[Skybird]

Europe needs to be united on the golobal stage, I do not deny it. Just parts of it alone cannot compete with India, Brasil, China, the US. But the EU shows us that it is only a paper tiger when it comes to this summoned spirit of unity. In the end it is a club of narcissistic egoists.

Also, there is nothing and never has bee something that would qualify for being called just one Europe. I personally think of Europes, in plural.

On the problem of politicians, there I have no solution, only some advise how to try limiting the fallout coming with this nemesis.

First, remember it is said that power corrupts and absolute powers corrupts totally. Giving politicians even bigger playgrounds to blow up their egos in, will not make them reasonable and blessed with a sense of altruism and responsibility - it will just allow them to create even greater messes. This, and the lacking legitimation by the people, is the reason why I so unforgivingly oppose a European federal state.

So, second, I do beolieve that democratic principles can only work in communities of relatively small size. Every member, ideally, should be able to oversee the whole entitity. Only then there can be transparency. Everybody should be able to see what the other over there is doing and causing in consequences for others, and myself. I should be able to see what I cause in consequnces for all the others. Lead not by commands, but by setting an example yourself.

Third, nobody being given power to make decisions, should have the power to exclude himself from the consequences of these decisions, or to evade the rules he makes. Never.

Fourth, trading should be understood as real items-trading only. It makes no sense to ship goods around half the world when the same goods are also being produced at the destination. Trading should not be done to make profits in non-material values, I struggle to find the right words here. A ban on the traditional finance industry that we have, that it is about. People should trade with the other when each of the partners has something that the other cannot produce or does not have atv reach of his. Then it makes sense to ship goods around the globe. What does not make sense is to ship potatoes from Egypt to Germany, or butter from Germany to Denmark. Denmark needs no butter imports, and Germany needs no potatoe imports. Especially not from so far away. Trading should be short, direct, and immediate. No finance business involved. No abstract fortune making with values that exist only on paper.

So I do not really talk about national states, although I am aware of the power of cultural identity and national sentiments. One of the sins of the EU, why it is met with so much hostility, is that it ignores and even denies these differences. But these differences are real, and I found that I got along with foreing people the better the more we accepted these differences and examined them and shared them, instead of just denying them. You cannot deny identity without causing aggression. That is true when you deny the other'S identity, and that is true when you deny your own identity. And that is why I think in quite some cases around the world peace would be served so very much better if people were kept separate instead of forcing together what does not fit.

But in effect, I am talking about the highest possible ammount of economic autarky and sovereignity you can get not just on level of national states, but in the regions, and local areas. As little political adminsitration as possible, as much as is needed for neighbour coordination.

I refer to the literature especially by Leopold Kohr, but also E.F. Schumacher.

So while I claim regional and cultural and to some degree national identity, I am nevertheless no nationalist. A nationalist is someone who puts his national sentment before anything else. But I am a human, a German, a European, a child of Western cultural and historical tradition. And then some more!

Identity is important, even when often based on random or irrational factors. Human people ARE irrational. But that also is something the Eurocrats just don't get.

Europe is a Europes. And the differences should not be flattened and denied, but be taken into account to an ammount so that European people feel comfortable with their regional European identity and regional European culture.