Re: Europe's Cassandra complex


Gammasigma wrote:
> Charlemagne
>
> Europe's Cassandra complex
>
> Like those ancient songsters, the European Union can warn and lament--but
> not act
>
> EARLY on, there were 12 members. Later, 15. In subsequent versions, you can
> see 25, perhaps more. No, not growth in membership of the European Union.
> This is also the history of the number of people in the chorus of classical
> Greek drama.
>
> How apt. In foreign policy, says Bob Kagan, of the Carnegie Endowment
> think-tank, the EU is just like a Greek chorus. It comments on the action.
> It reacts with horror or praise. It interacts in various ways with the
> protagonists. But the singers themselves play no part in the plot.
>
> "O horror!" Europeans might reply, "Horror recoiling a thousand times! We
> may be old but our country's strength is young and lusty still" ("Oedipus at
> Colonus"). In simpler terms, the Europeans still yearn to go beyond what
> they have achieved at home (peace on the continent) and in their
> neighbourhood (modernising Turkey and pacifying the Balkans with the lure of
> membership). As it looks farther afield, the Union can already take pride in
> some peacekeeping missions in distant places, like Indonesia. European
> countries play a leading role in anti-nuclear diplomacy in Iran. European
> troops are in Afghanistan. The EU spends considerable sums in Palestine.
>
> But whether this adds up to a coherent global policy is doubtful. Even if it
> does, the EU does not really formulate or carry out that policy (the troops
> in Afghanistan are NATO's; the Iranian diplomacy is pursued by Britain,
> France and Germany). But the EU is the main forum for its members to comment
> on and react to world events. So it is, at least, a chorus, not a cacophony.
>
> The Greek chorus represented the community. It voiced the reaction of
> ordinary folk to the (often horrible) events in their midst. The EU also
> sees itself as a benign observer: no less keen on universal ideals
> (democracy, liberty) than America, and more sensitive than America to things
> like development and poverty.
>
> As in the EU, the chorus often expresses support for the "law". In
> Sophocles's "Antigone", the chorus chides the heroine for "stumbling against
> Law enthroned"--a bit like EU members complaining of America's cavalier
> attitude to international norms.
>
> The Greek chorus has a privileged relationship with the protagonists: its
> leader often stops in mid-commentary to talk to the hero and praise or
> upbraid him for his intended actions. As the part of the world that shares a
> vision of democracy and human rights with America, Europe should, in theory,
> be well-placed to advise and warn America about its policies. The EU already
> plays a moderately useful role in going through the diplomatic motions--in
> Iran and the Middle East, for example--when America does not know how, or
> whether, to get involved.
>
> On the other hand, the Greek chorus is frequently made up of doddery old
> men--Theban elders in Sophocles's "King Oedipus" and "Antigone"; old
> justices in Aristophanes's "The Wasps". Or it is made up of women
> (Euripides's "Medea"). Either group, in the Greek world, was out of the
> decision-making loop--as the Europeans frequently are in Washington.
>
> Sometimes, the chorus has no clue what is going on. "I am at a loss for
> thought," says the leader of the chorus of mothers in Euripides's
> "Suppliants". "I have no idea where to turn." Frequently, it is terrified,
> as at the start of "King Oedipus" ("my spirit is riven with fear of what
> will happen"). And sometimes, the members of the chorus are figures of
> derision, as in the "violent, old, splenetic men" of "The Wasps". The chorus
> almost always splits into different bits--not an unknown feature of the EU,
> where there are three centres of foreign policy-making: the European
> Commission, the Council of Ministers and national capitals themselves.
> Doddery, clueless, fearful and divided--it could be Donald Rumsfeld talking
> about old Europe.
>
> It is fair to say that, ten years ago, the EU had no real foreign-policy
> involvement, except in trade. Now it has missions all over the world; troops
> in a few hotspots; and its individual members are somewhat more wary of
> going out on a limb than they used to be (though of course they still act
> unilaterally when they really want). It has a preference for soft power, and
> mild assertions of influence. What it does not have is an active and
> coherent global policy--because its members do not want it to.
>
> Singing from the sidelines
>
> The result, in EU policymaking and Greek drama, is inconsistency and
> ineffectiveness. In "Agamemnon" and "Antigone", those in power take big,
> atrocious decisions: Clytemnestra to murder the king; Creon to punish an
> enemy to excess. The chorus knows the protagonists are giving way to hubris,
> which will lead to disaster. It even tries to warn them, but no one pays any
> notice. In Agamemnon, the chorus flees in a panic when Cassandra prophesies
> the king will be killed. And while the murder is taking place, the chorus is
> reduced to nattering and yammering. "This is what I say, send a herald
> round." "Too slow. I say we should burst in at once." "I can suggest no plan
> that might prove practical." "I agree with you." It all sounds a bit like
> the EU before the Iraq war.
>
> Elaine Fantham, a professor emerita at Princeton University, points out that
> the Greek chorus is governed by three basic rules. It may talk to the
> protagonists but cannot do much with the information it receives (such as
> pass it on to others); it does not necessarily understand what is really
> going on; and it cannot affect the main action, no matter what it says or
> knows. Something similar might be said about the EU. It plays a part in
> international diplomacy. But it does not have a true global policy. And as a
> result, it has little influence over those that do.
>
> Of course, there is another aspect to this analogy. If the EU is the chorus,
> America must be the protagonist or tragic hero, hurrying to his doom and
> reckless of the consequences of his actions. In Aeschylus's "Persians", the
> over-reaching Xerxes mounts a hubristic expedition to punish Athens and is
> defeated and humiliated. But that's another story.
>
> (The Economist, Oct 29, 2005)

adica in traducere, eroul nostru tragic se spurca-n drum si fuge-n
tufi$ - in timp ce corul se lamenteaza, aaa?

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