“20 Months in Prison for a Facebook Post That Says ‘I Don’t Want My Tax Money Going to Immigrants.’” (from an “X” post)
“EU Releases Alarming Report—Europe is Too ‘White’ and ‘European’” (Hot Wire)
Well, that’s it. According to the European Union, Europe is now too European. And too many white people. England has a far-left government now; the people elected it, and they are getting what they deserve. They should have known what was coming. People never see the train wreck coming until it’s too late, and the European people don’t know history.
What’s going on in Europe? What’s happened to freedom?
Frankly, these are the wrong questions. The true question is, how did Europe ever have 200 years of semi-freedom, from which they have been fleeing for the past few generations? What’s happening in Europe?
The answer is that they are returning to their roots.
I’ve bemoaned humanity's ignorance of history many times in my columns. Most people know nothing about history beyond what they ate for lunch yesterday. Geographically, Europe’s thousands of years of history are not one of freedom; they are one of rule by the elite: Totalitarian government, the king and his court. Greece had a short experiment with democracy (if you don’t count having far more slaves than people who could participate). Rome tried a (limited, male-only) republic that worked fairly well until Pompey, Caesar, Antony, and Octavian wearied of it and turned it into an empire. Once Rome fell to the barbarians, the common people did what they always do in chaotic times—they gave up their freedom for security. They submitted themselves to the guy with the biggest army, and for well over a millennium, there was no such thing as “freedom.” Even Magna Carta was only for the nobles. Thomas Sowell rightly said that slavery is much more common in human history (all over the globe) than freedom.
But then, Europe decided to, well, attempt to try freedom. The ideas that led to the American Revolution actually were born in Europe; they worked for awhile in America because we grew up isolated and with an ocean between us and our ancestors. But the “collective memory of mankind” is always inside us, at least subconsciously and in germ form, and it never quite left Americans, either.
But, Europe. The French Revolution of the 1790s. Liberté, egalité, fraternité! “Freedom” for the king’s head. And a few thousand others. And then, off came the heads of the thugs who led this “revolution.” Liberté didn’t work so well in France. It ended up in Napoleon Bonaparte’s dictatorship, and after Europe finally got shuck of that pest, France returned to...a king. And then another emperor. And, well, five constitutions and 13 different forms of government since that “wonderful” revolution broke out. France has been a joke since they started that “liberté” stuff. They had no history of freedom. They had no clue what it meant or how to do it. They still don’t.
England did a little better if you’ll excuse their colonialism. “Freedom for me, but not for thee.” After World War II, the British people started giving their freedoms back to the government—national health care, government-owned transit, nationalization of businesses, etc. Maggie Thatcher tried to return a little to the people, but it was too late. The Brits were hooked. And now they are losing more freedom all the time. Reread this column’s beginning quote.
Germany? After it finally “united” in 1871, it was run by Bismarck for 20 years, then by a bozo of an emperor until he lost World War I. Their attempt at a post-war republic was an absolute farce and led to Hitler—something they understood and were comfortable with. He almost destroyed Europe, of course. After that war, Germany was split. It re-united post-USSR, and has been sort of trying democracy, but has ended up with a bunch of mis-governing left-wing, globalist nut cases who have opened the gates to barbarians and are just about to decimate the cultural homogeneity that is crucial to the survival of any people as a nation. They will need a totalitarian government again soon to hold it together.
Folks, for thousands of years, the Europeans have believed in government. That’s all they knew—government, not freedom from it. Some 25 million of them came to America in the late 19th/early 20th centuries and brought that philosophy (government takes care of you) with them. And they have procreated. They knew nothing of America, limited government, or God-endowed freedom (our current hordes of immigrants don’t, either). It seeped into the country and is finally destroying our freedom, too. Historian Alexander Fraser Tytler was correct. Democracies average about 200 years (ours is barely 100 years old, given women suffrage and minority/18-year-old voting) and always end up in a dictatorship (another name for the totalitarian government). Coming to an America near you very soon.
What’s happening in Europe? They are just going back to what they knew for most of their history. And, frankly, what most people are comfortable with. Slavery—having somebody tell you what to do and care for you—is much easier than freedom, i.e., assuming responsibility, practicing self-control, making your own decisions, taking risks, and accepting the consequences of your actions. The totalitarian Left knows EXACTLY what it is doing in turning America into a licentious, garbage cesspool of uncontrolled sexual hedonism and governmental dependence. And that is why slavery is much more common in human history than freedom is.
Freedom means you take care of yourself, not the government taking care of you. But the latter is what Europe has had for most of its history. The Europeans who immigrated to America brought that with them. The leopard can’t change its spots. They are returning to it in Europe, and they are destroying America with it, too.
What’s happening in Europe? Read a little history to find out.
Subscribe to my substack: mklewis929.substack.com. History, Bible, the “why” things happen, not just the “what.” Follow me on “X”: @thailandmkl. Go back to a great age in American history and read my Western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma, all available on Amazon.