The Diplomad’s parable: “Ratman of the Far Abroad”
It was well understood by the mid-90s—when Clinton, under the influence of an irresistible Republican force reformed our welfare system—that welfare handouts enervated otherwise functional adults. Put another way, the welfare system biggest crime wasn’t the waste of money, it was the waste of people.
Providing too much for too long reduces perfectly functional adults into dysfunctional, enfeebled and useless citizens. The same is true of nations as well: take the nations of "Old Europe", please.
NATO is the free world’s free lunch: a defense pact of wealthy nations where only one of the wealthy nations—the U.S.—always seems to pickup the tab. An article from the American Enterprise Institute’s characterized the ineffectivity of European defense spending:
Instead of doing the adult work of being militarily self-sufficient the Europeans created economically crippled welfare states that have only vestigial armed forces. In effect, America is subsidizing the swollen welfare states of Western Europe by providing the Europe’s defense and asking for nothing in return.
This freedom from adult responsibility freed the Euro-weenies to preen and pose on the world stage secure in the knowledge that nobody will expect them to do anything—because they can’t. The EU can't even prevent genocide and concentration camps in Europe. Slobodan Milosevic was such a trivial pipsqueak that even Clinton could handle him; which he eventually did after several years of Europe's best efforts accomplished nothing.
Many women know perfectly well how to change their car’s oil, but they generally refuse to on the very reasonable basis that they can get a man to do it. Likewise, Europe is reluctant to dirty her hands with the manly concerns of statehood—such as the necessary applications of war and violence, which no nation state can avoid if it is to endure—since she can depend on the U.S. to do these things for her.
Europe has become the world's first metrosexual superpower: effete, effeminate, irresolute, codependent, irrelevant and annoying.
By now you’re probably wondering what all of this has to do the Diplomad’s parable. The preceding material was my way of setting up the background—a stage, so to speak—where the Diplomad’s parable can be played out in context of Europe’s limp and unwilling defense her own interests.
The Diplomad, an American diplomat, has been stationed in various third world countries during his career. Evidently he is currently stationed in some unspecified third world country.
Now getting back to the Diplomad’s story: he tells a delightful parable that involving large rats in his garden, the “ratman”, his wife, and the local European diplomat, whom he refers to as the eurodip.
Hmmm… Eurodip. I like that word! Ok, must remain focused…We’ll save Eurodip for a future post.
Now go read the Diplomad’s parable: the Ratman of the Far Abroad
Postscript:
People familiar with Mark Steyn’s work will notice his fingerprints on the wittier material; he’s too good not to steal from.
Providing too much for too long reduces perfectly functional adults into dysfunctional, enfeebled and useless citizens. The same is true of nations as well: take the nations of "Old Europe", please.
NATO is the free world’s free lunch: a defense pact of wealthy nations where only one of the wealthy nations—the U.S.—always seems to pickup the tab. An article from the American Enterprise Institute’s characterized the ineffectivity of European defense spending:
NATO's new members in central and eastern Europe spend reasonably heavily on defense, but mostly on antiquated force structures and Soviet-era equipment. Much of Europe's defense spending goes to keeping large numbers of semi-skilled soldiers under arms, rather than providing modern equipment or high-tech training. Europe has also ceased most advanced defense research. Although the E.U.'s economy is almost as big as America's, E.U. nations received only 11 percent of all high-tech patents in 2000 (about half of them in the U.K.); over 56 percent went to the United States.During the cold war, Europe became accustomed to the U.S. taxpayers providing the majority of Europe’s defense. A wealthy continent liberated from the burdens of military expenditure is also liberated to a large degree from reality. Like so many stay at home, deadbeat 35-year-old adult children, they cannot meaningfully contribute to any action worth calling a military conflict yet they feel entitled to carp and complain about how the adults run the household. They sanctimoniously profess to being offended by the work necessary to run a household, they play around with pretending to run their section of their household yet always end up sponging off the head of the house.
"Collectively, Europe spends a little more than half as much as the U.S. does on defense. If they had even half the capacity, that would be pretty good," states Radek Sikorski, head of AEI's New Atlantic Initiative and a former Polish deputy defense minister. "But instead, Europe has maybe 10 percent of America's capacity."
Instead of doing the adult work of being militarily self-sufficient the Europeans created economically crippled welfare states that have only vestigial armed forces. In effect, America is subsidizing the swollen welfare states of Western Europe by providing the Europe’s defense and asking for nothing in return.
This freedom from adult responsibility freed the Euro-weenies to preen and pose on the world stage secure in the knowledge that nobody will expect them to do anything—because they can’t. The EU can't even prevent genocide and concentration camps in Europe. Slobodan Milosevic was such a trivial pipsqueak that even Clinton could handle him; which he eventually did after several years of Europe's best efforts accomplished nothing.
Many women know perfectly well how to change their car’s oil, but they generally refuse to on the very reasonable basis that they can get a man to do it. Likewise, Europe is reluctant to dirty her hands with the manly concerns of statehood—such as the necessary applications of war and violence, which no nation state can avoid if it is to endure—since she can depend on the U.S. to do these things for her.
Europe has become the world's first metrosexual superpower: effete, effeminate, irresolute, codependent, irrelevant and annoying.
By now you’re probably wondering what all of this has to do the Diplomad’s parable. The preceding material was my way of setting up the background—a stage, so to speak—where the Diplomad’s parable can be played out in context of Europe’s limp and unwilling defense her own interests.
The Diplomad, an American diplomat, has been stationed in various third world countries during his career. Evidently he is currently stationed in some unspecified third world country.
Now getting back to the Diplomad’s story: he tells a delightful parable that involving large rats in his garden, the “ratman”, his wife, and the local European diplomat, whom he refers to as the eurodip.
Hmmm… Eurodip. I like that word! Ok, must remain focused…We’ll save Eurodip for a future post.
Now go read the Diplomad’s parable: the Ratman of the Far Abroad
Postscript:
People familiar with Mark Steyn’s work will notice his fingerprints on the wittier material; he’s too good not to steal from.
posted by johnh | 8:19 AM
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