The Hollow Union

Throughout the world, there are millions of people who assume that the European Union is the sole government of all of Europe, that each one of the individual nations that have fought and bled for the last thousand years has abrogated their sovereignty and become one big, happy, multicultural, centralized family. The reality turns that illusion into a running joke.

About sixty years ago, the European Coal and Steel Community was formed. This bureaucratic mouthful was intended to be a centralized control of the national coal and steel industries of its member states, and is the origin of the modern European Union. What followed were a series of treaty evolutions that culminated in the modern EU.

The EU shares a common currency, a common customs union, common passport, even a common parliament. There are committees, commissions, and all the other tools of a bloated bureaucracy to give it the appearance of functionality. But matters are far different in the deeper layers.

The best way to describe the EU is not as a government, but rather government-like. Why the qualifier? The reason is simple: the EU is not a real government, even by federation standards. It lacks real authority. In theory, it lays claim to final say on policy matters, as well as drafting budgets, choosing technocrat officials, and even holding regular elections to its parliament. But it does not have real power. One has only to witness the Iraq War, when Britain dismissed the European Union’s policy of refusal and deployed forces alongside the United States as one of many examples of individual nations guarding their own interests and their own way first.

In theory, the goal of the European Union is to create a continent-wide consensus, so that all its members can benefit. To that end, it requires a strong, centralized government able to push ahead with agendas and policies. So why is the EU lacking in that critical area? It is a logical question to ask, but the fact of the matter is that this powerless status is what has allowed the EU to grow into its current state, and allow it to continue.

What would happen if the EU suddenly gained that centralized power? What if issues that had been debated, stalled, and decided in the governments of each nation were suddenly in the purlieu of the European Union? All of Europe would definitely be interested in what was going on, but it would not be a positive interest. The fact of the matter is that everyone from Spain to Romania would be in an uproar. There would be protests, riots, calls for the end to the EU and the return to individual nations, with the solemn vow never to try such a foolhardy experiment ever again.

Unification of all of Europe under one technocratic government may be the goal of the EU, but the reality is that it’s really more like a glorified NATO; its constituents decide when, how, and if they want to. It’s a part-time European government that looks pretty sand sounds nice, a non-entity that will not intrude into national politics where it does not belong.


All the efforts in the halls of power to create a single European government have been defeated or resisted by the people who live in Europe. Be it the EU Constitutional Theory or the call for a single European financial market, each measure has gone down to defeated. Each nation looks to care for itself, as the economic meltdown of the past year has demonstrated, as Britain, Germany, and the rest only concerned themselves with the welfare of financial institutions and account holders in their own countries.

The biggest joke is how the European Union was born. The goal of the power brokers who began the baby steps toward the EU was continent-wide integration to avoid the extreme forms of nationalism which had demolished much of Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. The people of Europe are not one big European family, let alone one big Terran family. They are Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and so on above all else. Serbians detest Albanians, Ukrainians look with resentment toward Russia, even as France continues an attitude that is centuries old as the center of Europe.

The truth of the matter is, people like having groups. They like being a part of something bigger than themselves….as long as it is exclusive. They resent being forced to have people they do not want being included with them. It’s simply human nature. The day the European Union starts to encroach on their rights or the day it begins to accept non-European nations into its aegis is the day the European Union ends.

Sixty-Fifth Anniversary of D-Day

To the grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers, on both sides, who fought because they wished to protect freedom or to protect their loved ones, and gave their lives.

To these heroes, lost in the swirls of time and page upon page of dusty orders of battle and military records.

To the men who inspired this boy to love history because of their bravery, their stubborn will, their determination to be men in a world that now condemns us for striving to have even half the balls these men did.

I salute you, and promise that so long as I live, your courage will always be remembered and honored.