Tuesday.....International.....European Philosophers

In 2003, the Wall Street Journal in an article upon the death of French philosopher Jean-Francois Revel, inferred that he had restored some integrity to European philosophers who had a history of backing totalitarian regimes. Revel had served in the French Resistance during World War Two and was a socialist for quite some time. He then came to see that democracies had a sickness within them that inadvertently sought their own destruction. Along came 9/11 and Revel lamented that many Europeans revelled (no pun intended) in America's misery for it had brought the attacks upon itself. It quoted Revel in The totalitarian phenomenon is not to be understood without making allowance for the thesis that some important part of every society consists of people who actively want tyranny: either to exercise it themselves or--much more mysteriously, to submit to it. Democracy will therefore always remain at risk. You might remember the acclaim that Michael Moore received at the Cannes Film Festival when he pedalled his movie. It should also be remembered the outpouring of sympathy that America received after 9/11. European anti-Americanism is not without its discontents. Revel wrote in his 2002 book Anti-Americanism (isbn 1893554856) that people laughed at President Reagan when he called upon Michail Gorbachev to Tear down this wall! Two years later, the wall came down. Revel stated in the conclusion of his book that The anti-American obsession, in effect, aggravates the evil that it aims to extirpate. A tension exists in Europe over the strategies and fate of the West as it does here. France, the Netherlands and England are experiencing severe problems due to immigration. No one knows what future headlines will read but Europe will either come to remember an America that came to their aid when they were in danger of Nazi domination, or they will continue to blame America for a unilateralism that, as Revel says, is a myth, for Europe's failure to defend its borders gave America the appearance of a unilateral quest to force itself upon the world.