Culture in the Blender

Although I’ve witnessed first-hand the kinds of campaigns that Europeans that fear more integration can put on, it surprises me every time how strongly people can feel about avoiding it. Today’s article in the International Herald Tribune about the Irish voting ‘no’ to further integration was no less of a surprise than why so many Norwegians voted ‘no’ to membership. To me, it seems clear that more integration means more collective power on the world stage. Perhaps it is because I am not very sentimental about nationalities, but why would you want to keep one just because it’s ‘traditional’? The concept of fradition itself is born out of modernity, travel and initial stages of globalization. Many Europeans also resent their relative lack of power today. Here’s the chance to fix that, and everyone gets all distracted by nationalism. Yeah, the EU has its problems. But do you really think that small countries will ever be completely independent of Germany, France and the UK? We won’t. Might as well get as big as say in something as decisive as possible, no?