European Social Democrats could not change human nature

Victor Davis Hanson, currently touring beautiful Europe, pinpoints one area where the benevolent European wise men who thought they had engineered the "end of history" went wrong:

Vienna — Walk the beautiful streets in Munich, Strasbourg, and Vienna, and you can see why Europeans thought in the last decades that they had reached the end of history. There is not a soldier to be seen. Sidewalk cafes are jammed midweek with two-hour lunch-goers. Fashion, vacations, and sex dominate the ads and billboards.

Bikers, electric commuter trains, and tiny fuel-efficient cars zoom by in a green contrast to our gas-guzzling Tahoes and Yukons.

Naturally, there is a general sense of satisfied accomplishment among European social democrats. They believe that finally a quiet sameness across their continent has replaced two millennia of constant European warring and revolution. Now, everybody seems to get an apartment, a small car, a state job, a good pension and peace — and in exchange, all voice comfortable, center-left consensus politics.

But beneath the genteel European Union veneer, few remember that human nature remains constant and does not give even nice Europeans a pass from its harsh laws. . .

. . .  human-driven history is now roaring back with a fury in Europe. . .

. . . Only one question remains: At a time when Europe is discovering that its democratic socialism does not work, why in the world is the United States doing its best to copy it?

Read the whole thing. It's short. VDH has written recent books on the close similarities between current events and events which happened in ancient history.  Plus a novel.  It will be published by a big-time publisher.

A podcast or computer broadcast of the excellent interview with VDH which I recommended here can be found here (second item - choose to listen or podcast). He's our own local (well, regional) celebrity - recently Grand Marshall of a celebration in Kingsburg.

Take some time to listen. You can keep the broadcast on in the background while you work on your computer.  He speaks in an exceptionally clear and straightforward manner.  You will probably understand the world better as a result of the time you invest.  Particularly if you live in California.  Whether or not you agree with what he says.

Example:  Has it occurred to you that the United States (due to its huge, fast-growing debt to China) is now placing itself in the position of begging an emerging, totalitarian third-world nation for healthcare funding?