Realpolitik

Post photo: Rubble with demolition excavator | © Michael Gaida on Pixabay

How nice were the times when Europe was able to live out its Realpolitik without restraint under the protective shield of the Americans. Life was so easy for us Europeans until the fall of the wall, because the generations that would suffer for the first time from man-made (mainly by us Europeans) climate change were not yet born and "economic success" could be achieved through the exploitation of developing countries be ensured. In addition, the drop in birth rates could be compensated for by the Iron Curtain ensuring that only highly motivated and above-average educated people entered the European labor market; the large mostly useless remainder remained locked away under Soviet Communism.

But then there was a significant change, because on the one hand the developing countries began to emancipate one after the other and the people there recognized that one could live better in the supposed land of milk and honey, and on the other hand the Iron Curtain fell, which was both meant that for us Europeans it was now the end of the fun. Responsible politicians would have acted, but our professional politicians — quite realpolitik — have been delaying the looming misery for a good three decades now. They got the issue of climate change under control very quickly, because the police forces are sufficient to keep the generations that will suffer from it in check in the future; until they have to spoon out the soup themselves.

It was more difficult with the other challenges, which - still under the US protective shield - were also managed very pragmatically. First the defense was run down, then the education system and finally the infrastructure, solely to maintain the supposed economic success and, above all, one's own livelihood.

And when the totalitarian regimes (Russia and China) had recovered from their Cold War shock and were now also unequivocally demanding their place in the sun, European realpolitik reached its peak in 2008, namely the Merkel-Sarkozy Pact, which promised the Russian Federation first Georgia, then Ukraine and later the rest of Eastern Europe, solely to guarantee the economic success of “true Europe” for a few more decades. China, on the other hand, was satisfied by being sold off to that country, one by one, key European technologies.

The only really stupid thing is that most Ukrainians have actually been fighting back against Russian imperialism since last year, and yet some EU citizens are showing sympathy for the Europeans' struggle for freedom in the East. Because with that, slowly but surely, one after the other, all the Potemkin villages that our politics has built up so successfully over the decades are slowly but surely falling apart and this is evident to everyone — even the most ignorant Union citizens.

The big problem with this is that, unlike the US and other democratic countries, our Europe has never really been democratic — we Europeans have only succeeded, and this will be the actual origin of European realpolitik, to corrupt the European elites and the to get the predominantly anti-democratic population halfway enthusiastic about democracy through economic success.

The invasion of the Russian Federation will therefore - especially if the Ukrainians should win - show all Europeans that Europe has long been shattered and that we will all have to bake much smaller rolls in the future. It is to be expected and very likely that the majority of the citizens of the Union will give their shield to democracy. And then at the latest we will find ourselves in a Third World War and no one knows on which side the Europeans will fight - probably every country on a different one.

It is therefore understandable - from a realpolitik point of view - that today, on the one hand, our chancellor Olaf Scholz promises a kind of political support to the Ukraine after the war (he means: after its capitulation) and SPD politicians travel to the Ukraine in order to force them to a kind of peace in "secret negotiations" (!).

Our politicians should slowly but surely recognize that climate change with all its tragic consequences has long been here and that the world and democracy cannot be saved by enlarging parliaments!

It is high time that our representatives of the people face up to the really bad reality and indulge in responsible politics instead of realpolitical trickery and do so for as long as it is possible at all.

By the way, selling others has never been good policy!