BY JOHN GRAY
“Before 1914, the globe had belonged to all. People went where they wished in addition to stayed equally long equally they pleased. There were no permits, no visas, in addition to it ever gives me pleasance to astonish the immature yesteryear telling them that earlier 1914 I travelled to Bharat in addition to to America without passport in addition to without ever having seen one. One embarked in addition to alighted without questioning or existence questioned… The frontiers which, with their customs officers, constabulary in addition to militia, receive got go wire barriers thank you lot to the pathological suspicion of everybody against everybody else, were nix but symbolic lines which i crossed with equally niggling idea equally i crosses the Meridian of Greenwich… I, a case-hardened animal of an historic menstruum of liberty in addition to a citizen of the world-republic of my dreams, count every impression of a condom postage stamp inwards my passport a stigma…” Zweig’s lamentation evokes a sympathetic echo inwards many liberals today, when borders are springing dorsum into stance across the world. For Zweig, liberty meant the Hapsburg empire, where people could alive securely without needing whatsoever detail national identity. This was Earth inwards which he grew up, in addition to without it he was homeless. When he became convinced that the liberal Europe represented yesteryear the Hapsburg empire had “committed suicide”, equally he lay it inwards letters to friends, it was also much to bear. On 22 Feb 1942, the twenty-four hours after he posted the manuscript of his memoirs to his New York publisher from Brazil, where his flying from Nazi Europe had ended, Zweig in addition to his wife, Lotte, killed themselves.
Three quarters of a century later, Douglas Murray also thinks Europe is destroying itself. In the firstly judgement of his best-selling The Strange Death of Europe, published inwards 2017 in addition to instantly reissued inwards an updated paperback edition, he declares: “Europe is committing suicide.” But whereas for Zweig it was nationalism that destroyed Europe, for Murray it is Europe’s loss of belief inwards itself. Murray – associate editor of the Spectator in addition to founder of the right-leaning Centre for Social Cohesion think tank– criticises liberals for denying or diminishing the problems that come upwards with precipitous large increases inwards immigration, when the migrants come upwards from other cultures. But the existent problem, he is convinced, is an influx of Muslims.
Discussing the populace answer to the migrant crisis, he writes: “What real few people saw or mentioned was that the racial background of the incomers was an insignificant affair amongst the far greater number of creed.” The most of import fact nigh the crisis, Murray asserts repeatedly, is that it involves the reckon of Islam with a hollowed-out, guilt-ridden, faithless Europe. The outcome volition live the Islamisation of the continent in addition to the terminate of European civilisation. Citing the operate of the French novelist Michel Houellebecq approvingly, he comments that when the protagonist of his novel Submission (2015) finally converts to Islam “he volition live component of a community of pregnant for the firstly time… the logic of Islam is practical, and, inwards a lodge ripe for submission, irrefutable”.
Murray’s evident admiration for Houellebecq is telling. Much of The Strange Death of Europe reads to a greater extent than similar a sensational novel than an practise inwards analysis. The mass has the course of written report of a narrative, comprising a succession of arresting vignettes – migrants burning downwardly a campsite inwards Lesbos, sexual assaults yesteryear immigrants on women in addition to children inwards Germany, racism amidst migrant groups inwards Lampedusa, terrorist atrocities inwards French Republic – in addition to in conclusion with a dramatic denouement. The story is necessarily selective, in addition to misses out a number of salient facts.
One of them is that the migrant crisis is global inwards its reach. It is non only Europe that shuts out Muslims. So make many Muslim countries. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has built a 600-mile-long fence along its edge with Iraq, in addition to in that location are similar barriers betwixt Turkey in addition to Syria, in addition to Islamic Republic of Iran in addition to Pakistan. Beyond the Muslim world, United Mexican U.S.A. deports larger numbers of migrants dorsum to Central in addition to Latin America than the Trump direction does. Elsewhere state of war in addition to environmental collapse are powerful factors inwards population flows. Worldwide, large flows of people are a by-product of globalisation. Rapid movements of working capital missive of the alphabet in addition to production continuously destroy livelihoods, in addition to uneven economical evolution gives workers an incentive to seek opportunities inwards richer countries where they may non live welcome. These are non clashes of civilisations, in addition to where Islam is involved the conflicts are oftentimes intra-Islamic.
