“ENLIGHTENMENT” ONLY GOES SO FAR
When Donald Rumsfeld called the countries of western Europe “old Europe” he was roundly criticised in the press for his insensitivity. After all, we’re talking about the cradle of western enlightenment here; 200 years of liberal democratic thought on everything from the nature of man to the nature of government.
Too bad they never got enlightened about racial hatred.
Deacon over at Powerline has a thoughtful post about racism and anti-semitism in Europe. His point involves how European soccer still to this day is home to some of the most casually obscene racism that disappeared (for the most part) from America more than 20 years ago-even in red states.
I remember seeing an interview with US World Cup soccer player Tony Sanneh who played in France for a few years and said that even the HOME TEAM fans would call him monkey. And the rise of extreme right parties in Holland, Austria, Germany and Luxemburg is directly related to European sentiment not only towards moslem immigrants, but also newcomers from former African colonies who are fleeing war, famine, and oppression.
In the 1930’s, the anti-semitism in Europe was based on now discredited theories of racial purity. Today, the Europeans don’t even bother with an excuse…they just expose themselves to be the ignorant peasants that they really are.