Moya Lázaro, Fernando.
It is quite difficult to understand this article if we do not know what was the “Ostpolitik” and who was Hegel.
Ostpolitik “refers to the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe” (Wikipedia). These politicies were implemented from 1969 to 1974.
Hegel (Hegelianism) “in political science and political economy the effect of Hegel’s collectivistic conception of the State supplanted to a large extent the individualistic conception which was handed down from the eighteenth century to the nineteenth.”(Wikipedia)
The ideas of the Ostpolitic and the Hegelianism are all over the article presenting them as a solution or at least as a way out of the crisis. As we can read: “more justice through more Europe” In a European Union where the youth is being hitting harder than any other sectors, the need of more equality is more than needed. The article is showing a youth well-prepared for the future and ready to claim for their rights as part of the society. But who or what is strangling the EU youth?
One interesting point in the article is when the author talks about “taking Europe for granted”. This point of view is very interesting; the behavior of the citizens of the EU has changed. We used to love to be Europeans and now we see it as an inconvenience. The immigration, the unemployment and the economic problems are changing our mind and we are starting to look back over our shoulders to the future with fear. This is not good, fear is what encouraged and promoted past mistakes, as we can read in the article “between the East and the West in the 1970s and between north and south today.” We must tackle these problems as fast as possible but also, as smooth as possible. We should understand the idiosyncrasy of each member but the decisions must be equal for each member. This is going to be very difficult, the time for the great politicians has come, we will see whether the present ones are great or not.
The Hegelianism pleads for the collectivism over the individualism and perhaps it is taking shape thanks to the new agreements in the past EU governments meeting. Although Britain is a stumbling block in the path and the agreements were achieve from the weakness, where the two strongest members did what they had settled in a previous meeting, a new EU is starting to walk. We do not know how far or well it is going to work but I am sure that something is better than nothing.
URL’s:
1. Beck, Ulrich. «Facing the crisis» The Spiegel. Web. 07 Dec. 2011
< http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,782148,00.html>
2. «Ostpolitik» Wikipedia. Web. 07 Dec. 2011
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostpolitik >
3. «Hegelianism» Wikipedia. Web. 07 Dec. 2011
politica in this case is policy.
collectivism over is indvidualism.