The European Spring; part one: First impressions.
I’m sitting on a snowy bench at Amsterdam Sloterdijk ; The international bus terminal.
There is a bus to Paris,
und es gibt auch einer fur Vienna,
But i’m waiting for mine: To Berlin.
Why am i going to Berlin?
To see the launch of the “European spring” party, for the European parliament elections this May.
Well, that’s all and good, but is that enough reason to freeze your fingers, trying to type while on a snowy bench, all covered in bags, taking your gloves off just to write?
well, going to this even, i thought i’d read the accompanying ‘whitepaper’ — The platform. The programme : The manifesto.
And my first impression is this:
it does not go far enough, by a country mile
But it is heading in roughly the right direction.
it suffers from being outdated: Many of these moves were necessary ten, five , or fifteen years ago — and while still needed now, will not begin to clean up the mess of not having had these, for them ost part, at this point, to anyone (on the left) who has been paying attention, self-explanatory standpoints.
it is almost quaint it’s self-evidence,
moderate, and for those very reasons, not ambitious enough — and not sufficient to answer the demand coming from the streets:
This manifesto, if implemented IN ITS ENTIRETY and with the most progressive and invested interpretation of it’s principles at the legislative level,
would still fail to appease the call for more democracy, more accountability, and more consideration from both the populist left and right in Europe,
while further antagonising those who have experienced the negative effects of an overly progressive Europe — in immigration terms — and who lack the trust in the European institutions to go along ‘for the ride’.
Even for me personally, and I am.. not a believer in the concept of nation states, and their borders — well, they exist, but they will prove untenable.
Not only does it fail to answer the demands coming from the streets, and from the internet;
it also fails to capitalise on the momentum the developments of especially the last two years in these areas provide:
The yellow vests protests, and the increasing political literacy among blockchain enthusiasts offer opportunities to go beyond merely ‘reining in’ the abhorrent excesses of the banking and fossil fuel industries — we could render them obsolete.
Ahhh the warmth of the bus. So, really, it’s nearly eleven at night, and i should try to get some sleep. I have a stopover in Hamburg at 6 in the morning.
**Remember, I love to exaggerate. Yes, i feel the manifesto could go further, and will need to, in order to really address the challenges and the opportunities of the current moment.
However, on some level i’m worried EVEN THIS quite modest, careful, gradual and reserved manifesto, which does not seem to be aimed at “dismantling global capitalism” or instating a true free market, should be seen more as an attempt to explore in-routes towards addressing the pillars of modern-day capitalism, and in that, it does a reasonable job.
Patents and intellectual property are being addressed in some way, and options for a social dividend are being explored.
Now, savvy political operatives might say : But the yellow vests, while not appeased outright by these proposals, might move the mainstream political establishment towards wanting to adopt some of these statements in order to appease them.
And while that would be an improvement, sadly, the world we live in is currently teetering on one too many a precipice to be sufficiently ‘saved’ with just a nudge in this and that direction; What we need is a whole-effort shove into hitherto unexplored territory; indeed, a leap of faith.
Not exactly the terminology to use when in the middle of a cliffhanger metaphor? I agree. And i think that’s the problem with the manifesto too;
it is an earnest effort, but it is naive in some ways about the willingness for Europeans to adjust themselves to a changing political landscape,
and not ambitious enough in others in terms of seizing the moment when it comes to the changes Europeans are ready for.
Where’s the push for dismantling income tax below the average pay grade? When identifying the inequality in the division of wealth through inheritance, why shy away from addressing this factor directly?
in other areas, the manifesto seems willing to make a play for a stronger European bureaucracy and more oversight; yet low hanging fruits with public approval are left to rot on the vine.
if the Americans can show support for a 70% top income tax bracket , how could traditionally more progressive and egalitarian Europe fail to acknowledge and capitalise on such momentum?
We cannot expect a movement to the left of the European spring to fight these fights for us: it should be us. And therefor this manifesto does not go far enough.
On IT infrastructure, my foundations were shaken by the guardian article quoting Shoshana Zuboff.
(Read it here. Yes, stop reading this and just hop over: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/20/shoshana-zuboff-age-of-surveillance-capitalism-google-facebook )
This problem looms as large, or larger, much larger indeed than climate change ever did, for those with the .. tech savvy and imagination to picture what will happen as we continue to seamlessly Augment Reality.
Facebook scrawling on your skin. Renting out space for temporary yet real-seeming facial tattoos. Ad-breaks for your dreams.
Did you know that mind control experiments on humans show that , not only are we able to instil choices in peoples brains — it feels like you’re making an autonomous decision.
The manifesto does make inroads into curtailing the ability of large tech companies to seize the memes of production of meaning, to fleece us of our data like lambs grazing on the ever-green rolling hills of the windows XP background image.
But it shies away — in my eyes, an error on the side of caution we cannot afford — of threatening to dismantle wholly the access and data structures these companies have managed to amass for profit : We have been digitally colonised , and will soon find ourselves as technologically challenged to protect our freedom as the native Americans found their wooden weapons against the Cuirrassiers of Europe, so many hundreds of years ago.
Will we not arm ourselves to the teeth and stick a can opener in the wheels of these machines which threaten to literally devour us all?
(Again, be reminded of my love for the hyperbole. But I mean it.)
The manifesto, serving as a quite readable cornerstone for the European Spring is a small step made by good people in the right direction; but what we really need is a giant leap for mankind.
Alright, time to try and catch some Z’s. Long day tomorrow, and not the comfiest of beds. I am reminded of the 1500 private jets that flew to Davos just a few days ago for a similar purpose; imagining the fate of the world. But i’m sharing two busses across twelve hours with some fifty people from everywhere. I’m sure we’ll manage to get there together.
(oh and yes, i paid the sixty cents to compensate my CO2 for the trip.)