By Tyler Durden
Written by J. B. Shurk on American Thinker
The European Union has more than 450 million inhabitants. The European countries that are not members of the EU – including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Albania, but excluding Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Turkey – have a further 100 million inhabitants.
Taken together, Europe has more than 200 million more inhabitants than the United States and more than 400 million more than the Russian Federation.
As an “associate member” of the EU, Canada would add another 40 million people to Europe.
There is no reason why Europe should have difficulty defending itself in the face of such a population advantage. In fact, it is downright embarrassing that Europe relies on the Americans from across the Atlantic to secure its borders, while the United States – with a much smaller population – has to fulfill military obligations worldwide. 80 years have passed since the end of World War II, and somehow the European ruling elite has still not understood how to survive without American money and military strength.
Professors and commentators cite all sorts of reasons for this: Europeans faced debt and destruction after two continental wars in thirty years, and had to rebuild much of their infrastructure and industrial production capacity. As the Soviet Union and the U.S.-led Allies divided postwar Europe among themselves, the Cold War put the continent in a state of stagnation for the next half-century. U.S. policymakers favored America’s transformation into a global empire with worldwide obligations. Peace in post-war Europe seemed fragile, and parts of the continent seemed shattered. Two generations had been lost to war and depression, and a sense of nihilism had stifled much of the enthusiasm that had characterized the continent before the First World War at the beginning of the 20th century.
All of this is correct. Yet there is no excuse for the fact that, four generations after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the continent still struggles to take responsibility for its own political sovereignty.
Josep Borrell, the former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in a speech four years ago: “Europe is a garden. We have created a garden.” After a long pause, he then stated: “The rest of the world … is not exactly a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle. The jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it.”
Political leaders from all over the world reacted indignantly to Borrell’s condescending view of non-European states and recognized in his distinction between garden and jungle the continuing prejudices of European colonialism.
Apart from his rather insensitive description of Europe, however, Borrell’s view of the continent seems anachronistic. Europe’s greatness dates back more than a century. Most of the former noble houses have perished, while the remaining aristocrats live largely in insignificance.
Europe does not produce anything new; it steals America’s innovation and ingenuity and taxes it. Europe is not building anything; it is dependent on China for industrial production and manufacturing. Europe does not produce enough energy; despite declaring Russia its enemy, a large part of Europe continues to rely on Russian oil and gas for survival. Europe does not extract raw materials; it relies on child slaves in Africa to do the heavy lifting for it. Europe is not having children; it is dependent on mass immigration to maintain its population. Europe is not generating real economic growth; it relies on central bank sleight of hand, investment bank commissions, and government spending to create the illusion of a functioning economy. Finally, Europe does not defend itself; it relies on NATO – which ultimately means that it depends on the United States of America to protect its half a billion inhabitants from real and perceived enemies.
If Europe is a “garden”, it is only because the rest of the planet allows it to be one. Without the imports from the “jungle”, there would be no vegetation in this garden; and without America, which secures Europe’s territories and keeps out invaders, there would be no “gardeners”.
The United States is the only reason why Europe itself is not part of the “jungle” today. For 80 years, the Americans have been subsidizing Europe’s economy by granting Europe the benefits of unilateral tariffs on U.S. manufacturers and the protective umbrella of American military power. Europe survives thanks to the generosity of foreigners living in cities across America.
This one-sided relationship cannot continue as it has for most of the past century. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her Eurocentric friends in Brussels, Berlin, London and Paris believe that their “garden” should continue to be at the centre of the world. They believe that their “climate change” fanaticism should determine economic regulations around the globe. They believe that their International Criminal Court should become the supreme arbiter on issues of “justice” on the planet. They believe that their multicultural, cosmopolitan, Marxist-socialist form of globalism should become a kind of secular religion for all nations. Basically, Europe wants to force the “jungle” to abide by its rules.
But that’s not how the “law of the jungle” works.
Lions, elephants, hippos and hyenas can’t do anything with the Brussels bureaucracy. They see no reason to bow down to the unelected Queen Ursula or to respect her “European values”. They do not restrict their food supply out of misguided devotion to the gods of “global warming.” They do not prohibit the exploration and production of oil and gas deposits, nor do they bankrupt refineries or shut down nuclear power plants, while at the same time relying on opponents and enemies to ensure that lights and heating continue to function. Nor do they outsource their security to predators of the jungle in the misguided expectation that they will not become prey themselves.
The jungle doesn’t stop at the entrance to the garden just because the old empires of the past millennium like to pretend that they still have meaning.
In the capitals of Europe, incompetent gardeners continue to insist that everything will be fine as soon as they can drive out disruptive forces such as President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. As long as they can censor social media platforms, Europe’s gardeners will be able to convey the “right narratives” to the masses. As long as they can impose “green energy” regulations on China, India, Russia and the United States, Europe’s gardeners will be able to regulate markets and limit the economic growth of the jungle. As long as they can replace their own populations with foreign immigrants, Europe’s gardeners will be able to sufficiently “divide and dominate” their own populations.
But you can’t invite the jungle into the garden and expect the garden to survive. The jungle grows quickly, while the garden needs too much maintenance. Without the means to push back the jungle, the garden will eventually become overgrown.
This is Europe’s last chance to survive. If Europe does not abandon its ideological obsessions and instead takes the necessary tools for real economic growth, it will become impoverished. If it does not give up its love of bureaucratic regulation and gives its workers the freedom to increase their own wealth, Europe will become meaningless. If it does not give up its illusions of a “rules-based order” and does not build its own defenses, Europe will be swallowed up.
The jungle does not care that there are old cathedrals, monuments and palaces all over Europe. The jungle does not care about Europe’s past greatness. Europe is just another area that the jungle can conquer next.
Half a billion people should be able to have a say in the future of Europe. They should not be forced to follow Queen Ursula, Chancellor Merz, President Macron, Prime Minister Burnham or Prime Minister Carney on their way to doom. They should not have to stand idly by while their economies collapse while the gardeners promise them nothing but “climate change” austerity and nuclear war with Russia. The people of Europe should not have to stand motionless like statues while the gardeners destroy everything around them.
For 80 years, Europe’s leaders have failed to bring peace and prosperity to the continent. In order for the garden to continue to live, the gardeners have to leave.
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