J. D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference set the European attendees agog. Not to put too fine a point on it, they were unhappy with it. Vance had held up a mirror to them, and the reflection was disturbingly accurate – so much so that they feared to allow their citizens to hear what he’d said. So they denounced it without addressing its particulars.
Yet Europe is in a state of decline, especially as regards the political values and standards it once upheld (e.g., freedom of speech). It’s almost severe enough to be called degeneration. And the etymology of that word makes it exceptionally fitting.
Not too long ago, Mark Steyn, in an interview, asked whether Germany is possible without actual Germans. It was a piercing question. Germany’s population has been heavily adulterated with non-Germans: mostly migrants from the Muslim Middle East. Those peoples are about as distinct from native-born Germans as the human mind and body can support.
The same thing is happening throughout the Old World. As native birthrates have plummeted, Europe’s governments have encouraged migration from other lands, especially lands that have people to spare. It’s not just about workers and the tax base. Rulers insist on having subjects; they’re displeased when the numbers of those subjects decline. And decline is the operative word throughout the Old World.
The influx is made up of people who don’t share the Christian-Enlightenment values that made Europe the powerhouse it was before World War I. After World War II, there was a short “baby boom” and a partial return to those values, though it was irregularly distributed over the Continent. Yet the seeds of a deep malaise had been sown a generation before. The “Great War” had shattered the souls of Europe. Its people’s belief in their moral stance and their future has been badly shaken. The horrors of the “Second Round” ( Barbara Tuchman ) deepened the wound.
Birthrates sufficient to sustain a nation, or a continent, can only be maintained by a people that believes in itself and its future. They’ve fallen steadily since 1950: 2.70 offspring per fertile couple in 1950; 1.49 offspring in 2022. Remember that “Zero Population Growth,” also known as the “replacement rate,” is 2.1 offspring per couple.
The demise of Europe, like all phenomena of significance, is multicausal. Yet we cannot overlook the widespread onset of anomie in Europe as a major driver. The typical native-born European is far more concerned with today than tomorrow, almost to the point of ignoring the future completely. That’s not a child-bearing, child-rearing mindset. It has opened a conduit for millions of immigrants – more than 10% of Europe’s current population, by some estimates – who are notably averse to Christian-Enlightenment values. By their fecundity and militancy, they are dismantling Europe as we speak.
Germany without actual Germans? Ponder whether we can have Europe without Europeans, except as a geographical designation.
