FETCH JAMES BOND, THE VILLAINS ARE PLOTTING TO TAKE OVER EUROPE

Philosophizing about Europe's Rebirth (Deutsche Welle, 6/3/2003)

In an essay written by Habermas, co-signed by Derrida and published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) newspaper on Saturday, the two philosophers called on the "avant-garde" core of European states to return to European enlightenment values....

Habermas identified five attributes he said Europeans share: the neutrality of authority, embodied in the separation of church and state, trust in politics rather than the capitalist market, an ethos of solidarity in the fight for social justice, high esteem for international law and the rights of the individual and support for the organizational and leading role of the state.

Germany's thinker de rigueur wrote that Europe's core states could put an end to Europe's stagnancy, sooner or later drawing in the remaining states which would be unable to resist. Separatism, however, had to be avoided. "The avant-garde core Europe cannot consolidate into a miniature Europe but, as so often, must be the locomotive."

Blogging is a stimulating sport because today's world is more fantastic than the wildest fiction. In fiction the villains rarely hold press conferences to advertise their culpability for murder, yet, after every terror attack in Israel, Palestinian terror groups do just that. In novels, when an "avant-garde" plans to conquer their neighbors by cunning plots, they don't write about their plans in the newspapers, and gloat that their victims will be "unable to resist."

Thank goodness, our enemies are incompetent.

UPDATE:
By the way, the blogosphere recently discussed Habermas and his "Frankfurt School" of cultural Marxists. I recommend starting at either Porphyrogenitus or FrontPage Magazine.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at June 3, 2003 11:25 AM