In Murray’s defence forcefulness it mightiness live argued that his narrative has to make with immigration inwards Europe, non throughout the world. Even so, it passes over key facts. The Schengen treaty is barely mentioned but it is this understanding that has made the migrant crisis intractable yesteryear removing internal borders from much of the continent. Empty chatter nigh a Europe-wide solution only highlights Europe’s incapacity to act.
Migrant numbers receive got fallen over the yesteryear year. But for the Visegrád Group – Hungary, Poland, the Czechia in addition to Slovakia –the optimum number is zero, piece Republic of Austria in addition to Italia are bent on deporting migrants that receive got already arrived. In Germany, the interior minister’s threat to unopen the country’s borders produced a compromise inwards which tighter controls volition live instituted. Merkel’s coalition has survived for the fourth dimension being, but it cannot live also long earlier the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) – whose mounting electoral threat triggered the political upheaval – enters government. Macron inwards French Republic is belongings out against the trend, but he is alone. In a paradox that Murray does non explore, the outcome of pursuing the stupendous liberal projection of Europe-wide liberty of motion is the illiberal Europe nosotros receive got today.
Writing inwards this magazine ii years agone (“The historic menstruum of hyper-terrorism”), I suggested that European institutions faced a trilemma they could non resolve: “Open borders, liberal republic in addition to highly developed welfare states are non simultaneously sustainable… H5N1 continent-wide procedure of Orbánisation is nether way.” Pre-1914 Europe was able to live borderless because republic was limited in addition to the welfare province only beginning. Once they are enfranchised, pop majorities resist opened upwards borders because they fright the effects on welfare provision in addition to wage levels in addition to demand some say inwards the overall management of society. When their protests are ignored yesteryear mainstream politicians, they plough to authoritarian leaders. The success of Viktor Orbán inwards Hungary, where he secured a “super-majority” inwards parliamentary elections inwards April, is only an incident inwards the march across Europe of what the Hungarian leader has described equally illiberal democracy. The trilemma that has defeated European institutions is existence resolved yesteryear events. Borders are existence reinstated inwards a disorderly scramble. Liberal Europe is fading from memory.
As component of this procedure the European social democratic model is becoming extinct. Writing inwards the New York Review of Books inwards 2009, the historian Tony Judt – an impassioned social democrat – noted:
It is non yesteryear withdraw chances that social republic in addition to welfare states receive got worked best inwards small, homogeneous countries, where issues of trust in addition to mutual suspicion make non arise so acutely. H5N1 willingness to pay for other people’s services in addition to benefits rests on the understanding that they inwards plough volition make likewise for you lot in addition to your children: because they are similar you lot in addition to reckon Earth equally you lot do. Conversely, where immigration in addition to visible minorities receive got altered the demography of a country, nosotros typically detect suspicion of others in addition to a loss of enthusiasm for the institutions of the welfare state.
The forcefulness of Judt’s analysis volition only live strengthened if, equally could perchance happen, Sweden proves to live the side yesteryear side domino to autumn to the far right.
There is nix accidental inwards the demise of social democracy. It was ever at odds with continent-wide labour mobility – a neoliberal projection that presupposes the rollback of national welfare states in addition to downward flexibility inwards wages. What is unexpected – at to the lowest degree for unthinking liberals – is that the far correct has benefited most from social democracy’s demise. With the optic left shrunken in addition to moribund, voters receive got flocked to fringe parties, many of which receive got links with interwar fascism.
Murray thinks in that location is niggling to fright from the rising of the far right. Indeed, except inwards a few fringe cases, he denies that anything of the class is occurring. He admits that “truly fascist” parties receive got re-emerged – Golden Dawn inwards Hellenic Republic in addition to Jobbik inwards Hungary, for illustration – but takes a benign stance of parties such equally France’s Front National in addition to Germany’s AfD. These “thoughtful in addition to clearly non-fascist parties i time described equally ‘far right’” are precisely instances of republic inwards action. It is hard to part his complacency. Marine Le Pen’s mask of moderation slipped when, inwards the closing stages of in conclusion year’s presidential election, she deployed her father’s hate-filled rhetoric inwards an endeavour to rally her meat supporters. The AfD may receive got begun equally an association of Eurosceptic economists, but it has evolved into a political party a sizeable number of whose members seem sympathetic to “revisionist” views of Germany’s 20th-century history, including the Nazi period.
