>If you look at a lot of Western countries like Spain, France or Italy, you’ll easily realize that they are not doing very well: they are mostly lazy, complacent, nothing much going on there.
Such a simplistic and borderline racist analysis of the economical situation of these countries. This kind of narrative reminds me a lot of what was said on some media outlets during the recent Greece bailout episode.
What is funny is Northern Italians accuse Southern Italians with being lazy, complacent, nothing much going on there.
Now I would love to see the Northern Italian's reaction to this. We have something similar in the States where the Northeast (Where I am born and raised) and particularity in New England view the rest of the country as backward lazy people with no real work ethic. I really had to fight this mindset when working in the Mid-West, South and California.
So glad you called that out, I was about to do the same thing. The authors had extremely narrow and simplistic views, especially considering that they carry such lofty tiles as Philosopher and Writer. And at the end of the day, its their narrow views that keep them from seeing the things that will keep their [boring and soul-less] vision of the future from coming to be: I'm thinking of the fact that when people are left to network while the government shrinks they tend to organize criminally. Power vacuums get filled unless you are way more creative than these guys.
But back to parent's flag: Its really easy to see where the right-wing politics from in Sweden and other scandinavian countries by reading this, even though I presume that those guys would consider themselves socially liberal. Its completely infested with unfounded cultural superiority rhetoric.
I'll take "optimal currency zones" for $0.01, Alex.
It is anything but clear that the Eurozone thing will work out even yet. You get to keep your debt, but we control the central currency. It might be worth reviewing how it is that the United States had and dismantled a Bank of the United States. Twice. Our present Fed isn't quite the same thing.
To be (somewhat) fair, there apparently was considerable "corruption" in Greece. That seems more of a public choice problem than racism. And, of course, if public debt eats the economy, it's no wonder about "not much going on there."
Especially given that France has the second-largest economy in Europe. If the author intends to say, "Everyone but Germany is lazy, because they're just not German enough, and I'm totally devoted to ignoring how the Euro has bent Europe's trade balance in favor of Germany and nobody else," they should come out and say it.
> Such a simplistic and borderline racist analysis of the economical situation of these countries.
People really need to be called out for crying racism when the things that are being discussed are cultural. Regional cultures are different. That does not have to have anything to do with race.
> It is either true (and then it'd still true be even if you dislike it) or false (and then that's the important aspect), or maybe something in between that requires some clarifying.
Well first off I dont think anyone's going to come here and wave a scientific article proving or disproving the "laziness" of an entire race (Mediteranean Europeans), so there isnt really a true or false verdict.
"Something in between?" Ok let me expand on OP's "racist analysis." Humans dont think in complete logical arguments they use narratives that align with their understanding of the world. A particularly destructive narrative is one that whole peoples, whole countries, are doomed because of racial degeneracy. Economic growth as well as debt figures that align with that narrative feed it, but the narrative completely ignores historical factors, especially in this case that a group of technocrats came to every country in Europe promising some things that sounded great under a single currency, when in fact it killed the economies of the mediteranean countries which are based on high quality exports while setting the perfect environment for the rise of ikea et al. Now not only are the countries worse off economically than they were before, but they are said to be "culturally unfit" for the 21st century. The world is a complicated place, and simplistic narratives that historically align with something as destructive and ugly as racism should be examined before you say "so what"
The irony in the whole situation is that it was only a half dozen decades ago that much of the US was controlled by southern italian families! These two swede's vision for the future is basically a vanilla version of Sicily and Naples anyway. Government with no power while people network without oversight sounds great, except that its the very power vaccuum that allowed for the rise of Gomorrah, Cosa Nostra, the five american families, and mafias all over the world.
That goes for every amount of wealth. Poor people probably relied on their extended networks since the beginning of time. (From that perspective, urban social individualism and reduced social dependence are a lifestyle enabled by modern abundance.)
I think he framed it that way to gain relevance. It is a common gesture to indirectly refer to a previous time without any historical substance. Especially in politics and social science.
If we assume it's a rhetorical gesture, "the influence of networks increased" is just "i think networks are important". Saying the latter is legit, I guess.
Same for wealth concentration. Compared with 1700, we live in an egalitarian garden eden. ..however, "the increasing gap between rich and poor" is a useful gesture to say "I think considering the gap between rich and poor is important". - Which again, seems legit to me.
I think the author is referring to increasingly distributed networks as opposed to the more centralized legacy networks. So electric networks vs. Paper based networks.
Not even going to read this. The "end of politics". No such thing. As long as there are people we will be complaining about politics, but there will never be people without politics. It is what we do. Facism, technocracy, theocracy, monarcy, democracy, anarchy, it's all politics. Just because the process is not exhibited in a format that is recognizable by Western ideals or easily packaged and showcased on Fox News or some of us get lazy and acquiesce or some are forcibly disenfranchised does not mean we've seen the end of politics.
Such a simplistic and borderline racist analysis of the economical situation of these countries. This kind of narrative reminds me a lot of what was said on some media outlets during the recent Greece bailout episode.