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Subject: Europe is obsolete
From: deep_europe <abroeck@V2.nl>
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 16:22:04 METDST

* * * * *

The obsolescence of EUROPE

The are no limits to the passion of self referentiality. That
is why ignorance will never become an assumed attitude.
(folklore)

When the Americans (a word synonim to ignorance, in *our*
culture) are mixing Belgium & Netherlands, Romania & Bulgaria,
Hungary & Slovakia etc., they just point in an innocent way at
a hybrid: the European puzzle-centrism, floating flatly in a
multiedric environment which calls itself pluri-centric (and
maybe even is so). We, the Europs are better educated, and we
learned our geography in school. That is why we really
know what is where. Try this with the help of your virtual
memory, only:

1. Guatemala is
a. in Central America; b. in the Carraibeans; c. in South
America?
2. East Timor is
a. an island; b. a province; c. a country?
3. Name two countries neighboring Saudi Arabia.
4. Yaounde is the capital city of
a. Cameroun; b. Nigeria; c. Ivory Coast?

Etc.

Europs think that the only intricacy is theirs, that the
complexity of historical data and the crisis of identity are a
luxurious benefit coming along with economic stabilization
and/or political martyrdom.
Post communism and post industrialism (wishfully speaking) are
the tickets for a future where Europs will play puzzle among
themselves wondering where is the convergence point of the
game.

Although there are other possibilities. For instance the sand
box. If an Europ is asked to play in one of them and make a
free modelling of Korea neighboring the Balkan peninsula, I am
not really sure which one will look bigger. In the ideal
geography elaborated by the Europs, scaling is not a problem
of conscious effort: it just comes by itself.

A strategic change would be the separation of Europe along the
internal mark of the Iron Courtain Fall.

The West has already decided to measure ist time according to
an older but still growing anti-US frustration, and catch up
with federalism and liberalism, while keeping the illusion of
a safe labor market. And maintaining the Great Divide in its
place, as a ressource of masochistic delights and sadistic
philantropy.

Therefore it is time for the Eastern part of the continent to
prove some mobility and re-Orient itself towards more extreme
zones of reference. The far East or Africa are potential joint
ventures, with some common issues working there also, and on a
bigger scale: market dominance; hybrid cultures; internal
division into zones of conflicting development; coexistence of
ideologies and religions; civil wars and temporary truce.
Basically all the topics that Europe wants to avoid without
success in its own house, all the mismanaged contrasts that
define *our* puzzle at the moment can be downsized at a more
decent level by comparison with the global sand boxs.

Maybe Eastern Europe has still the time to take advantage of
its inferior position and transform it into a missionarism of
*delete* and *rewrite* the developing dystopia. The traumatic
past of the Grand Divide, kept as a shield in front of any
potential cure, must be brought to a crisis, and the only
Europs who can do that are the ones closest to Asia. The
divorce of the twin continents might be of some good.

Guidelines for the obsolescence of Europe:

A century of European history is equivalent to a minute in
Chinese time.
The economic crisis in Germany is a showcase for the
prospective implosion of the Asian *tigers*.
The Bosnian conflict mirrors the unpredictables of the Central
African intricate war zones.
Albania is confronting the prospective of warlords dominance,
in the Afgan style.
Romania is aiming towards a democratic distribution of wealth
in the banana republics model. etc.

Happy Doomsday!

Calin Dan