And the Nobel Prize goes to… the EU?
The EU has won the Nobel Prize. As an act of agitprop, you have to give them credit. It's going to be hugely enjoyable to watch right-wing eurosceptics froth at the mouth for the next few days. It'll be at least four days before any user comment on a website isn't entirely capped up.
The Nobel Prize has form. It gave it to Obama before he'd done anything at all – an act which seemed to embarrass him more than anyone.
You can see what they're trying to do. Firstly, they obviously plan to make all of their enemies' heads explode, like some sort of spiritual pre-emptive strike into the soul of their opponents. It's like a Finish Him move in Mortal Kombat – saying something so profoundly insane it makes your adversary spontaneously combust.
The judges in Norway, which, incidentally, isn't a member of the EU, obviously believe it needs encouragement and recognition during its darkest hour. The prize reflects how profoundly cut off from reality European supporters have become. It's quite something to watch news footage of riots in Athens this week and conclude this project is promoting peace.
The idea the EU is all that stands between us replaying World War Two is deeply foolish. It pays no attention to the rarity of western capitalist democracies going to war with one another.
In actual fact, it is the EU which creates hatred between nations because of the tensions inherent in its formulation. Despite the surreal utopian dreams of its defenders, people still associate strongly with the nation state and the linguistic, cultural and historical contexts it represents. It feels profoundly unjust for nations to find themselves losing sovereignty while EU officials studiously refuse to give them a vote on further integration.
The intertwining of economic and political union is creating chaos in Europe, worsening the financial crisis and sparking some ugly forms of anti-German prejudice. You'd have to be wilfully blind to not see the cause-and-effect. But then the entire EU project is built on a lie: the idea people don't care or associate with the nation state.
It's not surprising the union's proponents continue to act like raving madmen. Their entire project is built on what they wish humans to be rather than what they are. That's an insane way to organise a continent. It should come as no surprise its proponents are also clearly insane.
