Mass delusions are not rare. They salt the human story. The hallucinatory types are well known; so also is the sudden variation called mania, generally localized, like the tulip mania in Holland many years ago or the common-stock mania of a recent time in Wall Street. But a delusion affecting the mentality of the entire world at one time was hitherto unknown. All our experience with it is original.

- Garet Garrett, 1932

Gepost in 30 08 10 door Steven op maandag 30 augustus 2010

As nationalism rises, will the European Union fall?

If these obstacles to a stable union weren’t sobering enough, in July, the E.U.’s rotating presidency fell to Belgium – a country whose Dutch-speaking Flemish citizens and French-speaking Walloons are so divided that, long after elections in June, a workable governing coalition has yet to emerge. It speaks volumes that the country now guiding the European project suffers exactly the kind of nationalist antagonism that the E.U. was created to eliminate.