What Europe needs is a vision of a bountiful future. What Europeans need is more! After a SARS-CoV-2 caused pandemic and two years of restrictions Europeans are screaming for more: more freedoms, more housing, more energy, more wealth, more support. More, more, more!
In the words of Bernie Sanders, an American politician and self proclaimed socialist: “The problems we face today do not come from the heavens: they are caused by bad human decisions; Good human decisions can fix them.” This is what we all are calling for. Simple isn’t it?
Unfortunately, simple solutions are easy mistakes. European leaders have for too long ignored the people asking more, giving rise to numerous populist movements offering a fuzzy version of More. Often offering more restrictions in disguise.
As bad as that may be, at least the populists offer more. Mainstreams politics offer less. Coming out of a major health crisis, the Belgian government responded by lowering quotas on précising doctors in the country. Not being a politician myself, I will not indulge in giving more nor less examples. It doesn’t take much intellect to think of todays environmentalist movements asking for less consumption (less wealth): less meat (less food), less cars (less freedom of movement), less energy use (less comfort),…
The recent revival of Malthusian theories is either the sign of an inevitable decline or the premise of another industrial revolution. We’ll see.