This past Saturday Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Europe’s existence is under threat from the huge influx of migrants to the region. Are Orbán's claims valid?

Well, it seems that . . . 

For those who subscribe to a multicultural/internationalist/politically correct ideology  - No. 

For those who are more traditional/nationalistic - Yes. 
 
From my own perspective, I would argue that there have been many threats to Europe's existence over the past two centuries and that the current mass immigration crisis is merely the latest noticeable symptom of a rather tragic and horrendously protracted ailment.

I would add that when it comes to matters of its existence, Europe has become its own worst enemy. 

A toxic blend of wars, guilt, self-loathing, sub-replacement fertility, secularism, debt, horrendous economic policies, hedonism, and subverise/suicidal ideologies such as political correctness have damaged Europe far more than this current mass migration has. One could claim that the migration crisis could not have even developed were it not for the combination of some or all of the problems mentioned above. 

The only thing the migrant crisis threatens to do at this point is to turn Europe's gradual and drawn-out decline into a quick and sudden one. 






 

If you grew up in Canada during the 1970's/80's, it is quite probable that the rock band Rush occupied a rather prominent place in the soundtrack of your childhood and adolescent years. As an aspiring young writer, I was especially drawn to the craftsmanship of Neil Peart's intelligent and insightful lyrics. I haven't actively pursued the band for well over two decades, but I was reminded of one of their lesser known songs the other day as I browsed through a series of utterly ridiculous articles crying out for greater equality and other idiocies coloring the PC spectrum. Released about a quarter of a century ago, The Trees is a rather scathing and spot-on critique and analogy of all of those who scream oppression and fight for their precious equality. Through the simple analogy of a forest, it clearly outlines the kind of equality that the culture war and PC campaigns would achieve.

"The Trees"

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light

But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'Oppression!'
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'

Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc

Unfortunately, I feel that this is the equality that will reign once the Leftists are done. Kurt Vonnegut offers a similar nightmare scenario in his short story Harrison Bergeron. It doesn't require a great deal of perspicacity to see that in many instances the equality presented in The Trees already exists. There is no ascending up, only a cutting down. This is the world the noble Leftists are blindly fighting for. God bless them for their noble efforts.

Today marks the anniversary of the Seige of Nándorfehérvár (also known as the Seige of Belgrade.) In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and ushered in the end of the Byzantine Empire. After sacking Constantinople, the Turks turned their eyes toward conquering Europe. They initiated a campaign up the Balkans and sought to crush the Kingdom of Hungary before continuing their jihad against the rest of Christian Europe. Luckily for Europe, the Magyars decided to put up a fight. 

Read the rest of the story here. 

Over the past few weeks I have spent a considerable amount of time contemplating current and recent world events. Needless to say, this has left me struggling with a rather distinct and pronounced sense of disquietude. As I mulled over the regime changes, financial crises, terror attacks, endless wars, resource conquests, social corruptions, and societal perversions that have happened and are taking place across the globe, I could not help but recall the incredibly incisive observation Nick Carraway makes about Tom and Daisy Buchanan near the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby:

I couldn’t forgive him or like him but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made….

Fitzgerald’s penetrating insight about the nature of the elite, that small group of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth and political power, is still valid today, especially when applied to world events behind which the elite are almost always the architects and culprits. In fact, the notion that the elite are careless people who smugly feel that their actions are entirely justified despite the things and creatures these actions smash up has, in my opinion, never been more valid than it is today. And as is the case with Tom and Daisy, the elite today feel no shame or responsibility for the wastelands of destruction and agony their careless actions create and leave behind. Just like Tom and Daisy, I believe the global elite of our time act in a careless and confused manner and that their well-made schemes very rarely come off the way they had envisioned them. Of course this does not bother them too much because after they drown the world in unholy chaos they are perfectly content to retreat back behind their money and let others clean up the mess they have wrought.

I share Nick’s confusion about what motivates and unifies the elite. Like him, I cannot determine if it is money or power or just vast carelessness that keeps these rulers together and inspires them to plan and perpetrate ever new and ever horrendous sins against truth, beauty, goodness, and humanity, but I am certain of one thing – like Nick, I can’t forgive them and I can’t like them.