Europe Is in Decline
The prime suspect? Blandness.
It’s quite a popular talking point amongst modern conservatives that Europe is in irreversible decline. Probably the most commonly given reason for this belief is that mass migration, especially from the Middle East and North Africa, is eroding traditional European customs and beliefs. The best-known exponent of such views is Douglas Murray, whose book The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam struck a chord with European and international right-wing figures like Rod Liddle and Sam Harris. Murray must be praised for the clarity of his title if nothing else.
It has also been suggested, particularly in the US, that Europe’s death has an economic basis — that labor protections and social democratic welfare spending has made Europe indebted and inefficient. One American (and I wish I was joking here) explained to me a couple of years ago that Scandinavian-style socialism seemed great on paper, but that these countries simply weren’t innovative enough to produce world-changing tech start-ups like Spotify.
I don’t agree with either view. All the immigration in the world, and all the workers’ rights in the world, couldn’t stop…
