Leaving behind the history written in letters of blood

Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, Part 3

Continued from Part 2

European civilisation suffered a great rupture in the middle of the 20th century, and would never be the same again. Ancient Christian ideas about guilt and even older traditions about hospitality were now fused with a fresh and vivid horror at the crimes of the Third Reich - a regime which perversely became the moral compass for the continent.

‘The war supplied European thinkers with all their moral categories and benchmarks, whether the issue at hand was the progress of civilisation, criteria for ethical statesmanship, or rationales for military intervention,’ Christopher Caldwell wrote: ‘Avoiding another European explosion meant, above all, purging Europe’s individual countries of nationalism with “nationalism” understood to include all vestiges of racism, militarism, and cultural chauvinism - but also patriotism, pride, and unseemly competitiveness. The singing of national anthems and the waving of national flags became, in some countries, the province only of skinheads and soccer hooligans.’

A fear of nationalism and of history repeating would direct the continent’s decision-makers, often unwisely, and Caldwell reflects that ‘Europe would not have allowed such numbers at any other time. In this new moral climate, tolerance has come to be seen as more importance than order, liberty, fairness, and intelligibility.’ Tolerance became so important that Europe’s moral leaders could not see that, like all virtues, in excess it became a vice.

French philosopher Pierre-André Taguieff coined the term immigrationisme to describe the ideology that immigration is always ‘both inevitable and good’. This has essentially come to be the prevailing worldview of European elites, although immigrationistes give confusing arguments as to why.