Geopolitical Frankenstein
Thanks be unto the all wise and gracious Aussiegirl for inspiring this via her brilliant blog Ultima Thule.
In 1816 a young girl, stuck in Geneva due to nasty weather, sat beside a bonfire and told ghost stories. Her husband, a famous writer, and his close friends, also shining literary luminaries, had taken to telling ghost stories late in the evenings as a means of passing the time until the weather broke. This particular night a challenge was issued by someone in the group (Byron); three of the story tellers were to actually write their stories down, then the rest would decide which was best. That night, Mary Shelley began writing what would become one of the great classics of English literature-Frankenstein. (The weather cleared by the next night and the other contestants abandoned their manuscripts in favor of mountain climbing.) Young Mary, encouraged by her husband Percy (whom many accused of ghost-writing Frankenstein-pardon the pun) developed her short campfire story into a masterpiece about Hubris and the wages of Human Pride.
Frankenstein is about the obsessed scientist, not about the pathetic monster he creates. Viktor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with overcoming death and, in what constitutes classic tragedy, destroys himself through his pride and determination. He creates an abomination from dead body parts, and breathes life into this horror via electric current. Once he has accomplished his goal, he flees in terror from the great evil he has wrought, leaving the monster free to walk the Earth. He, along with everything he cares about, is eventually destroyed by his horrible creation.
I think this cautionary tale is applicable to that leviathan Creature, the European Union. The E.U. was created by a collection of ``mad scientists`` who sought to reanimate the dead corpses of the Cold War World. Much like the good Doctor digging body parts out of cemeteries and stitching them together in his basement, the E.U. was cobbled together out of nations which had lost their cultural and moral identity, but which have been sewn together into a macabre imitation of life. This was done to restore and revitalize the fortunes of the dismembered corpse of Germany, as well as the pathetic, arrogant remains of the once-mighty France. Holland, Belgium, etc. were also stitched on to the bloated cadaver, an animating force was applied (unified currency and a new Constitution) and the sinful abomination rose from the French operating table. Now, much like Doctor Frankenstein, the creators of this monster look with trembling upon what their hubris has wrought, and now the Dutch may want to flee from the face of the monster.
The idea of a confederation for mutual defense and economic interest in Europe is a decent one; the idea of a leviathan state in control of economics, culture, and law is a horror. What will become of Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Andorra, etc. if this monster subsumes them into a new United States of Europe? What will happen to the linguistic history, the local cuisine, the national character of the smaller European states? Is French/German pride worth the souls of the rest of Europe? Look at what Europe has become since the birth of the E.U. Can anyone say Europe is stronger in any real sense? Europe has become a backwater of culture. No one outside of Europe has any interest in what Europe has to offer (other than economic).Morally, Europe has become horribly corrupt (remember the libertines who threw condoms at the Pope?) Spiritually, Europe is dead. Is this cultural/moral/spiritual decline merely coincidental to the rise of a United Europe? I think not.
But the cure is worse than the disease. The Eurotrash think that their problem is the United States; they need to somehow create an entity which can compete with America for money and influence. They don`t grasp that their problems are self-imposed.
Frankenstein ends with the Doctor facing up to his culpability, and making an effort to rectify his errors. (That is the definition of Tragedy; a noble hero is destroyed by his own flaws, but faces the consequences of his failures at the end.) Will the member states which created this monster do the same?
In 1816 a young girl, stuck in Geneva due to nasty weather, sat beside a bonfire and told ghost stories. Her husband, a famous writer, and his close friends, also shining literary luminaries, had taken to telling ghost stories late in the evenings as a means of passing the time until the weather broke. This particular night a challenge was issued by someone in the group (Byron); three of the story tellers were to actually write their stories down, then the rest would decide which was best. That night, Mary Shelley began writing what would become one of the great classics of English literature-Frankenstein. (The weather cleared by the next night and the other contestants abandoned their manuscripts in favor of mountain climbing.) Young Mary, encouraged by her husband Percy (whom many accused of ghost-writing Frankenstein-pardon the pun) developed her short campfire story into a masterpiece about Hubris and the wages of Human Pride.
Frankenstein is about the obsessed scientist, not about the pathetic monster he creates. Viktor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with overcoming death and, in what constitutes classic tragedy, destroys himself through his pride and determination. He creates an abomination from dead body parts, and breathes life into this horror via electric current. Once he has accomplished his goal, he flees in terror from the great evil he has wrought, leaving the monster free to walk the Earth. He, along with everything he cares about, is eventually destroyed by his horrible creation.
I think this cautionary tale is applicable to that leviathan Creature, the European Union. The E.U. was created by a collection of ``mad scientists`` who sought to reanimate the dead corpses of the Cold War World. Much like the good Doctor digging body parts out of cemeteries and stitching them together in his basement, the E.U. was cobbled together out of nations which had lost their cultural and moral identity, but which have been sewn together into a macabre imitation of life. This was done to restore and revitalize the fortunes of the dismembered corpse of Germany, as well as the pathetic, arrogant remains of the once-mighty France. Holland, Belgium, etc. were also stitched on to the bloated cadaver, an animating force was applied (unified currency and a new Constitution) and the sinful abomination rose from the French operating table. Now, much like Doctor Frankenstein, the creators of this monster look with trembling upon what their hubris has wrought, and now the Dutch may want to flee from the face of the monster.
The idea of a confederation for mutual defense and economic interest in Europe is a decent one; the idea of a leviathan state in control of economics, culture, and law is a horror. What will become of Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Andorra, etc. if this monster subsumes them into a new United States of Europe? What will happen to the linguistic history, the local cuisine, the national character of the smaller European states? Is French/German pride worth the souls of the rest of Europe? Look at what Europe has become since the birth of the E.U. Can anyone say Europe is stronger in any real sense? Europe has become a backwater of culture. No one outside of Europe has any interest in what Europe has to offer (other than economic).Morally, Europe has become horribly corrupt (remember the libertines who threw condoms at the Pope?) Spiritually, Europe is dead. Is this cultural/moral/spiritual decline merely coincidental to the rise of a United Europe? I think not.
But the cure is worse than the disease. The Eurotrash think that their problem is the United States; they need to somehow create an entity which can compete with America for money and influence. They don`t grasp that their problems are self-imposed.
Frankenstein ends with the Doctor facing up to his culpability, and making an effort to rectify his errors. (That is the definition of Tragedy; a noble hero is destroyed by his own flaws, but faces the consequences of his failures at the end.) Will the member states which created this monster do the same?
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 6:16 PM
1 Comments:
What an elegant analogy, you’ve outdone yourself Tim, again! It appears to me that through the EU the 18th century "Imperial European powers" have found a way to reanimate the cadaver. Instead of occupying distant shores, they have opted to impose themselves on their next-door neighbors in every conceivable fashion. It cannot lead to a “happily ever after ending,” and America will likely have another European mess to cleanup when all is said and done. Like any good parent, we will step in and do it despite the all the whining.
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