These are interesting times to be living in England - or in Europe - but then again, is every place, always, an interesting time to be living there, if you look hard enough? I suspect so... though I am hardly convinced... but at any rate, one needn't look hard here and now.
Today, during my anthropology class, we were terribly distracted by the sounds of protest in the streets outside as a march slowly gathered strength, furiously decrying the brutal cuts that were finally announced today. They've been prognosticated for years, and the coalition government has been bracing the British people for them for ages now, using language strongly reminiscent of the Blitz: we're all in this together, sacrifice for the sake of the country, buckle down and we'll make it through, that sort of thing. "Tough but fair" is the rather well-crafted slogan they've chosen, but some folks seem hesitant - but based on my observations, despite the protests, most people here seem to think that, unpleasant though they might be, something is necessary, isn't it?
So the cuts are inevitable, just like it's inevitable that unless a miracle is flying our way, at some point America, too, will have to tighten our belts... but it sure isn't fun, and students are disruptively banging on drums to mark their disapproval.
Of course, this is nothing compared to what's happening in France - here in London I've yet to see a single car on fire, a single violent battle between hooded youths and cops, a single freeway incapacitated by furious lorry drivers. No, the protests in London - protesting massive cuts across almost all areas of government expenditures - are NOTHING compared to how Paris reacts to a threat to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. Yes, you read that right.
But how do Britons respond to this difference? A flatmate, a professor and a newspaper columnist all agree: "We have a lot to learn from the French." I kid you not! They wish that they had the gumption to set a few cars on fire to express their displeasure - figure that if they were willing to go quite that far, maybe they'd get the amount of time off the French do - but I suppose it's just not in the British character. They don't think it is, anyway, and maybe that's all that matters.
Meanwhile, of course, a deeper conflict seems to be brewing - yes, even deeper than this very meaningful encounter between socialism and capitalism, the welfare state and the deficit, the bleeding hearts and the empty wallets of the state - even deeper than that, there is a serious crisis of liberalism all across Europe.
Did you know that Angela Merkel has declared multiculturalism to be dead? That France - having already banned the niqab in public areas - has proceeded from alienating Muslims to directly ejecting the Gypsies? The Roma have been cast out of France, and if that seems like a headline from five hundred years ago, well. Welcome to modern-day, liberal, tolerant Western Europe.
In Sweden, the neo-Nazis have broken into parliament. The Danes beat them to it. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders is being put on trial for vicious anti-Muslim speech - protecting free speech vs. punishing a xenophobic demagogue, and half the populace doesn't seem to know which side to root for.
Did I mention that Angela Merkel has declared multiculturalism to be dead?
Meanwhile, the Guardian asks, "Whatever happened to the good Europeans, those nice folks in small northern countries who liked to think of themselves as the world champions of liberty and tolerance?" But I would argue that Britain has not yet decided where it will fall on the spectrum - the immigration laws have been tightened, Americanized, even, and while the country rallies behind a reality TV star of questionably legal presence, it also debates the death of a deportee and how much responsibility the state bears towards new arrivals, and - of course - the headscarf, the niqab and the burqa. Britain debates with less vitriol, fewer bans and much more politeness than the Continent is displaying - once again, no cars on fire here - but not, I would argue, with a clear impending verdict.
It's as though Western Europe is asking: Do we continue the grand cultural experiment of liberalism, multiculturalism, religious tolerance and polyglot international cities? Or do we throw it aside, kick out all Muslims (if you think I'm exaggerating, you haven't been reading enough about the Geert Wilders trial) and brace ourselves for war?
Keep an eye out - the public's fickle opinion could yet fall either way.
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