness". Maybe is true, but I think the problem with many Europeans is they conflate greatness with self inflicted poorness.
America is in terminal decline in all respects and is fast becoming a third world society. While Western and Northern European countries (other than the U.K.) have a superior quality of life, a better safety net, workers rights, etc they face a grim future of economic and social decline, mass immigration, and demographic replacement. Hopefully with a Russian victory in Ukraine and eventual Russo-German rapprochement Europe will come into its own renewing civilization in economic partnership with Russia and an eventual collapse of NATO and Atlanticism.
Russian industrial output and infrastructure are quite healthy and growing. NATO and the GAE have poured billions of dollars in assistance and military hardware into their Ukrainian vassal state and the poor bastards still getting their asses handed to them. They are going to lose.
This is simply incorrect. Naturalized Muslims and their descendants are a much lower percentage of the Russian population than in France, Belgium, Sweden, and many other EU-15 countries.
Of course this is a moot point since there's no such as "replacement" immigration and it militates against the ethical imperative of Open Borders.
Ok Russia is 10% Muslim right? France is 10% as well. Yes I guess I overstated it.
I'm not a big believer in the concepts of "replacement" immigration or whatever, Kristofffer's words not mine. I have no problem *in principle* with open borders, but when you have a welfare state it ends up being bad. Global Dubai is fine, sure.
I 100% support open borders for Elite Human Capital.
The worst issues with Muslims in Russia are the influx from the old -stans. Russia with all its issues is culturally more healthy than Britain, America, Germany.
They have undeniable problems but America is a crumbling shithole outside a few gleaming coastal urban areas. Contrary to Hanania and other Kosher conservatives we ain’t going back to The Reagan Era. Whites are going to be a minority in less than 20 years.
And an America that is 45% white, 15% Asian, 25% Hispanic, and 15% black will function just fine. Do you know the smart fraction theory? Besides embryo selection will become widespread in some decades. And AI progress.
No, it won’t function just fine.’ That’s delusional conservative nonsense. Life will change fundamentally in different parts of the country. America is going to fragment in the future and is a lost cause. Russians are much tougher than Americans and can deal with adversity better than suburbanites and the upper middle classes one the economy crashes.
Yeah you can look at CA. White minority state. In fact it has tons of problems from woke and regulation. But still the size of the economy is passing Japan. Yes many people move to other US states understandably. Still it’s a far better place to live than Russia.
A combination of factors on play for decades. Even if Trump is a president alone can’t reverse 50 years of destructive neoliberal economic policies from deindustrialization, financialization, rotting domestic infrastructure, growing extremes of poverty and wealth. While America is very wealthy and won’t collapse tomorrow the good times are over for good.
Yeah! Give em’ a break. Just because someone’s been dead wrong about literally every topic for the last 50 years doesn’t exclude the possibility that they’ll eventually get something right! To clarify, BTW, I’m talking about the neocons, not Anatoly Karlin.
Not sure you’re using the term “neocon” appropriately, however. At least in America it refers pretty much solely to foreign policy hawkishness, nothing else. if Marc Steyn aligns with the neocons, that’s still only a portion of who he is / what he represents.
SoKo is mostly north of 36th. I am assuming the US footprint in Taiwan was much lighter than in Western Europe, SoKo, Japan, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq..
This post takes me back. I briefly wrote about this debate in a retrospective on my time in the US back in 2016: https://akarlin.com/american-decade/
> Perhaps the most quintessential case for this was made by T.R. Reid’s book The United States of Europe. He argued that the EU was emerging as a superpower rivaling the US, held together by an emerging “Generation E” of yuppies from Paris to Berlin (soundtrack) that saw themselves as Europeans first and were rapidly integrating through the trifecta of Eurovision, Erasmus scholarships, and Eurail (much more eco-friendly than the American Canyonero!).
That said, terminally premature as the Eurotriumphalism was, it might not have been all wrong - I do think we have something like the ethnogenesis of a European nation occurring amongst the yuppies of the big European cities, and now spreading outwards.
Expect the EU to become a traditionally Christian version of India, except less integrated, much less corrupt, and much wealthier!
Europeans are integrating fairly well amongst themselves. the immigration debates have solely to do with African/Arab migrants.
Even if this is true, it’s mostly irrelevant. Intra-European migration will do nothing for the fertility crisis, save possibly for benefiting the U.K. (English being the lingua franca).
Well it does postpone the demographic crunch in northern / western Europe.
