A new dark age?

Is Europe entering the abyss? Martin Jacques, a perceptive analyst of political and social movement, reckons so. It’s curious that Martin’s gloomy perspective on Europe coincides with his friend Will Hutton’s relentlessly upbeat picture.

I acknowledge the many dark signs Martin identifies: the rise of the extreme right in many parts of Europe, the ineffectual response of the traditional left, the disturbing racist traditions. But his extrapolation into a new age of barbarism strikes me as verging on scaremongering.

I believe firmly that what was once called the silent majority — in a very different context — has no truck with racism and intolerance. Although one of the failures of Europe is the size of the have-nots, they remain a minority. For most Europeans (and Hutton is right on this), the current socioeconomic and political systems have delivered unprecedented affluence and opportunity. The political classes have been slow to articulate the systemic strengths, but the warning signals of Le Pen, Haider and others will not go unnoticed or unresponded to.

Incidentally, some writers I respect have written eloquent rebuttals of the description of the assassinated Pym Fortuyn as a fascist or a Dutch Le Pen. It’s true, Fortuyn wasn’t easy to pigeonhole. But the bulk of his social and political views do seem closely aligned with the radical, libertarian right (with the exception of his anti-immigration stance, which is dirigiste, rather than libertarian). That’s not the right of Le Pen or Haider, but it’s still a disturbing, anti-social democracy political viewpoint.