Thoughts on the current state of the EU: trailer parks, China, greed, threats culture, parochialism, Babel, Socrates, national champions

This is my rambling about the sorry state of EU affairs, more or less as I tweeted to night (late Thursday night, early hours of Friday, August 26):

The EU reminds me these days of a trailer park. A building is needed to house the members but no one wants to pay for it. Some even want collateral. I like trailers and trailer parks. But not trailer park unions (eg current state of the EU).

Did you read that almost 50% of Chinese exports are made by Chinese firms? THAT is the Greed that US & Europe are already paying dearly for!!

When Europeans decide to unite I am afraid that it may be too late for Europe. But maybe that is the way things are meant to be, a stoic could argue.

Because for many centuries European countries have been grandstanding in the world, Europe is still acting like a spoiled child in spite of its age, while the rest of the world is turning, one way or another, Europe is asleep or in denial. I am afraid Europe may be beyond repair!

And that at the end of the day the average European is, alas, more parochial in thinking than a tea-partier! Europe is in urgent need of philosophical leadership ie of philosophers who like the Ancient Greek ones will speak to the people and help them THINK.

The Ancient Greek philosophers as well as the famous play writers (Sophocles, Euripides, etc) produced mass market intellectual products ie their works were not addressed to the elites! Same with Shakespeare! That did not prevent their work from being top quality. Analyse that!

Part of the European malaise is the "philosophy" that what is commercially successful & mass appealing is de facto low quality! That the less successful commercially something is, the more "quality" it has to be! A very "esoteric" approach to making anything! Having a linguistic Babel in Europe suits the mentality of the national champions in many fields b they from small, midsize or large states! That is my theory re why American pop culture has been dominating Europe for decades now! The left overs in each national European market seem enough for the native "industry" that even prefers, it seems, this situation than having to compete with other Europeans in a single European market! Am I wrong? I wish I am.

Europe is like a dys-functional family. Very LA!

A (European) management guru once told me in private that in Europe uncertainty is viewed as a threat, never an opportunity.

See how many European countries still cling to past glory (as colonialists, empires, etc)! Makes it, alas, hard for them to live in unison! We Europeans (a large majority of us), irrespective of nationality, are "united" (how ironic!) in thinking that we are so "sophisticated" compared to the US & others. So sophisticated that we can remain a trailer park of a (European) union and still be considered (so we think) "important" by the rest of the world. We better wake up!