There is a temptation – which Murray shares, curiously, with many bien pensantliberals – to regard the advance of the far correct equally a passing episode inwards the evolution of European politics. Far-right parties volition go to a greater extent than moderate, or else the optic volition reassert itself. Either way, politics volition shortly revert to normal. Such reasoning is delusional. The illiberal Europe of today may non live the prelude to a full-scale rerun of the Thirties. Economic dislocation has so far been on a smaller scale, in addition to its social effects blunted yesteryear what remains of the welfare state. But when far-right parties receive got ability they tend to make to a greater extent than than opposite the policies of previous governments. As has been demonstrated inwards Hungary, Poland in addition to Turkey, they aim to brand their ability secure yesteryear changing the constitution, neutering the judiciary in addition to controlling the media. (As shown inwards Venezuela, the same is truthful of far-left parties.) The outright dictatorships of the interwar menstruum may non receive got reappeared, but illiberal republic is becoming the European norm.
Where does Islam figure inwards all of this? An Islamised Europe – the denouement of Murray’s story – is fantasy. In a novel afterword, he tells the reader that “none of the many facts inwards this mass were able to live refuted in addition to no i of whatsoever outcome has fifty-fifty tried to competitor or deny them”. Yet none of Murray’s figures suggests that Europe volition receive got a Muslim bulk inwards whatsoever realistically imaginable future.
Moreover, similar other religions Islam contains many strands. What are usually described equally Islamist movements comprise important borrowings from anti-liberal western ideologies such equally Leninism in addition to fascism. There are ancient eclectic traditions such equally Sufism equally good equally modern fundamentalist currents similar Wahhabism in addition to Salafism. Portraying Islam equally essentially hostile to what used to live called the liberal West passes over such differences in addition to risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In some European countries semi-closed communities of Islamic immigrants receive got emerged inwards which anti-Semitism in addition to homophobia are to a greater extent than prevalent than inwards the full general population. But a revulsion from liberal values is gathering measuring inwards European societies themselves. Far-right parties stigmatise Jews in addition to Muslims alike, equally good equally gay people, Roma in addition to immigrants. At the other terminate of the political spectrum a novel tribe of alt-liberals is bent on shutting downwardly liberty of idea in addition to appear yesteryear imposing a hyperbolic version of the latest progressive orthodoxy inwards universities in addition to workplaces.
The largest threat to liberal values comes from the ongoing break-up of the international order, which Murray does non discuss. Donald Trump hardly appears inwards his story, though Trump’s hostility to the institutions lay inwards identify after the Second World War must receive got been clear when Murray was writing the book. In a nostalgic paragraph he recalls how during Western armed services intervention inwards Republic of Iraq in addition to Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya “it seemed for a instant that European ennui” mightiness live replaced yesteryear a “muscular liberalism” that was create to projection its values or so the globe. Sadly, “the instant of muscular liberalism came in addition to went”.
The component played yesteryear these adventures inwards fuelling the migrant crisis – and, yesteryear turning Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya into a zone of anarchy fought over yesteryear dozens of jihadist groups in addition to criminal gangs, making the crisis harder to solve – is non mentioned. Nor is the fiscal crisis, though in that location tin live no uncertainty that the crash in addition to years of stagnant or falling incomes helped propel authoritarian leaders into power. It is non a driblet dead wishing but hubris that has destroyed the liberal world order.
Zweig’s lost world without passports was sustainable only because globalisation developed inwards the absence of democratic control. Add democracy, in addition to you lot receive got a world of borders in addition to fences. Yet the combination of untrammelled liberty of working capital missive of the alphabet in addition to production with immobilised workers is inherently unstable. So globalisation starts to fragment, equally leaders who receive got risen to ability on the dorsum of pop anger in addition to despair start merchandise wars they are unable to control. While this disaster unfolds, liberals insist that all volition live good if only Earth returns to the weather condition that produced the electrical flow breakdown.
Sensational stories of Europe committing suicide only add together to the febrile climate of the time. The Hapsburg satirist Karl Kraus wrote of psychoanalysis that it was the affliction of which it purported to live the cure. Murray’s mass is a symptom of the affliction it pretends to diagnose.
John Gray’s most recent mass is “Seven Types of Atheism” (Allen Lane)
The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam
Douglas Murray
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