Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.

December 5, 2011 10:57 AM

Jacques Delors: Euro would still be strong if it had been built to my plan. 'Former president of the European Commission Jacques Delors talks to Charles Moore about the fate of the euro.''Jacques Delors is a master of all the technicalities of the argument, and all the Byzantine structures of the institutions, and speaks confidently in their jargon, but his mind seems burdened by deeper thoughts, too. He sees the crisis of the euro as part of something deeper and wider even than the credit crunch itself. He believes that the main social and economic “players” have their doubts about European policies.'

'“You hear it every day. You hear it in the markets. This is reinforced by populism in certain countries. Whether we like it or not, we are part of the West, and the West could possibly lose its leadership, and it is important that we preserve the values that matter not only to Europe, but to Britain and the United States — the values that are Judeo-Christian in origin — Greek philosophy and Greek democracy and Roman law, and the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution.” Yet obviously, at the same time, we cannot “tell the President of China what to do. Other peoples want to preserve their values, and we want to preserve ours. This is the great challenge.”
So the crisis of the euro is all part of a crisis of the Western way of doing things? “Oui, c’est ça.”'

posted by VikingSword (10 comments total)

the values that matter not only to Europe, but to Britain and the United States — the values that are Judeo-Christian in origin — Greek philosophy and Greek democracy and Roman law, and the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

These have been traded away for magic beans: globalism, capitalism and progressivism.
posted by No Robots at 11:07 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

It is a fault in the execution, not of the architects,

Isn't that what folks say about Marxism/socialism/communism too ?
posted by k5.user at 11:12 AM on December 5, 2011

Randall Wray predicted this in 1998 in his book, Understanding Modern Money. Here's a recent article he wrote: link.
posted by wuwei at 11:22 AM on December 5, 2011

globalism, capitalism and progressivism.

"... One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong."

Sorry I don't have more time to elaborate, but an end to child labor, the minimum wage, and other progressive era reforms are not exactly what I would call "magic beans."
posted by saulgoodman at 11:23 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

These have been traded away for magic beans: globalism, capitalism and progressivism.

Wait, so how do we plant these? My life of video games has made me great at the task of killing things and taking their stuff; now I can finally apply this to the real world, climb a beanstalk, and fight that giant!
posted by curious nu at 11:44 AM on December 5, 2011

It is a common error to equate progressivism with socialism. The former is imperialist ideology whereas the latter is the science of democracy.
posted by No Robots at 12:05 PM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

The euro would have been better if it had been built according to my idea: foil-wrapped fine dark chocolate. That way, it would always retain some value.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:05 PM on December 5, 2011

Interesting.

But surely, I ask, as someone who has always advocated more European democracy, isn’t he worried by the takeover of the technocrats? In Greece and Italy, leaders have been parachuted in without anyone asking the voters. This does not bother Mr Delors at all.

Calmly dispensing with democracy is not impressive.

The creation of the Euro was also dubious. It should have been put to a vote in the various countries.

What gain has there been for the Euro disaster that is now unfolding?

For those interested in watching the train wreck that is the Euro the Charlemagne blog is well worth reading. What else are people reading to follow events?
posted by sien at 1:54 PM on December 5, 2011

'“You hear it every day. You hear it in the markets. This is reinforced by populism in certain countries. Whether we like it or not, we are part of the West, and the West could possibly lose its leadership, and it is important that we preserve the values that matter not only to Europe, but to Britain and the United States — the values that are Judeo-Christian in origin — Greek philosophy and Greek democracy and Roman law, and the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution.”

I tend to agree with this - just look what's happened in North America over the past 10 years.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:19 PM on December 5, 2011

Europe, but to Britain and the United States — the values that are Judeo-Christian in origin — Greek philosophy and Greek democracy and Roman law, and the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution.”

Wasn't Middle Eastern philosophy also based largely Greek philosophy? Islam was a continuation of Christianity and Judaism. And the great struggle of the 20th century, communism vs. capitalism was actually a struggle between two branches of enlightenment thinking (communism from Marx, who developed it in the UK)
posted by delmoi at 6:54 PM on December 5, 2011