Tyranny of the 'Eurocrats'

The EU dreamboat is now being rocked so severely, it threatens to capsize. France and the Netherlands having famously rejected the proposed EU constitution in national referenda, now the Czech Republic and Finland are among those nations whose polls show disapproval. Britain, Denmark and Portugal have now postponed referenda, effectively halting the constitution's progress.\nYet the EU elite remain adamant on their constitution.\n"The constitution is not dead and buried," Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said in an Associated Press story.\nPolish Prime Minister Marek Belka wants to sidestep the popular vote altogether.\n"I understand that today the best way to ratify would be to quickly pass it through parliament," Belka said. "It will be tough to get people out to vote knowing that most countries are delaying their referendums." \nPoland's President Alexander Kwasniewski also refused to rely on the people's sentiments, saying, "The bitter experience of the last weeks shows that Europe needs mobilisation and not protest."\nIt appears the EU leaders are determined to have their constitution whether the people approve it or not.\nThis is very important. Europe, which prides itself on being a bastion of freedom and democracy, is flouting the most basic of democratic principles -- popular sovereignty. Perhaps "progress" is merely a myth and the pendulum of the past 200 years is swinging in the opposite direction -- back toward absolutism.\nGranted, it's not the absolutism of kings and archduke-electors, but as the poet says, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Parliaments and unelected commissioners now are about to wield the same power as monarchs and carry out their wishes for the Union -- in spite of the people's patent disapproval.\nThe elitist "Eurocrats" want to push their agenda because they have delusions of European grandeur to compete with the United States. Europe was great, it is true, but it passed its apogee 60 years ago and the Europe of today is a sad reflection of Europe of the past.\nEurope today is morally degraded -- boasting low crime rates only because so little is still classified as a crime (12 is the legal age of consent in the Netherlands). Its once-proud spirit of Romantic individualism lies crushed under oppressive and inefficient social government systems. Its art is ugly, uninspiring and nihilistic, a reflection of its equally nihilistic and mind-numbing trendy philosophy of Jacques Derrida and his ilk. And rather than reveling in its past glories, it turns to America to import a culture that relied upon it for development.\nThis is the Europe of today -- a continent that is culturally on the verge of another Dark Age. With the return of absolutism under the guise of pan-European government, it soon promises to be in a political dark age as well.\nIn 1790, Sir Edmund Burke lamented "the glory of Europe is gone forever" upon witnessing the French Revolution. If the EU constitution is passed in spite of popular opposition and Europe's current cultural trend continues, this shall indeed be true.