i may be wrong, but so far the intention not to go back to warring nation states in europe has been successful, in that 'what europeans don't want' hasn't happened.

what is also sadly clear is that what europeans want is not clear, beyond a warm fuzzy embrace of so-called european values, which are now coming under scrutiny because of the financial fiasco, and told to us by our stooges-in-place are unaffordable, and austerity is the answer.

the positive side is that the banking profession is ever more revealed as usurious and inept, indeed amoral and unable to face up to its mistakes, seeking through regulatory and cognitive capture to sweep them under the rug, and deal another hand, a liars' poker we little people have to put up with for the nonce, until it collapses under the weight of its own greed and incompetence.

we can decry this, somewhat impotently, from the bleachers, but the pred-cap mindset here in yurp far predates the formation of the EU, and remains the mechanism by which our governments allow finance to be, a largely US model of trickle-down, deluge-up capitalism, because the yanks learned our systems and ran with them to their logical - i use the word loosely!- conclusion, ie the degradation of the welfare state towards a somalia-with-tvs model of anarchy, with the pirates wielding ECB directives and IMF skullduggery instead of AK 47's.

the very existence of the EU threatens the geithner model of banks-uber-alles, just as the strength of the euro vis a vis the dollar threatens the cherished image americans have learned to feel entitled to as top of the global heap, yet it is the bric countries that are growing, while europe dawdles in the doldrums, imo largely due to the subversions of a lot of american voices, from the slagging off of the french as cowards, the cretinous spoutings of yer boltons and yer rumsfelds about old europe, (anywhere that isn't lapdog enough to put up with being america's satrap, and put up boondoggle missile defence shields, store nukes, and do renditions uncomplainingly.)

luckily for us, in some ways, the hegemon is staggering around on crutches made in china, due to their war-is-us military muscle twitches and media-for-dummies awareness of their place at the global table, where their betrayal of their own sound principles occurs with ever more transparency, with ron goldbug paul being as likely as any to run for the GOP ticket, the refusal to participate in the ICC or climate change remediality. the scabbard is off and the naked blade is there for all to see...

don't like wikileaks? cut off your own nose to spite your face and ban reading it for federal employees, forced ignorance.

don't like pesky sovereignty rules? blast right by them and go assassinate anyone you like, who's gonna argue with a gorilla that big?

just as in the cold war, we in yurp are now between china and america as they jostle for polluter-in-chief, before it was russia we all spent trillions to spend into the ground, now we sit between the old and new numbah-1 and cuddle up to russia to keep the lights on.

after 20 years of extra-european life i came back here because i was amazed at the progress europe had made, now 20 years on i see the charred ashes of many aspirations, and it is hard not to feel bitter, as we sit here surrounded by 100 nuclear plants, and are told that the solar sector is growing too fast and needs to be curbed by our all-knowing caregivers.

the rightwing loony parties, from berlu and snarkozy, wilders and bossi, strut and foam, while in eastern europe the familiar stench of organised hate groups begins to waft over the landscape, already heavy with fumes from aluminium smelters, chernobyl fallout residue and coal plants a gogo.

the stakes are high everywhere, we see it played out here, and thank fate that we are starting from a higher position to take on peak oil and commodity speculations, but i wonder if that just means we have further to fall.
to end this jaded rant on a more positive note...

i do believe that europe is placed better than any other locus, because we have had no wars here for two generations (a record!), unless you count afghanistan, iraq, kosovo and libya, natch.

and because europe has been the intellectual womb for so many of humanity's greatest oeuvres, be they scientific, idealistic, pragmatic or socially visionary. the fact that our politics are so shambolic i am choosing to see as the sunset effect of a paradigm breaking down, and new ones emerging.

i love coming here, because of the spirit of love for the good things we have created and enjoy in europe, and the caring to diagnose and treat the ills that plague us still. ET symbolises the hope that remains, with its passionate devotion to energy issues, and the slow cracking of the nut that is the financial system.

maybe we will emulate the arabs, and show up in enough numbers that our lords and masters will get a kick in the pants, maybe we'll muddle through, while the rest of the world is distracted by yer fukushimas, the world currencies valuation battles, and the sound and fury of dictators being upended by the exasperated starving street protests, willing to die rather than live on their knees.

we are not there yet, but unless people en masse wake up to how the foundation of our finance system is rotten and run by idiot gamblers, and how the PTB would like to take us back to the 30s, forgetting what the consequences of that may mean, our noble fumblings towards a globally sustainable, socially equitable state. we don't have to be super-anything, just avoid excess and waste, and continue to resist the blandishments of the free-market fanatics, and their poodles-in-power, until the whole house of cards collapses and we see who has the pants down by their ankles, and who had a clue. (looking at you chris cook!)

gimme some truth! ah john, we miss you man...

sad epiphany Frank, great diary and comments.

it's the energy, intelligent ones!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty