Existens. Samhälle. Läsning.
"Det som förgör Europa är fegheten, den moraliska fegheten, oförmågan att försvara sig, samt den uppenbara moraliska dypöl som kontinenten inte förmått ta sig ur alltsedan Auschwitz." Imre Kertész i Den sista tillflykten (översatt av Ervin Rosenberg)
tisdag 17 oktober 2017
The Paris statement. Ett manifest som är så intressant att det bör läsas i sin helhet. Nej, jag delar inte dess hållningar och ståndpunkter i allt, men det bör läsas...
A EUROPE WE CAN BELIEVE IN (och för läsning av hela manifestet klickar man bara på rubriken ovan)
1. Europe belongs to us, and we belong to Europe. These lands are our home; we have no other. The reasons
we hold Europe dear exceed our ability to explain or justify our loyalty. It is
a matter of shared histories, hopes and loves. It is a matter of accustomed
ways, of moments of pathos and pain. It is a matter of inspiring experiences of
reconciliation and the promise of a shared future. Ordinary landscapes and
events are charged with special meaning—for us, but not for others. Home is a
place where things are familiar, and where we are recognized, however far we
have wandered. This is the real Europe, our precious and irreplaceable
Europe is our home.
2. Europe, in all its richness
and greatness, is threatened by a false understanding of itself. This false
Europe imagines itself as a fulfilment of our civilization, but in truth it
will confiscate our home. It appeals to exaggerations and distortions of
Europe’s authentic virtues while remaining blind to its own vices. Complacently
trading in one-sided caricatures of our history, this false Europe is
invincibly prejudiced against the past. Its proponents are orphans by choice,
and they presume that to be an orphan—to be homeless—is a noble achievement. In
this way, the false Europe praises itself as the forerunner of a universal
community that is neither universal nor a community.
A false Europe threatens us.
3. The patrons of the false
Europe are bewitched by superstitions of inevitable progress. They believe that
History is on their side, and this faith makes them haughty and disdainful,
unable to acknowledge the defects in the post-national, post-cultural world
they are constructing. Moreover, they are ignorant of the true sources of the
humane decencies they themselves hold dear—as do we. They ignore, even
repudiate the Christian roots of Europe. At the same time they take great care
not to offend Muslims, who they imagine will cheerfully adopt their secular,
multicultural outlook. Sunk in prejudice, superstition and ignorance, and
blinded by vain, self-congratulating visions of a utopian future, the false
Europe reflexively stifles dissent. This is done, of course, in the name of
freedom and tolerance.
The false Europe is utopian and
4. We are reaching a dead-end.
The greatest threat to the future of Europe is neither Russian adventurism nor
Muslim immigration. The true Europe is at risk because of the suffocating grip
that the false Europe has over our imaginations. Our nations and shared culture
are being hollowed out by illusions and self-deceptions about what Europe is
and should be. We pledge to resist this threat to our future. We will defend,
sustain and champion the real Europe, the Europe to which we all in truth
We must defend the real Europe. ....
Phillipe Bénéton (France), Rémi Brague (France), Chantal Delsol (France), Roman Joch (Česko), Lánczi András (Magyarország), Ryszard Legutko (Polska), Roger Scruton (United Kingdom), Robert Spaemann (Deutschland), Bart Jan Spruyt (Nederland), Matthias Storme (België)