THE OTHER EXPLANATION IS THAT THE YOUNG ARE IDIOTS

Young people most likely to consider themselves 'Europeans,' new study suggests (Associated Press, October 19th, 2006)

The European Union may be struggling to forge a common identity, but most of the continent's young people already consider themselves "Europeans" as much as anything else, a new study suggests.

In the study published in this week's issue of the journal Science, a team of Austrian sociologists reviewed public opinion surveys spanning 1996 to 2004 and found evidence of a "slowly evolving feeling of identity in the national and European context," lead researcher Wolfgang Lutz said.

By 2004, the most recent year for which data were examined, 42 percent of respondents to a Eurobarometer survey said they felt themselves to be solely nationals of their own country, but the remaining 58 percent acknowledged at least somewhat identifying themselves as Europeans.

The study dealt only with the 15 core EU member states in Western Europe, and not with the 10 newcomer nations — eight ex-communist countries from Eastern Europe plus Cyprus and Malta — which joined the bloc in May 2004.

The experts' forecast: By 2030, if the trend holds, the great majority of Europeans — a projected 226 million people — will see themselves with multiple identities, not just national ones, compared to an estimated 130 million today.

"The older the respondents, the higher is the chance that they feel only a national identity," the authors wrote in an article for Science. "As older, more nationally oriented cohorts die, there are likely to be significant changes in the pattern of European identity."

We’ve all seen many studies like this. The sub-text is that rational insight and cutting-edged progressive thinking are widespread among the young, while the elderly are still prisoners of a dark and dangerous mix of small-minded tradition and prejudice---too feeble and hidebound to get with the programme. Once the admittedly kind but hopelessly befuddled old wrinklies die off (take your time, but hurry up!), we will be free to enjoy the broad sunlit uplands of transnationalism secured by international law, environmentally-sensitive progress and unfettered individual freedom. The authors are conveniently oblivious to the fact that today’s European seniors grew up awash in unadulterated marxism, Sartre’s existentialism and an all-encompassing contempt for national cultures. Is it just possible experience sometimes translates into wisdom?