Thirty-one

Justin knows even less about music, art or philosophy than he does science, which limits our conversations to current events. I know enough about the Greek financial crisis to keep up my end of our conversations about it, but it interests me primarily as yet another attempt by Germany to dominate Europe.

Greece should leave the EU before it collapses. Europe’s nation-states do not share a common culture, language and history, as did the Greek city-states, so unifying Europe as a province of the American Empire could never be as simple as unifying Greece was under the Roman Empire.

A federated Europe might be viable in theory, but in practice Germany would never be satisfied being primus inter pares. It must rule.

The European Union has always been an illusion. But so has Germany, which was unified less than two centuries ago, and then divided half a century ago. All political entities are illusions which exist only because its members believe in them. Germans believed in Germany long before Bismarck unified it, and Europeans used to believe in Christian Europe; but not in an EU dominated by Germany.

Politics is about the collective illusions that enable us to live together without killing each other, and I’m tired of illusions. But my conversations with Justin don’t rise even to the level of politics.