Perhaps - but while those areas are marginally more productive than the rest of Europe, those areas will just need to subsidize the other parts of Europe that much more, no?
A small net positive in the richer areas, granted, but does nothing to solve/address the longer term European problems nor the shorter term political ones, yes?
That said, I’m not trying to argue that free movement of labor within a cultural bloc is a bad thing, and in fact free movement of high-skill labor is indeed a very good thing. It just seems to me to both pale in comparison to, and not come anywhere close to addressing, the challenges Europe faces that you laid out well.
I agree it's not a solution for Europe as a whole.
The meme reminds me a common trope (or maybe a "cope") among European intellectuals critics to American world dominance, something like "Americans conflate bigness with greatness". Maybe is true, but I think the problem with many Europeans is they conflate greatness with self inflicted poorness.
America is in terminal decline in all respects and is fast becoming a third world society. While Western and Northern European countries (other than the U.K.) have a superior quality of life, a better safety net, workers rights, etc they face a grim future of economic and social decline, mass immigration, and demographic replacement. Hopefully with a Russian victory in Ukraine and eventual Russo-German rapprochement Europe will come into its own renewing civilization in economic partnership with Russia and an eventual collapse of NATO and Atlanticism.
It must be great living a terminally online life.
Fertility rates and migration are turning Russia Muslim.
And the Russian economy is a joke. It runs on oil.
American GDP is going up and up. Terminal decline? lol
Russian industrial output and infrastructure are quite healthy and growing. NATO and the GAE have poured billions of dollars in assistance and military hardware into their Ukrainian vassal state and the poor bastards still getting their asses handed to them. They are going to lose.
lol Russia has the worst problems with mass Muslim immigration and demographic replacement out of like any European country
This is simply incorrect. Naturalized Muslims and their descendants are a much lower percentage of the Russian population than in France, Belgium, Sweden, and many other EU-15 countries.
Of course this is a moot point since there's no such as "replacement" immigration and it militates against the ethical imperative of Open Borders.
Ok Russia is 10% Muslim right? France is 10% as well. Yes I guess I overstated it.
I'm not a big believer in the concepts of "replacement" immigration or whatever, Kristofffer's words not mine. I have no problem *in principle* with open borders, but when you have a welfare state it ends up being bad. Global Dubai is fine, sure.
I 100% support open borders for Elite Human Capital.
The worst issues with Muslims in Russia are the influx from the old -stans. Russia with all its issues is culturally more healthy than Britain, America, Germany.
They have undeniable problems but America is a crumbling shithole outside a few gleaming coastal urban areas. Contrary to Hanania and other Kosher conservatives we ain’t going back to The Reagan Era. Whites are going to be a minority in less than 20 years.
And an America that is 45% white, 15% Asian, 25% Hispanic, and 15% black will function just fine. Do you know the smart fraction theory? Besides embryo selection will become widespread in some decades. And AI progress.
Russia is not culturally healthier than America.
No, it won’t function just fine.’ That’s delusional conservative nonsense. Life will change fundamentally in different parts of the country. America is going to fragment in the future and is a lost cause. Russians are much tougher than Americans and can deal with adversity better than suburbanites and the upper middle classes one the economy crashes.
What makes you think the economy will crash?
Yeah you can look at CA. White minority state. In fact it has tons of problems from woke and regulation. But still the size of the economy is passing Japan. Yes many people move to other US states understandably. Still it’s a far better place to live than Russia.
A combination of factors on play for decades. Even if Trump is a president alone can’t reverse 50 years of destructive neoliberal economic policies from deindustrialization, financialization, rotting domestic infrastructure, growing extremes of poverty and wealth. While America is very wealthy and won’t collapse tomorrow the good times are over for good.
The ole transhumanist pipe dream. AI will save us from civilizational collapse.
Yeah! Give em’ a break. Just because someone’s been dead wrong about literally every topic for the last 50 years doesn’t exclude the possibility that they’ll eventually get something right! To clarify, BTW, I’m talking about the neocons, not Anatoly Karlin.
Interesting piece. I mostly agree with it.
Not sure you’re using the term “neocon” appropriately, however. At least in America it refers pretty much solely to foreign policy hawkishness, nothing else. if Marc Steyn aligns with the neocons, that’s still only a portion of who he is / what he represents.
"As it happens, American “nation-building” efforts have consistently failed south of the 36th parallel north."
South Korea? Taiwan?
SoKo is mostly north of 36th. I am assuming the US footprint in Taiwan was much lighter than in Western Europe, SoKo, Japan, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq..