Europe’s Transition to Post-Democracy: Lessons for India – Part II

A new definition of goodness is being propagated and imposed on citizens from the kindergarden level but the intended tolerance and inclusiveness are however restricted to those who abide by the mandatory opinions and codes of behaviour. Nationalism, sexism and racism according to the rather elastic definition given to them are beyond the pale and thus not tolerated even though a truly free society should let different views be debated. We all understand that there are heinous belief systems which lead to unacceptable actions but is outlawing those convictions an effective way to eliminate them and is the label of ‘hate speech’ to be imposed at the discretion of those who make the rules? In linguistic terms the corresponding trend is towards so-called ‘inclusive, degendered’ grammar in speech and writing which mangles the syntax and trammels the ability to produce good literature.

In the same order of ideas, opposition to mass immigration, however moderately and rationally expressed is regarded as proof of xenophobia and quickly branded as hate speech, yet the EU’s puzzling attitude to the unending flow of illegal aliens into its territory is highly visible in the context of the crisis that erupted between Poland and Belarus in the context of an attempted irruption into Poland of thousands of Middle-Eastern people travelling from Belarus. Poland’s nationalist government which is in open conflict with both Germany and the EU as a whole over its dissidence with ‘European values’ deployed its troops to block the unwanted asylum seekers who wanted to reach Germany.

After having for years practiced an open-door policy for migrants and refugees Berlin and its Union partner states showed their unwillingness to welcome those entrants and grudgingly supported the Poles, at least paying lip service to their right to protect their borders while accusing them of lacking humanity. Ironically the former Home Minister of Italy Salvini is on trial in his country for refusing to let refugee-carrying vessels to dock at Italian ports. Why is he being prosecuted while Poland gets away with a similar policy? Is it because Belarus, another villain in Brussels’s book is the other state in this tussle which must necessarily bear the fault of the migrant problem? Poland however does not trust the EU and refuses the proffered help of its Frontex border force which it suspects of acting as a tool of the pro-immigrant leftist NGOs to willy-nilly let the mostly aggressive foreign crowds in, under the excuse of humanitarianism.

One major component of the problem is that the European Union, steadfast in its self-imposed mission to enforce its guidance on all countries and undo the regimes which do not behave by its standards has actively sought to bring about regime change in Belarus, in the hope of turning it into another pro-Western Ukraine and perhaps of eventually changing the political dispensation in Russia as well. In return President Lukashenko loses no opportunity to create problems for the EU and especially for his hostile neighbours, Poland and Lithuania which, carrying the baggage of the Soviet past, got the rest of Europe and the United States involved in their historical disputes with the Russian federation and its allies.

This shows how the missionary zeal of the EU and of the other western powers is complicating already existing problems and adding new ones, acting on the belief that the rest of mankind must come under the benevolent guidance of the leading liberal democracies by espousing their system of government which however is no longer what it was in their heydays up until the final decade of the last century. Despite the supercilious conviction of being superior to all other nations by their social philosophies and political systems, in real terms the West and singularly Europe are constantly losing ground to the new rivals they find so unpalatable. While claiming the moral high ground the European Union is reducing its relevance while weakening its more significant member-states, deliberately cutting down its food production and its energy generation under the influence of the supposedly environmentalist agenda. The continent will therefore become more dependent on Russia for its natural gas, oil and wheat. No need to talk about China’s industrial hegemony in many critical sectors to realize that the lesson givers of today, who are the erstwhile global masters, are quickly and rather falling into a subservient role.

In a following article we will attempt to show how the ideological foundation of this allegedly inclusive and pluralistic endeavour (the post-modern western project) is deeply flawed. In comparison the traditional Vedic and Indic understanding of the natural law and of a holistic society – if we rise above the well-known subsequent features of caste segregation, social inequality and untouchability which stemmed out of a sclerotic degeneracy of the original living model – provides a sound basis for building a truly free and diverse, spiritually and ecologically attuned humanity. Will the West listen to the lesson of ancestral wisdom instead of rushing into a decline largely of its own making?