Europe. What Next?

~ Laura

Eugène_Delacroix_-_La_liberté_guidant_le_peuple

Eugene Delacoix’s painting, “La Liberté guidant le peuple,” is getting lots of love on social media and in real life. Delacroix was a romantic painter. The romantic painters really loved dead bodies and foreign places. There were lots of romantic dead bodies in The Raft of the Medusa. I also like this version of the Raft.

These protests in Europe can go two ways. The first way is towards a greater commitment towards combatting terrorism and support for American troops in these international hotspots. The second way is more nationalism and increased anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim. Which way will it go?

 

Published by Laura

16 thoughts on “Europe. What Next?”

  2. Are you really sure that there are only two ways to go? And that one of them is increased support for American military action? And that such action is the same as combating terrorism?

    Because I’m over here thinking the answer to all three of those questions is “No.”

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  3. I am surprised by the two only possibilities. I understand and I am afraid of the second one. I really hope and think Europe can do better than that. The First way…I do not see why the best way of combating terrorism is to support American troops.
    What are other ways of combating terrorism? Locally or internationally? Which one is the most effective?

    Maria

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  4. I don’t think that many people in the U.S.,– and certainly not in France– think that what American troops are doing in the Middle East is combatting terrorism rather than looking out for it’s own economic interests—(that would be oil).

    At any rate, there certainly are not only two choices to be made here: supporting America’s violent, military foreign policy or supporting anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim policies.

    The sentiment of many of the protestors marching in France seems to be sorrow at the attacks and an effort to show solidarity among the different European nations to work together.

    Here is a quote from one protestor at the march in France, “I am here to show the terrorists they have not won – it is bringing people together of all religions.”

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    1. I have to admit that I was kind of surprised that in France, the activation of the terror cells means that Jewish schools/communities are under attack given that the shootings at Charlie Mebdu were about what a non-religiously-oriented magazine published. I mean, it went from “Don’t hate on Mohammed” to “Kill Jews” much more quickly than I thought. Some might say that the two are obviously related, but I think it’s more correlation than causation.

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      1. French political scientists such as Nonna Mayer have shown a link between Muslim extremism in France and anti-semitism. Instances of anti-Semitic graffiti, attacks on Jewish cemeteries, etc., always increase, particularly in the Parisian metropolitan region and near Marseille, for example, when Israeli-Palestinian skirmishes are in the news.

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      4. I’m not surprised about anti-Semitism existing. It was the juxtaposition of the two issues. It’s as if, after the OKC bombing, all of a sudden gays and lesbians were warned they were in extra danger from dominionist domestic terrorist groups. Obviously, the same people who hate the government also tend to hate gays and lesbians (and women, and blacks, etc.). It just seems like a weird “plan,” if there is one.

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  5. Cue the lecture from Steve.. Steve’s always going on about how anti-semitism is still lurking around Europe, particularly in Eastern Germany that didn’t have the same re-education as West Germany. I read an article last week, can’t remember where, that said that Jews were leaving Europe. Not a good sign.

    Steve’s expertise is fascism and the between the war years in Europe. When he sees a bunch of European people waving flags, he gets nervous. But that’s just Steve.

    I don’t know how this is going to shift European policy and politics. I threw the questions out without a strong answer. I do have to say that I’m a big Angela Merkel fangirl.

    Obama should have gone to France.

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    1. It’s not just Steve.

      I usually only get really nervous when it’s a bunch of Germans waving flags (but, I think that’s because I haven’t paid enough attention to the fascists waving flags in other countries). I would love to hear more lectures from Steve. My complaint to others has always been that it only seems easy to identify the nazis on monday morning, but the real hope is to identify them (and, particular, them when they are us) before we march into the path of evil. And we don’t have much more than history in which to look for answers (though the study of human nature can play a role, too).

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    3. “Obama should have gone to France.”

      Oh good lord, no.

      Also, I guarantee you that if he had gone to France, the right wing would be bitching about that, too. “We have enough problems in the US. Obama shouldn’t be taking away time from being the president in America to stand alongside the Socialist president of France!”

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  6. There has been talk for a while now about how European citizens going to fight in Syria may come back and cause trouble. If this is the only such incident, maybe not so much happens. If it happens several more times, the reaction could be rather severe.

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