Top US Sociologist: European Socialist States Are Doomed

The “advanced welfare states of western Europe” can still put on a nostalgic front for tourists, warns US sociologist Charles Murray, but the moral compass of the Continent has eroded almost beyond repair.      

      For them, “The purpose of life is to while away the time between birth and death as pleasantly as possible, and the purpose of government is to make it as easy as possible to while away the time as pleasantly as possible–the Europe Syndrome,” he says.  Some might think of pot-steeped neighborhoods like Christiania in Copenhagen–or houseboats along the canals in Amsterdam.

     But it’s not just the welfare poor and stoned hippies that are the problem.   Murray says the “the upper class is showing signs of becoming an elite that is hollow at the core.”  As it has always done, America is following the Old World example once again. 

       Multiculturalism has opened the floodgates of cheap labor.   Native citizens want only the work that’s fun and easy, it appears.  The absence of foundational values are symptomatic of a culture in rapid decline, according to Murray:

Work:  Europe’s short workweeks and frequent vacations are one symptom of the syndrome.  The idea of work as a means of self-actualization has faded.  The view of work as a necessary evil, interfering with the higher good of leisure, dominates.   To have to go out to look for a job or to have to risk being fired from a job are seen as terrible impositions.

Marriage:  The precipitous decline of marriage, far greater in Europe than in the United Sates, is another symptom.  What is the point of a lifetime commitment when the state will act as a surrogate spouse when it comes to paying the bills?

Family:  The decline of fertility to far below replacement is another symptom.  Children are seen as a burden that the state must shoulder, and even then they’re a lot of trouble that distract from things that are more fun.

Religion:  The secularization of Europe is yet another symptom.  Europeans have broadly come to believe that humans are a collection of activated chemicals that, after a period of time, deactivate.  If that’s the case, saying that the purpose of life is pass the time as pleasantly as possible is a reasonable position.